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Mint Delhi 28-01-2023 PDF
Mint Delhi 28-01-2023 PDF
-NCR; Rs11.00 outside Delhi-NCR. Mint is also available for Rs15.50 with Hindustan Times in Delhi-NCR only 16 pAGES
INDIAN COUTURE
IN PARIS
SATURDAY, JANUARy 28 2023 From Rahul Mishra’s fantasy
world crafted with fine
embroidery to Vaishali S.
heroing the sari, Indian
designers play with tradi-
tional embroideries and fab-
rics to showcase garments
that speak to everyone
SEE PAGE 3
ADANI STOCK CRASH WIPES OUT ₹3.19 TRILLION INVESTOR WEALTH | PAGE 16
TRACK
RECORD
THE DELHI METRO, WHICH HAS JUST TURNED 20, IS INSEPARABLE
FROM LIFE IN THE MEGA-CITY. IT IS MORE THAN A SYSTEM OF PUBLIC
TRANSPORT: IT REPRESENTS REFUGE, PRIVACY, FREEDOM, AND A
SLOW CHANGE IN THE CITY’S CULTURAL FABRIC
THINk
JLF 2023 diary: everything,
everywhere all at once
TASTE
India puts its spin
on the croissant
CULTURE
Sundance 2023: the calm
composition of ‘Pianoforte’
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02 SaturDay, 28 JaNuary 2023
New Delhi FIRST
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I
t’s 4pm in Paris. The minus-5 guage. The world has long been ready for
degrees Celsius weather hasn’t our fashion; we just have to remind them
dimmed the excitement in the again.”
grand hall at The Westin Ven- Gaurav Gupta served a strong
dôme hotel where Rahul Mishra reminder of this on 26 January at the Pal-
is going to showcase his collection on Day ais de Tokyo, a centre dedicated to mod-
1 of the Paris Haute Couture Fashion ern and contemporary art in the city’s
Week (23-26 January). Dressed either in 16th arrondissement. Making his debut
what seems to be the latest trend, the all- at the Paris Haute Couture Week as a
black bodysuit (or clothes that give the guest member, the designer interpreted
impression of one), teamed with matching the stillness and infinity of zero in his
coats, or Rahul Mishra creations, people collection of 35 garments, Shunya, made
are busy clicking photographs or shouting with satins, chiffons and organzas. The
“hi-s” across the hall that was also Yves show opened with a gold metallic dress,
Saint Laurent’s favourite location for pre- created with handwoven tissue, and
senting his couture. sculpted to resemble dancing wind fro-
The front row is full of “donuts”—a term zen in time. Then came elemental
I learnt from my neighbour. A “donut” is dresses in black and nude, exploring the
essentially a better way to get photo- idea of fantasy and surrealism. Whether
graphed at an event: The more dressed up it was the kundalini-inspired snake
(influencers, mostly) sit together—they (clockwise, from above) Looks from Rahul Mishra; Gaurav Gupta; and Vaishali S. dress, or goth dresses in black leather-
form the hole of the donut—flanked by the like jersey and an acid trip neon yellow,
“dough”, or those in black or other “basic” dery that each piece looks like painting in fringes and embroideries, from aari to This is what makes me, me.” his craft makes you believe couture can
clothes. Actors Ashley Park and Kelly a different silhouette, all inspired by his zardozi, in tones of black, blue and metal- Vaishali S., too, has played with her sig- be elegant, royal, yet playful.
Rutherford and American stylist Law own work. When you look closer, under lic, bringing his craft to life with appliquéd nature designs in her latest couture col- “I am not holding anything back; I am
Roach made a donut, too, at the show. the bright light of three chandeliers, you details. It’s a familiar maximalist Mishra lection, pushing the boundaries to make going all out,” Gupta, who has dressed
Then the lights dim. To the tune of a realise why the jellyfish or the leaf or the universe, soft yet bright. The designer, space for more wearable art. Though not celebrities like Sharon Stone, Lizzo and
piano, a woman in a bodysuit enters the dancing flamingos seem so alive, or why always gushing over the handcraftsman- part of the haute couture week, she pre- Cardi B, said while walking me through
hall wearing heels full of sawdust-like glit- the golden ladybirds look like they are ship and embroideries of India, reminds sented her collection, Abyss, on 24 Janu- the background, models—in Kolhapuri his collection at his atelier in the city. “I
ter, instantly reminding the viewer of crawling out of the garment. Each of the the world of the versatility of traditional ary under the landmark La Pyramide chappals from Vaishali’s hometown— think the couture becomes couture when
Mishra’s signature style. The heavily 30-plus hand-embroidered creations, clothing. Of how a dupatta can easily be a Inversée skylight at Carrousel du Louvre. present 35 garments made with different fashion meets art and that’s what I want to
embroidered garment evokes a world from gowns and capes to trousers in silk, cape. Of how a sari can be a gown. In a room stripped of wallpaper, with rows silks. Her clothes are structured yet fluid, reflect. I want the world to see the surreal-
where buildings sprout in several direc- tulle and organza, took up to 3,000 man “I have used my previous creations as a of electrical wires visible, the designer offering a more futuristic take on Indian ism of India in our mythology. I want to go
tions, plants grow in water and fish swim hours to complete in his Noida, Uttar Pra- canvas and perfected them,” Mishra tells takes the viewer on a journey of an abyss, textiles. The hero of the show remains the beyond the handloom conversation. India
in the sky. His Cosmos collection is a fan- desh, studio. me. “It’s my 20th season now in Paris. I from darkness to light, underwater. With sari. First, it’s a gown with cords. Then, it is having a beautiful moment globally and
tasy world crafted with such fine embroi- Mishra plays with layers of sequins, want to showcase my USPs, and why not? sitar, sarangi and tabla music playing in transforms from a sari to a dhoti. In it feels good to be part of it.”
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I
BETTER BETTY ndia may be the only country where skin flicks don’t actually show skin. We
may have seedy theatres—theatres that, according to the fascinating docu-
Harper Racer Rib Vest series Cinema Marte Dum Tak (Amazon Prime Video), were left covered in
US activewear Sweaty sticky handkerchiefs—but there was no nudity. This was an industry of
Betty is the new raunch, one of titillation and scandal, and one eventually felled by the inter-
Lululemon. Here, its net and pornography. The series focuses on four distinctive directors: Vinod
ribbed tank top with Talwar, J. Neelam, Kishan Shah and Dilip Gulati. Through the 1990s and early
contrast trim; pair with a
SLIPPERY navy skirt for those casual
2000s, they shot movies on tiny budgets that allowed dwindling theatres to
flourish again.
SLOPE tennis dates. Available on Executive-produced by Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota director Vasan Bala and
Ryder Sweatybetty.com; ₹3,700 co-directed by Disha Rindani, Xulfee and Kulish Kant Thakur—and featuring
Houndstooth an absolute banger of a title track, Pseudo Saiyaan, by Sneha Khanwalkar—
Softshell Ski Suit Cinema Marte Dam Tak takes the smart approach of not only talking to these
Going skiing in film-makers but giving them a budget (and film stock!) to make a film again, to
Gulmarg? The ski let us watch them bring monsters and vampires to life, accompanied by cleav-
suit from Perfect age and bad prosthetics.
Moment, crafted The series works because of the film-makers in focus. J. Neelam, one of the
in waterproof MOONWALKING only women directors who made “fultoo sex” pictures like Kunwari Dulhan,
softshell in an Logo Rainbow-Print Snow Boots approaches her work with pragmatism and sensitivity: She wants scenes to
oversized Iconic snow boots from Moon have a point, women to be in charge. Talwar reassures an auditioning actress
houndstooth Boot are making a comeback that she will be in a “full gown”. (His next line is that he hopes she owns one.)
pattern, is a must- thanks to the revival of Y2K Gulati, who wears a cowboy hat and sports long hair, quotes Raj Kapoor as
have. Available on fashion. Here, the brand’s classic saying, “Every scene in a film should touch either your head, your heart… or
Matchesfashion. rainbow print boots. Available on below the belt.”
com; $942 Farfetch.com; $387 “Bhansali mat bann, gaandu.” Most memorable is Kishan Shah, who some-
how looks like both Prakash Jha and Jackie Shroff. With excessive swagger
and flamboyant trousers, Kishan—the less successful older brother of sleaze
supremo Kanti Shah— is an absolute character. Known for shooting entire
movies in five-seven days, the director proudly wears black-tie for the glam-
orous premiere of his Amazon film, then walks out and hails an autorickshaw
to take him to a dive bar.
Harish Patel, who has acted for directors as wide-ranging as Kanti (on
Gunda) and Academy Award winner Chloé Zhao (on Eternals), says that when
ISLE SEE YOU he started acting in cheaper films, he was told not to judge the movie by what
Merino Fair Isle is on screen. It’s about the effect it has on the people watching. Speaking of
Sweater Kanti—who appears later in the series as an unforgettably lonely icon—the
A classic ski sweater first thing Patel learnt was that the director paid cash, and paid it daily. This
from Tory Burch allowed the director not only to get recognisable actors but even stars who
Sport featuring a could use a quick buck.
turtleneck and Director and visual effects pioneer B.
pattern inspired by Gupta once told me about how, when
vintage après-ski working on the 1957 invisible-man
style. Available on film Mr X, the film needed a big
Toryburch.com; $328 name. Therefore they hired STREAMING
legitimate superstar Ashok TIP OF THE WEEK
Kumar on a daily basis. Everything Everywhere All At
Compiled by Shrabonti Bagchi. Now, obviously unable to Once (streaming on BookMyShow
afford Kumar for long, Stream) is one of 2022’s hardest-to-
they cannily shot the describe films. A science-fiction
actor’s “visible” scenes comedy about a Chinese-American
over two-three days, and, immigrant and her very own
W
hile growing up, winter afternoons would come down hard on steamy scenes, producers started filming addi-
meant sunning oneself on the ter- tional hot sequences—known in the trade as “bits”—which would not be sub-
race, munching on gond laddoos mitted to the censors at all, and instead be added to a film later. This worked
and panjiri. With time, however, the practice wonderfully till a projectionist, mistaking a brother and sister entering a
of making these at home waned and the mar- room on screen for a couple, inserted a “bit” and sent the audience into a
ket-produced ones just didn’t make the cut. furore. Cue police raids, arrests and the end of an era.
Until I came across Viraasat, a small artisanal Stretched over six episodes, Cinema Marte Dam Tak feels repetitive, espe-
brand in Gurugram, recreating age-old family cially when various interviewees take turns making the same point. The series
recipes with healthy ingredients. I tried their also overdoes the video-clips of cleavage, to a sometimes gratuitous degree, as
delicious panjiri; instead of wheat flour and if that is the only way to get a larger audience to pay attention. (Perhaps it is.)
semolina, it uses poppy seeds and dry fruits. The biggest issue, however, is lack of payoff. We see the making of four films
Their roasted chana sattu barfi is made with but in the end, aren’t shown the films themselves. Even if the results are
desi khand and desi ghee. Viraasat’s date math- trashy, an audience—especially one now armed with context—should have
AMBIENT AUDIO HEAVEN ris too are a great accompaniment to morning CREATING A SIGNATURE SCENT been allowed to watch and make up its own mind.
W E
hite noise lovers often spend tea and coffee. The brand home-delivers and ver liked a perfume so much that Interspersed with Hemant Chaturvedi’s evocative photographs of single-
a lot of time searching for is also available at select farmer’s markets. you would wear it to sleep? screen theatres, the show strikes an odd balance between aesthetics and the
good audio they can listen to —Avantika Bhuyan Recently, I made one from defiant lack of them. The stories are obviously hilarious—Kanti was report-
while working or sleeping. YouTube is scratch and used some before edly beaten up by Dharmendra after he had shot the actor doing push-ups
a treasure trove. I recently found an bedtime. During a media trip and intercut it with footage of a moaning girl—as are the innuendo-laden dia-
interesting channel, Ambient Ren- BRING THE BREEZE WITH YOU organised by the Singapore Tourism logues, most of them rhyming. A key takeaway for me is that these directors,
A
ders, which combines ambient audio friend, whose particular talent is Board, I visited the lab of the for all their brazen attempts at seduction, never went fully explicit. Current
clips with great visuals. The channel is finding oddball gifts that come in fragrance workshop company Oo La OTT shows are more graphic, and when trailblazing adult actress Sapna
run by a games industry artist who useful months after I have laughed at Lab, which offers hands-on sessions Sappu points to the toplessness in Netflix’s Sacred Games, we must question
makes ambient content and scenes her choices, sent me a portable neck fan as a for participants to hit the right notes. why some nudity is considered tasteful. It is vital to remove the stigma from
using Unreal Engine and other appli- birthday gift last week. She has used the M6 They have a selection of 27 scents, these sensationalists.
cations like Adobe After Effects, Pre- Gaiatop Leafless Hanging Neck Fan through from oud, leather, vanilla and grass to There is nothing wrong with dirty pictures. Francis Ford Coppola began his
miere and Photoshop. What Kerala’s muggy summer and swears by it. The musk, stored in small dropper bottles. career with “nudie” films before being taken on by B-movie icon Roger Cor-
impressed me most is the variety of fan, designed to look like headphones, directs A trainer guides participants as they man, the producer who gave breaks to such struggling geniuses-to-be as Mar-
videos: from a cosy Christmas fire- a breeze at your neck and face. Right now, shortlist the ones they like; these are tin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Peter Bogdanovich and James Cameron. Cin-
place in Brooklyn to a Wednesday when it’s winter in Delhi and mild as usual in then mixed-and-matched in tiny vials ema Marte Dum Tak affectionately introduces us to four directors most of us
Addams inspired dorm room, com- Bengaluru, the fan is just entertaining but I by the participants—somewhat like a might never have met. I am touched most by Talwar, who hadn’t made a film
plete with the sounds of thunder and can imagine how comforting it would be while chemistry lab—to create an eau de since 1996 but continued to write scripts, in longhand, because he is a story-
rain. There’s even one themed on a walking in summer. The bladeless fan weighs parfum. The final product is packed in teller. Raise a toast. Say no to smut-shaming.
zombie safe zone. Some of these vid- a comfortable 200g—it’s right up there with a 50ml bottle, labelled with a name
eos are streamed live while some clips other kooky contraptions like caps with tiny, you pick, and sealed with a list of scent Raja Sen is a screenwriter and critic. He has co-written Chup, a film about
are hours-long, perfect for those who built-in fans and portable face misters but it’s notes to help you recreate it on your killing critics, and is now creating an absurd comedy series.
like sleeping to ambient sounds. far better-looking, light and—excuse the pun next visit.
—Nitin Sreedhar —breezy. —Shalini Umachandran —Jahnabee Borah @rajasen
THINK SaturDay, 28 JaNuary 2023
New Delhi 05
I
t was like the before times. Conversation is like a game of tennis Thus, a writer is sometimes damned if
The pandemic had receded and the while writing is a solitary sport. Some, she speaks and damned if she doesn’t. In
Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) was like Shashi Tharoor or Javed Akhtar, a 24x7 news cycle, where freedom of
back with a bang. “Are you going? Will revel in both, relishing the back and speech might be at stake, we cannot all
we see you there?” writer friends asked. forth with their interlocutors, giving a share the story of an old woman and a
I wasn’t invited, I admitted sheep- tweetable quote a minute, bringing the cat. On the other hand, an off-the-cuff
ishly. Then, to recover some lost pres- audience to its feet. They understand remark, perhaps delivered ironically,
tige, I said I had received an invite for a their role both as writers and as per- can sound completely different when
publisher party at the festival anyway. formers. Some writers are soporific, tweeted out of context. The next thing
But the Kolkata season had also wandering off on a tangent that leads to you know, angry protesters are picket-
kicked off, with back-to-back literature some blind alley, while the forgotten ing the literary festival.
festivals. There were books to read, question limps forlornly, lost in the That is the peril of dialogue. But dia-
writers to interview, dinners to attend. digressions. logue is all we have. Several years ago, I
In the tangled skein of insecurities that I have seen a moderator’s face turn remember a literary festival in Kolkata
is a writer’s life, literature festivals pro- somewhat ashen as the first guest took in a tizzy when Imran Khan was a guest.
vide a booster dose of literary relevance, the first question and launched into a It wasn’t because a Pakistani VVIP was
a way to reassure yourself that your soliloquy that lasted 14 minutes while in town but because the power went out
words still count for something. As my the other panellists fidgeted and looked momentarily in the auditorium. Not
friends sent cocktail selfies from the Jai- at each other. Pulitzer winner Andrew everyone agreed with everything he
pur opening party, and my Instagram Sean Greer shared a story from the Congress MP Shashi Tharoor with writer Caroline Elkins during the Jaipur Literature Festival on 19 January. PTI said but nobody thought it bizarre that
feed slowly filled up with JLF-in-action other end of the speaking spectrum at a he was there.
photographs, I worked diligently session at the Tata Steel Kolkata Liter- The Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee making headlines by not speaking—but much by the content of their book but The conversation was still happening.
through my reading list for Kolkata. A ary Meet this year. He once had to inter- would be very much on Rothfeld’s side in an entirely different context. This by their Twitter following. Khattam-Shud, the antagonist of
friend was visiting from out of town. We view the great Stephen King on stage. of the court. In 2011, the reclusive writer time it was Salman Rushdie and his There is an argument that literary fes- Rushdie’s Haroun And The Sea Of Sto-
cannot meet till the festival is over, I said King was ill with the flu and throwing made an appearance at Jaipur. He took appearance at the festival had been can- tivals make performing monkeys of ries, is the “Arch-enemy of all stories,
busily. Then I sent him an announce- up on stage before the interview but he no questions from the audience and did celled after purported death threats. writers. Yet a lit fest is also a place for even of language itself. He is the Prince
ment for my session with a Pulitzer would not cancel the event because he no media interactions. He told the audi- Rushdie, unlike Coetzee, is a voluble dialogue inasmuch as it is a place for of Silence and the Foe of Speech.” In a
prize winner. wanted to be there for his fans. “So he ence that like most people he had opin- and willing talker. But in his case it autograph seekers. There is something world where Khattam-Shud grows
Right then another friend forwarded came and he sat there and he didn’t say ions but didn’t find his opinions particu- wasn’t a verbal gaffe, the unedited indescribably touching about seeing more powerful, some write, some talk,
an article from Gawker, titled Writers a word for an hour and a half. And I just larly interesting. So he chose to spend speech as it were, that exposed him to someone nervously fumble through a some write and talk to keep him at bay.
Shouldn’t Talk—Stop Encouraging kept asking questions and saying, ‘Once his 45-minute session reading a 45-min- danger. It was the written word. Dec- question directed at a Booker winner. It And someone in the audience puts up
Them. Are you saying I shouldn’t talk? I you said in an interview...,’” said Greer. ute story about The Old Woman And The ades after writing those words, it was at a is also indescribably sad to see some- his hand and tells the writer he has two
asked him. Or was I not a writer at all but Rothfeld has a point. The writer Cat. It was like listening to a Coetzee literary festival in upstate New York that one’s writing idol fall from grace comments and a question.
a talker? whose words sparkle with the precision audio book. he faced a horrendous attack last year. because he comes across as arrogant We roll our eyes but I like to think
It’s not just that some writers are of a lapidarist can appear lost and inar- At the end of the session, the hapless All this circles back to the question— and aloof on stage. that as long as that hand goes up, there
good at talking while others are not. ticulate on stage, humming and hawing moderator, Patrick French, who had should writers just write instead of talk- A lit fest can seem like an enchanted is still hope.
Becca Rothfeld, a contributing editor at or droning in endless monologue. It’s spent those 45 minutes sipping water ing about the book they just wrote, their bubble of self-delusion where writers
the Boston Review, argues in Gawker not their fault. What we see on the page for lack of anything else to do, said: “Mr writing process, their writing heroes, act as entertainers and drink Sula while Cult Friction is a fortnightly column on
that writing and talking are different art is a finished product, produced after Coetzee you have done something the state of the nation, the state of the in the real word a BBC documentary is issues we keep rubbing up against. San-
forms altogether. “(Writers) are drafters many, many painstaking drafts. What remarkable. You have held an Indian planet, and their favourite restaurant in blocked because the Union government dip Roy is a writer, journalist and radio
and amenders, if not by vocation then we see on stage is the first draft, untidy, audience silent for 45 minutes.” whatever city they happen to be in? calls it a “propaganda piece that lacks host.
by profession, and in conversation, their cluttered and half-formed and served up I was not at Jaipur that year. But when Many lament that in the age of social objectivity and reflects a colonial mind-
strongest pronouncements tend to be to the audience without a DEL button. I went the next year, another writer was media, writers are measured not so set”. Two opposition MPs defiantly @sandipr
T
he 2023 edition of the Jai- ferent character. The ideas of truth, authenticity, the white gaze, formed the
pur Literature Festival bulk of the conversation, with James also drawing from the other panels he
(JLF) ended on Monday. It had been part of during the festival. “European backwardness is so refresh-
was the 16th successful edi- ing. Your reviewers are so basic. Why do they think our oral traditions are
tion, including its all-on- primitive?” asked James at one point, speaking of the discursive nature of
line 2021 version and 2022 extended storytelling traditions in Indian, Jamaican and Mexican cultures.
hybrid format during the pandemic.
Its origin story has been told multiple SHEHAN KARUNATILAKA X NANDINI NAIR
times, and, over the years, the JLF This was easily one of the most riveting and entertain-
expanded to the US, Canada, UK and the ing conversations of JLF 2023. Karunatilaka, the Sri
Maldives. In an interview to Lounge in Lankan writer and man of the moment given his 2022
2017, William Dalrymple, one of the two Booker win, and journalist Nair discussed The Seven
festival directors, noted that the JLF had Moons Of Maali Almeida and children’s writing. Nair
“grown like a monster in a Puranic myth, topped off the session with a rapid-fire round. Audience
rising from the deep, with tentacles reach- questions were a treat: A young boy asked Karunatilaka about
ing out” beyond Jaipur. In keeping with writing about such tragedy with hilarity. “How do you make sure you are not
this, they announced a JLF in Spain, too, laughing at them?” he asked, receiving applause from the audience. Karuna-
this year. tilka’s answer about distancing himself from the narrative through his char-
When it started in the mid-2000s at the The JLF had outgrown Diggi Palace (above), where it started, necessitating its move to Clarks Amer, a five-star hotel. GETTY IMAGES acters didn’t fully live up to the intelligent question. But, when Nair was curi-
now 163-year-old Diggi Palace in Jaipur, ous about his research on the events of the Sri Lankan civil war and how that
the JLF was a little spot of joy, waiting to readers and writers to meet and enrich The JLF has always had chai and food the more palpable. history was recreated, the author responded: “I wasn’t recreating (anything).
be discovered. In the early 2010s, it had their worlds. stalls (not including separate dining areas The editorial heart of JLF’s program- I was imagining based on researched evidence.”
started making serious waves. Despite Now, it’s a teenager. And the teens are for speakers, the press, and for those who ming, however, continues to beat strong.
courting its share of critique and contro- never easy. pay for special packages), a festival book The breadth of voices and their rele- KATHERINE RUNDELL AT JAIPUR BOOKMARK
versy about speakers and sponsors, the Last year, fresh off the pandemic, the store, and local boutiques’ kiosks for craft vance—from Booker winners talking One of the best parts about being at the JLF is discover-
JLF remained that bright kid in class even 15th edition of the festival was held at and knick-knacks. Alarmingly, this has about craft and narrative to experts speak- ing the passion, clarity and humour with which writers
the strictest teacher would grudgingly Clarks Amer, a five-star hotel in Jaipur, as now grown into a full-fledged flea market ing about the future of AI and the socio-le- spontaneously express themselves. The charm and
admire, the well-read, cool kid with whom the JLF had outgrown Diggi and space for with clothes, handmade jewellery and gal histories of countries—shows that the enthusiasm with which writer Katherine Rundell spoke
everyone wanted to spend time. social distancing was a necessity. Entry more, and three carnival-style zones for JLF still cares to have something for read- was electrifying. At one of the Jaipur BookMark sessions
And they all could. For close to 14 years, and registration was no longer free, at food. It is distracting, and disheartening, ers of all stripes. on children’s literature with Bijal Vachharajani of Pra-
it was free. All anyone had to do was regis- ₹200 per day, and ₹100 for students. This taking away from what the festival was It is from this strength and the depth of tham Books and illustrator Kristin Roskifte, Rundell, who is
ter. For a whole host of people, especially continued this year, too, but if the aim was understood to be. conversations that a reader-attendee can also an academic, said: “You can get away with bullshit in academia. But chil-
millennials in high school or college from to disincentivise crowds, it barely worked. During the sessions at the Front Lawn take heart. Even the casual listener has a dren won’t wait while you pontificate.” Her voice and thoughts are so unique
the late 2000s to the early 2010s, this was In his paper The Jaipur Literature Festi- this year, many used the chairs to rest and chance to catch lawyer Saurabh Kirpal that picking up her 2019 essay, Why You Should Read Children’s Literature,
a big calendar event. Whatever your back- val And Its Critics: World Literature As eat their snacks, no matter who was on make a point about why he thinks land- Even Though You Are So Old And Wise, is as enjoyable as listening to her
ground and educational obligations, the Social Practice (based on the 2017 edition stage—whether crowd-pullers like singer mark sexual harassment cases are not in-person.
JLF felt like the most heady crash course of the JLF and published in Anthropology Usha Uthup, lyricists Gulzar and Javed irrelevant to a book on laws affecting
in liberal arts. And Humanism’s Vol.44, Issue 1), author Akhtar, writer-politician Shashi Tharoor, India’s financial landscape; writer Avinuo BREAKING INTO INDIAN LANGUAGES
You could see your literary heroes in Per Ståhlberg writes that when Sanjoy respected literary figures like Booker- Kire on how folklore can highlight social Despite JLF’s attempts to make space for non-English
the flesh, put up your hand and challenge Roy, head of Teamworks Arts that produ- winner Daisy Rockwell, or lesser-known inequities; or Nobel laureate Abdulrazak writing over the years, many panels were seen as
them with a question at Baithak, bump ces the festival, “was inter- stars like Wainwright Prize winning biolo- Gurnah recall his immigrant experience Anglo-centric. Lately, an industry-wide interest in
into them while having a chai in the Front viewed...about...its rising success...he gist-writer Merlin Sheldrake. in a matter-of-fact manner. translations has led to a noticeable increase in non-
Lawn, discover a new voice at Charbagh, mentioned very little about authors, The disturbance was not limited to the Teenage is hard for everyone. When we English discourse. In a session on “The Spirit Of Bihari
meet them at the festival book store and books, sessions.... What he talked about at exchange of biryani and ice cream. At one hit 16, we try to avert the angst to make Literature”, an audience member asked the panellists,
exchange recommendations at the sign- length was the crowd of visitors, how it point, a session paused at a sudden, long milestone decisions. We think about col- including poet Anamika and writers Akshaya Mukul and
ing tent after their sessions. had grown...now consisting of those hoot—a gaggle of students exclaiming lege, about the general direction our lives Abhak K., to speak in any of Bihar’s languages and not in English. The
For readers—whether of commercial, 400,000 or more people.... It was appar- over something in the stalls barely a hun- might take; sometimes as we find new cit- nudge was good enough for Abhay. Poet Meena Kandasamy’s conversation
literary, historical fiction, or of non-fic- ently very important for the producer to dred metres from the last row of seats. ies and new homes, we try to remind our- on the Tirukkural with Penguin Random House India’s editor-in-chief
tion—the JLF was the space to find their declare that the JLF is the largest literary If critics had been talking of the JLF selves of who we are, the friends we want Manasi Subramaniam was a highlight, too, but this one for her easy recita-
larger tribe. Regardless of ideology, the festival in the world in terms of the audi- beginning to lose its soul a few years ago, to keep. Growing up ought not to be too tion of Tiruvalluvar’s many verses from memory throughout the talk.
JLF had been an almost idyllic place for ences.” the recent changes have made the shift all different for this 16-year-old.
06 SaturDay, 28 JaNuary 2023
New Delhi TASTE
I
f you have been scrolling through
your Instagram feed of late, you
have probably come across the
suprême croissant at Lafayette
Grand Café and Bakery in New
Looking for tea
York City that has been going viral on the
internet—one which pastry chefs and
cafés around the world have been recreat-
ing. Its round, spiral shape is probably its
biggest appeal, coupled with the fact that
in bubble tea
it is stuffed with flavoured pastry cream
and glazed on the outside for added effect,
The drink can be disappointing. Have the best
making it one of the most trending des- version, though, and you may well be converted
serts currently. Its popularity soared on
social media platform TikTok initially, fol-
lowed soon by Instagram. Jahnabee Borah
Be it dipped or glazed, stuffed with [email protected]
sweet and savoury fillings or shaped into flavours such as tiramisu, chocolate, and mascarpone croissant with charred
Y
different forms, the croissant’s versatility and red velvet. spring onion cream and sesame punch ou must have this,” insisted my host in Aizawl, Mizoram, handing me a glass
is far-reaching. (made with chilli oil and sesame seeds), of fruity, ice-cold bubble tea. It was milky, sugary and tasted synthetic. Is
In 2013, New York-based pastry chef FLAVOURS AND FORMS burnt lemon croissant, even a guava it a milkshake with bubbles that pop in the mouth? Or, an iced tea with
Dominique Ansel gave the world the cro- When Mumbai-based TwentySeven kimchi croissant using locally-sourced chewy, tapioca pearls and extra sugar? A drink with the word tea in its name but
nut—a cross between a croissant and a Bakehouse launched last year, chef guavas. zero taste of the ingredient felt like a sham. The year was 2019, and I have stayed
donut that was the start of the croissant Rachelle Andrade, who heads the So, what is it that makes the croissant away from bubble tea since then. Cut to 2023, though, and things have changed.
getting an inventive makeover. The cruf- kitchen, created a croissant cube so wildly popular and versatile to inno- Two weeks ago, on a trip to Singapore, several well-meaning friends suggested
fin, a stuffed croissant in the shape of a which quickly went on to become one vate with? According to chef Daniel trying it. As an intrepid foodie who eats everything once, it’s difficult to say no,
muffin, originated at the Lune Croissan- of their signature bakes. Trulson, co-founder and head chef at despite unsavoury experiences in the past. KOI Thé, a bubble tea brand, was the
terie in Melbourne, Australia, in 2013 and According to Aditi Dugar, restaura- the Puducherry-based Bread & Choc- most recommended. Their menu has a list of drinks brewed with tea leaves, mixed
went on to gain popularity in India, with teur and founder of TwentySeven olate, president, Subko Bakehouse, with chocolate and blitzed with fruit flavours. One can customise the drink by
bakeries like Mumbai-based Mag St. Bakehouse: “When we were brain- and co-founder of the Mumbai-based choosing the preferred quantity of sugar, on a scale from 0-120%, and decide the
Bread Co. and Delhi-based Suchali’s Arti- storming ideas for the menu, we were Subko Coffee, the croissant itself amount of ice with options like little ice, less ice and normal ice. There are a variety
san Bakehouse making it a staple on their keen on trying something different makes for a great vehicle to experi- of toppings, from golden bubble and coffee jelly to aloe vera. I ordered one of their
menus. At the newly-launched coffee than just the traditional croissant. Peo- ment with flavours and fillings. “At Subko, best-sellers, guava green tea, and wasn’t impressed.
shop in Mumbai, Grounded, too, cruffins ple are much more well-travelled and the (from top) Kimchi Guava we have experimented with stuffed and By now, I needed to understand the big deal about bubble tea. It’s believed the
are a signature. discerning customer wants to try some- Croissant at ARAKU Coffee, filled croissants and cruffins in flavour drink originated at a teashop in Taiwan in the 1980s and gained worldwide fame
Mumbai-based Love Crummbs, the thing new and innovative. That’s how the Bengaluru; stuffed croissant cube profiles that range from mithai-focused due to the Asian diaspora. The chewy tapioca pearls, boba, are an essential ingre-
bakery arm of the experiential restaurant idea of doing a croissant cube came about. at TwentySeven Bakehouse, ones to classic chocolate or coffee ver- dient and they get their deep brown colour from brown sugar and honey. A classic
The Lovefools, has just launched its own “It’s also exciting for customers to get Mumbai; and Cruffins by sions. recipe has tea, syrup, milk, ice, sugar and the boba. It has been adapted to include
version of the suprême croissant, calling their hands on something that’s trending Grounded, Mumbai. “Given how temperamental the dough an array of flavours and formats, like smoothies and shakes. In the pandemic, sev-
it the pinwheel croissant. In fact, the bak- and Instagram-worthy. Taking something can be and how it is subject to ingredient eral places specialising in this drink cropped up across cities in India—there’s the
ery already has options like an inverted traditional like the croissant and doing an and temperature changes, croissant Mongoose bubble bar in Mumbai, ELIXIR-Luxury Pearl Drink in Bengaluru and
croissant, which enable you to get a innovative version of it elevates the expe- dough, if made well, is a brilliant pastry Got Tea in Delhi. Yusung Eo, co-founder of Got Tea, says they launched in 2020
mouthful of filling in each bite, rather than rience,” she adds. The cube’s flavour dough to work with,” he says, adding that because they noticed a gap. Apart from speciality coffee, such as Blue Tokai, and
just the dough. changes monthly, with options like tiram- it has wide global appeal. And if it wasn’t so chai places, like Chaayos, there were no beverage brands offering premium, fun,
According to chefs Sarita Pereira and isu, peach and thyme, strawberry cheese- technical to make, it could become just as trendy drinks for millennials and Gen Z. The inspiration for these drinks, he
Aniket Sawant, co-founders of Love cake, etc. popular as the pizza, he notes. tended to agree, could lie in K-culture.
Crummbs, customers are no longer eating In Bengaluru, ARAKU Coffee makes its Frenchman Maxime Montay, executive A friend from Singapore, who lives in Mumbai, pointed out that India is at stage
the croissant just as a breakfast staple or a croissants with cultured white butter chef at the Delhi-based Monique Patisse- 1 of the bubble tea movement, where flavour from artificial syrups is the focus and
light bite with their coffee. Instead, they sourced from a local cheesemaker, rie, makes an interesting analogy. Point- there is a lack of customisation. In Singapore, the evolution is in the second stage,
look forward to eating these stuffed and instead of using imported ing to the origins of the croissant, which which is all about tea infusions and customisation, and moving towards the third
swirled versions as a post-dinner dessert French butter, and creates can be traced to Vienna, Austria, as the stage, hyper focused on an artisanal tea experience involving high-quality teas,
or treat. square-shaped versions in kipferl, he says that when it reached brewed at specific temperatures and spotlighting the star ingredient—tea.
Talking about the pinwheel croissant, sweet and savoury fla- France, their version, known as For the friend, CHICHA San Chen, with outlets in South-East Asia, Canada and
Pereira says that with the distinct round vours. According to the the croissant, became widely California, US, encapsulates stage 3. I tried their black tea with cream in Singa-
shape, the layers are very visible. The head chef of ARAKU popular as a breakfast staple pore. With zero expectation, I took the first sip, and there it was—insert GIF of the
croissant dough is crispy outside and but- Coffee, Rahul and a practical, on-the-go food critic Anton Ego, fork in hand, overcome with food nostalgia from the film
tery and pillowy inside, and the circular Sharma, Indians love pastry. “Just like it was Ratatouille. I was transported back to the tea estates from my small hometown
shape allows for it to be spongier. Love buttery flavour pro- reinterpreted in France, in Assam, with aromas of roasted leaves perfuming the air. CHICHA San Chen,
Crummbs is currently offering the pin- files and using crois- today we are seeing bak- a Taiwanese brand, sources its teas, from oolong to green and black tea, from plan-
wheel in flavours like chocolate, pistachio, sant dough to inno- ers around the world tations and brews them fresh. The end result is a drink that preserves the essence
and mixed berries. vate fits the bill. reinterpret the croissant of tea.
One of the other places that has been “Everything about the in their own ways.” This experience led to two realisations: Good bubble teas exist. Indians are no
quick to jump on to this trend is BlueBop croissant is rich and strangers to the sublime flavours of teas from Darjeeling and malty notes of those
Café in Mumbai, which is launching its indulgent.” Some of his ren- Arzoo Dina is a Mumbai- from Assam. If a bubble tea is made with these brewed to perfection, it can give
version of the spiral suprême croissant in ditions include a spring onion based food and travel writer. them an enduring Indian identity—but we are not there yet.
W
inning a 12-year-old’s dubious industrial-production-line ver- children, and leave it at that. But since cheese
approval for what you cook is sion that she and her grandmother one has become fancy and all that over Salt to taste
a bit like climbing Mount enjoy every Friday on date night—theirs the years, I added on a bottom layer of
Everest (although I hear Nanga Parbat is and ours. onions and tomatoes and incorporated Method
a more accurate comparison)—you may The challenge begins with eggs on fresh herbs. Fry the sausages in a non-stick pan and
strive, you may struggle but getting to school days. Where once mutte (egg) When the child came by the lunch set aside. Grease a casserole and lay out
the summit is a rare feat. dosas and creamy scrambled eggs were table, she was hungry and looked at the a bed of sliced onion, place sliced toma-
My adoring child, who always said sources of delight, eggs themselves are casserole quizzically. “Is there egg in toes over this. Sprinkle with paprika,
“mmmm, I love it appa”, is more dis- contentious. But eggs are a very impor- this?” she asked, not without menace. black pepper and a little salt. Grill in the
cerning than ever. I am now told it’s tant part of our lives, and even the wife, She took a slice and carted it off to watch oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 25 min-
good but a bit spicy, it’s good but I am who is vegetarian, has started eating Sausage, rosemary and basil casserole. SAMAR HALARNKAR with a TV lunch. For reasons best utes, flipping over once. Scatter the sau-
not so hungry, it’s good but I will eat it them for protein and energy. Eggs, as known to her, she was watching—and sages, half the basil leaves and rosemary
tomorrow. She still cares about my feel- we well know, are nutritional power- say so myself. thing to convey to a preteen attending a enjoying—Peter Sellers’ The Party for over the tomato and onion. Pour in the
ings but only just, I suspect. As the great houses. I may be ordinary at most things in school where SUVs and German cars the second time, a movie that, to me, eggs so that they cover everything.
chasm of preteen-hood opens before Since an egg, we tell her, is non-nego- life but the one thing I do well is to make swarm the gates. She does grasp the hasn’t aged well. Sprinkle cheese and oregano. Bake at
you, it is best not to understand why but tiable, it’s up to us to figure out how it high-class omelettes, done to your pref- concept of privilege though, aware that Either Sellers’ brownface or the cas- 200 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes or
to try and bridge it. can be made acceptable. Her mother erence and stuffed with all kinds of holidays abroad and five-star hotels are serole improved her mood. “Really until the cheese browns. Remove, gar-
To that end, I strive. gives her the occasional half-boiled interesting ingredients. The child not her life and that there are some stu- good,” she said of the casserole. She nish with fresh basil and serve hot.
It took me some time to realise that eggs, which she makes much better appears to still like these omelettes but dents in her class who are noticeably didn’t take a second helping though.
the things that once worked now may than I, and her gooey omelette is much the question of an egg a day remains. On worse off. Our Daily Bread is a column on easy,
not. She’s still eager to eat my interpre- appreciated. some days, there is eager acceptance of As the tussle over eggs continued, I SAuSAge, RoSeMARy ANd bASiL inventive cooking. Samar Halarnkar is
tation of my Ajji’s Goan fish curry but I I have taken my cue from my wife and the egg, on some, resistance is strong. thought back to my childhood and how cASSeRoLe the author of The Married Man’s Guide
notice she eats a tiny piece of fish and served up gooey omelettes as well—if Students of Karnataka government we could never could get enough of Serves 4 To Creative Cooking—And Other Dubi-
turns the rest into comfort food—white you cannot beat them, copy them—add- schools may recently and overwhelm- eggs, sometimes eating three at a time. ous Adventures.
rice and curry. She still smiles and eats ing in bits of ham, cheese and olive. ing have chosen eggs as part of their We even had eggs for lunch and dinner, Ingredients
my roast pork but I notice she is more These are delicious omelettes, even if I midday meals but privilege is a difficult especially on vegetarian-only Thurs- 1 packet of five sausages. Cut each sau- @samar11
SMART LIVING SaturDay, 28 JaNuary 2023
New Delhi 07
1
[email protected] MICROSOFT OUTLOOK, TEAMS SUFFER GLOBAL OUTAGE
Microsoft Outlook and Teams users worldwide reported a massive
N
ipun Jain has a compli- outage on 25 January. Multiple users took to social media to point
cated relationship with this out, and in a status update Microsoft reported “service degrada-
social media notifications. tion” for a number of its Microsoft 365 services, which included Teams,
When she receives one, the Outlook, the Azure cloud computing service and the XBox Live online
26-year-old artist finds gaming service. There was no fix on the number of users affected, but,
herself reacting to it in her head but often according to Reuters, Microsoft Teams, used by more than 280 million
forgets to share her reaction with the people globally, forms an integral part of daily operations for businesses
sender. “If it’s something funny they send, and schools. Microsoft said in a tweet that it had rolled back a network
for instance… I see, I laugh, I move on.” change that it believed was causing the issue. “We’re monitoring the
Two days later, she realises she has missed service as the rollback takes effect,” the tweet said.
responding but a “haha” won’t suffice
now, “so you tell yourself you will send a
2
proper reply in a bit”. That almost never ONEPLUS 11 LAUNCH INCHES
happens. “I think I have lost touch with CLOSER
several acquaintances because I didn’t The next OnePlus flagship launch
reply to their mention or message. And is right around the corner but there
they stopped engaging after a while,” says could be a surprise in store. Apart from
Jain, who works as a marketing profes- the OnePlus 11 phone, and Buds Pro 2,
sional in Gurugram, Haryana. the company is expected to launch the
Incoming notifications drain her but mid-range One Plus 11R smartphone as
when the tables are turned, she doesn’t well. A report on the technology web-
like being seenzoned, a situation where site GSMArena said that Amazon had
your text is seen but not replied to. Smartphone users get an average of 50 notifications a day. ISTOCKPHOTO revealed the launch date for the
Recently, she left a heartfelt comment on device—7 February. As expected, there
a writer-lifestyle-creator’s Instagram demanding the same kind of time in a from Delhi. “I struggle to interact on neer from Bengaluru. “We tend to pas- is quite a lot of excitement around the OnePlus 11, which, according to a
post. It has yet to receive any form of physical space can be quite overwhelm- social media. I read somewhere that my sively stalk other people’s public replies Mint report on Wednesday, could be the cheapest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
acknowledgement, be it a thank you, a ing,” says Taamra Ranganath, counselling online behaviour is similar to those who and when we see a reply not getting phone in India. Apart from the two phones, OnePlus is also expected to
smiley, or even a simple heart reacji (reac- psychologist with MindPeers, a mental have social anxiety in real life. Every acknowledged, we do wonder what is hap- launch the OnePlus TV Q2 Pro smart TV and its first keyboard.
tion emoji). Generally, people don’t health consultation platform. Globally, message and mention on social media pening between those two. You know oth-
expect to be acknowledged by celebrities over one-fifth of smartphone users choose feels like a missed call to me and I am ers do this, too. And nobody wants to be
with millions of followers, though some to disable push notifications—pop-up hesitant to call back, fearing it will esca- that person who’s being judged by a pas-
still reply to their posts, especially on alerts on their mobile screens—from cer- late into a meeting.” sive stalker,” she adds.
Twitter, as it allows them to be discovered tain apps. This is reflected in a 2021 report Ranganath says social media places an Further, you can always follow up on a
by more users. But this was not even a from Airship, a mobile marketing plat- unrealistic expectation on us to constantly direct message. “With mentions in public,
popular account, Jain says, adding that the form, which states that roughly 19% of stay connected. “Someone not replying to you are a lot less in control,” says Shriya
user had no more than 3,000 followers. Android users and 49% of iOS users opt notifications due to anxiety is drawing a Karanam, 23, a community manager at a
“Somehow, I have already started dis- out of push notifications. Fun fact: healthy boundary for themselves. But on SaaS-tech startup. “It’s weird to ask some-
liking this person now. It has gotten to a Android automatically enables push noti- social media, people can interpret it as one to acknowledge your comment on
point that I skip their Instagram Stories fications but iOS users have to proactively plain rude without any context. Applying their post. You just end up waiting and
when they appear in my feed,” she adds. “I consent to receive them. real-life boundaries on social media gets wondering, ‘Is this not giving?’ (slang for:
have revisited the post in question a few In addition to excessive notifications, complicated,” she adds. Is this content not giving a good vibe?).”
times to check if the user has replied to technical glitches on platforms can mean Some people increasingly prefer mes- This preoccupation with “acknowl-
other people’s comments. (They haven’t).” some notifications do not appear, height- saging an acquaintance directly in edgement in public” is making people
The discrepancy in her attitude towards ening the fear of not receiving or offering response to their social media post, rather neglect basic messaging etiquette too, it
incoming and outgoing notifications isn’t acknowledgement online. This is leading than leaving a public comment. An unac- would seem. “Earlier, people at least apol-
lost on her. It does, however, encapsulate to a shift in the way people communicate knowledged public comment hurts far ogised for seeing a message and forgetting
the growing chaos in the notification-to- on the internet, especially with the more than a message left on “read”, says to reply,” notes Pragun Dua, a 22-year-old
3
acknowledgement pipeline. It has made “extremely online” millennials and Gen Tanisha Sabherwal, 23, a software engi- product designer. “Now, missing texts and EARTH’S INNER CORE ROTATING SLOWER THAN SURFACE
room for a new content subgenre where Zers, many of whom keep oscillating not caring to explain has almost become A new study revealed on 25 January that Earth’s inner core has
reels and memes are capturing the senti- between dopamine hits and digital detox. the norm, at least in your inner circle,” he stopped spinning faster than the planet’s surface and might now
ments of many boomer parents who are “I don’t tag anyone on social media any says. That’s why you have memes that say be rotating slower than it. According to the new research, published in
tired of reacting to every post in the family more,” says Mehvish M., 33, a technology “your best friend will die for you but won’t the journal Nature Geoscience, which analysed seismic waves from
WhatsApp group, and younger folks writer from Kashmir. “It keeps me from respond to your texts”. repeating earthquakes over the last six decades, the inner core started
whose unread Instagram messages are pil- wondering: Why haven’t they replied yet? Jokes aside, lack of acknowledgement rotating slightly faster than the rest of the planet in the early 1970s. It
ing up because all of them carry reels and Is it because they missed seeing the notifi- Globally, over one-fifth of on social media can have consequences in had been slowing down before coming in sync with Earth’s rotation
memes from friends they cannot just see cation, they never got it, or because the real life too, says Ranganath. “It could trig- around 2009, it added. There has been a “negative trend” since, meaning
without sharing their reaction. Smart- content wasn’t up to snuff? This is too smartphone users ger feelings of loneliness if you weren’t the inner core is now rotating slower than the surface, an AFP report
phone users get an average of 50 notifica- much anxiety for me to take,” she says. choose to disable push acknowledged, or guilt if you failed to explained. The researchers predicted the next change would occur in
tions a day, many of them unnecessary Srishty Ranjan, 25, has 20 unread notifications—pop-up alerts acknowledge someone.” Identifying the the mid-2040s and that this rotation timeline roughly lines up with
and irrelevant. “It is easy to expect some- messages on Instagram right now. “I am boundaries of your online comfort zone is changes in what is called the “length of day”—small variations in the
one to respond to 50 notifications across just not able to open my DMs and reply,”
on their mobile screens— a constant process, she adds, and hard to exact time it takes Earth to rotate on its axis.
apps in a day. But 50 people in front of you says the corporate account manager from certain apps enforce. Memes, on the other hand… —Compiled by Nitin Sreedhar.
REVIEW | INSTA360 X3
l
must admit the Insta360 X3 360-de- side, with a 2.29-inch touch screen and transferring over the USB-C life is middling, lasting just about 80 min-
gree camera was about as much of an four hardware buttons to operate the port). The X3 saves 360-degree utes of continuous 5.7k 30fps 360-degree
impulse purchase as it gets, one that device. Both these near-180-degree lenses files in a proprietary for- recording.
went against the well-meaning advice of work in tandem to stitch their outputs mat, so the apps are a Making your videos stand out when
peers—“this is smartphone-level money”, in-camera to produce a seamless 360-de- strict requirement, but millions of creators are trying to do the
“buy a game console instead”, “too much gree spherical view of everything around, INSTA360 X3 it’s well worth the ini- same on Instagram and YouTube is no
money for an action camera”. All of these no matter whether you are shooting 5.7K tial learning curve easy task, and the Insta360 X3 represents
may have a hint of truth but we were Sri spherical videos or absolutely massive Aperture: F1.9 (the apps have a formidable weapon to this audience.
Lanka-bound for an year-end vacation 72MP still images. Photo modes: Standard, HDR, included video Even for normobs, the X3 earns an easy
and I wanted to take the X3 along for some Why do you need 360-degree videos? Burst, Interval, Starlapse tutorials) to figure recommendation for the outdoorsy types,
unique perspectives. It delivered in spa- No, they are not for niche virtual reality You no longer have to worry about framing your shot. Run time: 81 minutes out how to tame the though it would be a tad harder to justify
des—what I hadn’t bargained for was how applications. Instead, this all-encompass- Compatibility: iOS and sheer number of cre- the ₹46,990 outlay. The rather under-
much fun I would have using this rather ing capture method lets you start filming while holding on to the safety apparatus your group in the Android devices ative possibilities all stated reason to consider the X3 is that it’s
unique piece of tech. without worrying about framing your while parasailing. You will never miss a photo, plus everyone this footage presents. a ton of fun to use, thanks to the extensive
Let’s back up for a moment and under- shot—since you are capturing everything moment with the X3, unlike other action else in the room as well! Price: ₹46,990 Internally, the X3’s range of shooting modes and creative
stand why the Insta 360 X3 isn’t yet around you, all you have to do is hit record cams which depend on you to make the Great for overhead shots at two half-inch sensors and options that it presents with a degree of
another pocketable carry-everywhere and go back to the smartphone/desktop right choice about which direction the parties. Using a selfie stick? No each lens shoot at a super wide assured confidence and user-friendliness.
camera of the sort we have come to associ- app later to decide which parts to use. camera should be pointing. problem, the camera’s smarts detect the angle with an f/1.9 aperture. This combi- The fact that you can pull it out and press
ate with the likes of GoPro or DJI. It It’s a disarmingly simple approach to While 360-degree is its marquee attrac- selfie stick and stitches it out of the final nation of a largish sensor and a bright lens record and worry about the rest later is a
eschews the squat form factor preferred recording a moment or an activity, one tion, the X3 just as easily switches into video. Want the video to focus exclusively delivers sharp and clean video —up to 5.7K little bit of imaging magic that simply can-
by GoPro/DJI—instead, you get a candy which keeps you in the action and lets you action camera mode, recording 4K stabi- on you as you record a vlog? Try the Me resolution at 30 frames per second (fps) or not be matched right now.
bar form factor in a two-tone grey finish savour the moment rather than worrying lised action video from either the front or Mode, where the camera creates a 180-de- 4K/60fps, and 4K/30fps and 3.6K/60fps
with a rubberised grip along the sides. It’s if you are in the frame (or out of it com- rear lens. Hit a button and you can shoot gree video with you at the centre of the in single lens mode. The X3 did a tremen- Tushar Kanwar, a tech columnist and
easy to hold and wide enough to let the X3 pletely!) as you bob around in your raft or regular or HDR photos for selfies that have frame. Or how about the Loop mode, dous job of capturing sharp and well-ex- commentator, tweets at @2shar.
08 SaturDay, 28 JaNuary 2023
New Delhi COVER
TRACK
RECORD The Delhi Metro, which has just turned 20, is
inseparable from life in the mega-city. It is
more than a system of public transport: it
represents refuge, privacy, freedom, and a
slow change in the city’s cultural fabric
N
amita Narula Gandhi lives by the clock. Every work- need to update my list,” she laughs. On days she
day, she wakes up at 6.30am, gets ready, packs the doesn’t feel like plugging in her earphones, she likes
breakfast and lunch she has prepped the night to see what people are wearing. “We all do that, no?”
before, feeds her one-year-old child, and is in her car she says. “With the baby, family and work, I hardly
at 7am. Within 30 minutes, she is on the Delhi ever get time to read up what’s in fashion. During
Metro’s Yellow Line, travelling from the Haiderpur those two hours inside the train, I learn all about the
station to Huda City Centre in Gurugram. trendy stuff.”
An hour and 50 minutes later, she is hailing an
auto for the 10-minute ride to her office, a private SMALL BEGINNINGS
hospital, where she works as the head of corporate It was on 24 December 2002 that the then prime
communications. That’s two-and-a-half hours of minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, inaugurated the first
travel every morning. It’s the same on the way back. Metro corridor, an 8.2km stretch spanning six sta-
Gandhi doesn’t mind those five hours on the move, tions on the Shahdara-Tis Hazari corridor of the Red
for the Metro allows her to be independent. Line. A mass rapid transit plan, first conceived in the
“I moved to Sonipat in 2017 after getting married,” 1960s and formally sanctioned in 1996, had finally
explains the 35-year-old, who was born and brought come to life six years later following a political push.
up in Delhi. “The Metro is the reason I can still hold Vajpayee said it would eventually create a safer, less
my job. Imagine how much it would cost me in petrol congested and less polluted Delhi (on a good air
to drive all the way.” She estimates that it would be index day, Delhi’s reading continues to be poor).
over ₹10,000 a month; using the Metro cuts it down The next day, about 100,000 people used the
to ₹1,500. Travelling in a bus feels unsafe to her. Metro, while several non-users dismissed it as
Shifting to Delhi is not an option since her husband another government project built to tank. But there
works in Sonipat. Plus, there’s family to take care of was no denying the fact that the Delhi Metro Rail
her baby at home when she’s at work. Corporation (DMRC) had built an engineering mar-
The Metro means different things to different vel to navigate a high-density metropolis. Other
people, whether you are in New Delhi, New York, public transport lifelines at the time—buses and
London or Paris. It can just be another mode of pub- autos—didn’t offer as much safety or the luxury of
lic transport that takes you from point A to B. It can air-conditioning at a cost of ₹10 (for 2km or less). For
be a place where you indulge in some innocent peo- 5-12km, it was ₹30. And the trains ran on time.
ple-watching. You can enjoy the air-conditioning Travelling by the Metro meant you didn’t have to
while the sun blazes outside, try not to overhear an haggle with auto drivers, suffer harassment in
argument, discuss existential questions with friends, packed buses, or get stuck in a traffic jam in swelter-
meet your sweetheart, read that book that has long ing weather. Areas in the vicinity flourished. In the
been sitting in your bag, talk yourself into writing early years, one restaurateur in Connaught Place
that complicated article. Or just watch the city said it had revived business, particularly on week-
through the glass windows. You can do pretty much ends, as crowds from relatively distant areas poured
anything and everything while on the move. in. It has also enabled easier access to heritage areas
There’s another reason Gandhi prefers the Metro. like Chandni Chowk.
It offers her “bliss time”: 50 minutes of patchy inter- Twenty years later, the Delhi Metro is an integral
net between stations in north and south Delhi, when part of life in the city, with close to 400km of tracks
Delhi Metro staff. calls drop every second or messages don’t get deliv- shooting out in every direction, connecting 286 sta-
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM ered on time. That’s when she tunes out from the tions across the city and neighbouring states—a net-
HINDUSTAN TIMES outside world to listen to music. “In the morning, it’s work no other Metro in India has built till now. Each
day, it ferries close to six million people in the
world’s second most populated city of 31 million. So
impressed are other states by the DMRC’s efforts
that they have roped them in as consultants to build
Metro projects in Mumbai and Patna, and Bangla-
desh’s capital Dhaka. “We are also bidding for con-
sultancy of international Metro projects such as Tel
Aviv (Israel), Alexandria (Egypt), Mauritius, Bahrain
and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam),” says Anuj Dayal,
principal executive director and official spokesper-
son of Delhi Metro.
He believes the success of the Delhi Metro can be
attributed to “various factors ranging from planning,
execution, efficient workforce and technological
advancement. Our Metro lines connect almost all
the important residential areas, major markets,
other modes of transport systems such as railways
and inter-state bus services, educational and health-
care hubs, and IT corridors in entire Delhi-National
Capital Region. We are further expanding the net-
work under Phase 4 project to connect the uncov- Any city needs good public transport, says public WHERE WORLDS MEET
ered areas in Delhi to improve mobility.” mobility expert Anumita Roychowdhury, executive Shreya Johri has travelled by the Metro since she
While recovering from the loss of over ₹3,800 director (research and advocacy) at the Delhi-based was in class XI because it’s right outside her east
crore in March 2022, owing to reduced ridership non-profit Centre for Science and Environment Delhi house. As her grandparents grew too old to
during the pandemic-induced lockdowns, the (CSE). “A lot of people have to use cars, cabs or autos drop her, and pick her up, from school, they encour-
15,000-workforce at DMRC is working to add three to reach a Metro station in Delhi. That discourages aged her to use a “safer” mode of public transport.
more corridors in and around the city, stretching the them from using the Metro. Last-mile connectivity Soon, it became her ride to a nearby Noida market,
network another 65km with an extra 45 stations. is one of the most crucial aspects we need to focus where, along with friends, she would drink banta. “It
on. We need to give people the right options. was all like ₹25, coming, going and drinking,” recalls
NIGGLING ISSUES Nobody likes to waste time in a jam with bad air.” Johri, 27. “We talked on the way, in the market, and
Despite this massive web, it’s not all hunky-dory. The capital city of one of the world’s biggest econ- saved money—it was just so easy.”
Land acquisition issues have dogged it on occasion. omies is also among the most polluted. At the time It was where she had her college “Metro
Dayal merely says they were able to acquire land as of writing this article, the city’s AQI was swinging romance”. For one-and-a-half years of the three
per the law. By the time work began, Delhi had between “severe” and “very severe”, a familiar trend years she studied in Delhi university’s north campus,
changed completely; the alignment had to adjust to over three years that leads to temporary shutdowns she used to take the Blue Line from her home in
what was possible underground or overground. of schools every year. Mayur Vihar to Rajiv Chowk station to meet her
Last-mile connectivity remains a big issue, push- A November study by the CSE found that vehicles, crush-turned-friend-turned-boyfriend. Together,
ing up commuting costs and posing a security chal- including private cars, are one of the biggest con- they would board the Yellow Line, not for college,
lenge for people returning late at night. Fare tributors to particulate matter (PM10) in Delhi. but to the Huda City Centre. They would get some-
increases over the years have pushed out lower-in- Towards late October, vehicular emissions thing to eat at a street food joint and return to the
come passengers. Many stations don’t have parking accounted for 51% of the concentration of PM 2.5, Metro platform to continue chatting, about their
facilities, discouraging people who would prefer to inhalable microscopic materials less than 2.5 micro- dreams, their friends , their lives, and their next date.
use the Metro. Long walks and stairs within stations metres in diameter. What makes this data more con- By evening, they would ride same the route back
are not easy to navigate, especially for the elderly cerning is that only a small number of families in the home. Even after they broke up towards the end of
and the disabled. On some lines, rush hour is an city own cars—19.4%, according to the latest data college, they continued travelling in the Metro
unbearable crush. from the National Family Health Survey. together as friends to go to college.
R STORY SaturDay, 28 JaNuary 2023
New Delhi 09
PRADEEP GAUR
391km
is the length of the Delhi Metro, including
to reach her office in Gurugram, south of south
Delhi. Every Monday-Friday, she would find a quiet
corner and immerse herself in the world of P.G.
parts of Noida, Ghaziabad (Uttar Pra- Wodehouse or Harry Potter. “Those 60 minutes felt
desh), Gurugram, Faridabad, Bahadur- like meditation,” recalls Rai, now based in Benga-
garh and Ballabhgarh (Haryana) luru. “Whenever I am in Delhi, I prefer the Metro.”
CHALLENGES REMAIN
286
stations on the 12 different lines serve
One of the big challenges to last-mile connectivity
is the Capital’s population. “Delhi is a challenging
city because of its huge population. Secondly, eco-
residents of three states nomic growth is so high that it encourages owning
private cars,” says Roychowdhry, who, too, ends up
using her private vehicle to travel from her house on
6 million
people use the Delhi Metro every day
the outskirts of Delhi to her office in the city’s south-
ern parts. “The Metro station is far from my house.
It will take me more time to reach office if I use it,”
to get from point A to point B she says.
That’s why Mohd Shamim Ansari uses a motorcy-
cle to reach his office in Okhla from Jamia Nagar.
31 million
is the total population of
When he first arrived in Delhi in 2017 and was work-
ing further away in Gurugram, the train was his
go-to. Those two hours in the train were like a peek
the city of Delhi into Delhi life. Ansari couldn’t help but overhear sto-
ries of someone’s house help not showing up for
work, or a boyfriend checking whether their signifi-
cant other had had breakfast before leaving for work.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
WHAT’S IN STORE On the same train, colleagues became his best
(above) Mohd Shamim Ansari and
In the works: Phase IV friends. On weekends, he would take the train to
his wife, Tahseen Shaikh; and (right) Lodhi Gardens or Qutab Minar, familiarising himself
a map of the Delhi Metro network. Corridors to be added: 3 with the city on his own. Nowadays, his wife, Tah-
seen Shaikh, accompanies him. “I would have con-
Aerocity-Tughlakabad tinued using the Metro for work but the station is too
Length: 23.62km far from the office,” he says. “Just doesn’t make any
Stations: 15 sense wasting time.”
A train station should ideally be within a 200m
Janakpuri West-R.K. Ashram radius to compel residents to use it over personal
Length: 29.26km vehicles or commercial personal vehicles such as
Stations: 22 cabs, says Roychowdhry. “Public transport is all
about convenience. It’s a nightmare getting cabs,
Mukundpur (Majlis Park)-Maujpur autos, or even walking if the station is far. Let’s not
Length: 12.31km forget that our Delhi roads are made for cars, not for
Stations: 8 pedestrians,” says Roychowdhry. “Public transport
SOURCE: DMRC
has to come to people.”
She cites the example of Kolkata. “You just need
to get out of the house and there’s something availa-
over 10 theft cases, shows the Delhi Metro site. The ble for you to navigate the city, whether it’s a bus or
super-crowded Kashmere Gate has the most, at 132, an auto. Kolkata’s public transport system is one of
followed by Rajiv Chowk, 44, and Netaji Subhash the country’s oldest networks Delhi can learn from,”
Place, 42. Okhla Vihar has the lowest, at 10. explains Roychowdhry. “We also need to realise that
Dayal says: “The security and law and order in just offering world-class transport is not enough.
Metro premises is handled by CISF (Central Indus- There need to be systems in place to ensure there are
trial Security Force) and the Metro units of local no traffic jams because of the extra buses, rickshaws,
police in Delhi-NCR. These forces have adequate autos on the road.”
presence of their personnel in Metro premises and That’s part of the Delhi government’s plan. As the
have been doing excellent work.” fourth phase of Delhi Metro commences, the aim is
With the baby, family and Aditya Sharma differs and says one has to be cau- to expand other modes, including buses and autos,
work, I hardly get time to read “We used to forget checking our phones, some- in west Delhi. Since then, her mother, who had used tious while travelling in the Metro. One December to reach the last mile within the city at least.
times we even missed stations. It was such an easy the Metro for 15 years, has stopped travelling on it. morning last year, when the west Delhi resident was “If Delhi wants to be the clean national capital of
about what’s in fashion. way of sitting in a clean, air-conditioned place, and A few months earlier, when Gandhi was returning taking the Metro from Uttam Nagar to feed stray the country, we need to clean up the pollution and
During those two hours nobody disturbed you,” she recalls. “Those Metro from work, someone took her iPod—her first luxury dogs in areas near the next two stations—something give more people the option to use the Metro,” says
inside the train, I learn all rides gave us the confidence to be free, to be like purchase—from her pocket. Cases of crime and theft he had been doing daily for a year after losing Pluto, Roychowdhry. “Otherwise, it won’t be liveable in the
proper adults who could take their own decisions. It are common on the Metro. A December 2021 Times his first pet dog—a thief stole the only ₹500 note in next 10-20 years.”
about the trendy stuff. might sound like an exaggeration but it really did Of India report states that till 7 November, of the his pocket. “I informed the authorities but nothing Namita Narula Gandhi would like the Metro to be
teach me how to be independent—and more than 2,174 crimes that were reported in the year, 80% happened,” he says., though he still considers the closer to her house. It would mean more me- and-
NAMITA NARULA GANDHI anything, it was safe.” were of theft. The police said 1,380 were solved and Metro the most convenient and fastest mode of we-time for herself, her child and family. “I don’t
METRO USER Gandhi doesn’t agree entirely, though she is a 564 people were arrested. The previous year, the transport. “I can walk to the station from my house, know life beyond work and family right now. Metro
devoted Metro user. She has been robbed twice. The report states, “2,113 cases were reported, 1,170 solved carrying the food for the dogs I feed,” says the is my refuge, where I get time to be with myself,” she
first time, the thief slashed her mother’s purse and and 204 people arrested”. 65-year-old. says. “And 30 minutes more of that would be more
took out ₹15,000 they were carrying to go shopping As of December 2022, each station has at least It’s this convenience that makes the Metro every- than welcome.”
10 SaturDay, 28 JaNuary 2023
New Delhi TRAVEL
T
he endless expanse of the On our cruise upriver, we saw more tacted at 9547637042 for day- nal globular nests up close. Supported by
Teesta river stretched ducks: the gadwall, common pochard, long and hour-long boat rides reeds tied together, the nests had large
before me until the hori- ruddy shelduck and northern shoveler. on the reservoir and river. circular entrances. The weavers, however,
zon. The wind rippled the Migratory birds arrive in Gajoldoba from were hidden among the tall reeds.
surface of the water as my their breeding grounds in Ladakh, Balu- WHAT TO CARRY When the boatman hushed me for the
guide rowed against the current. Enor- chistan, Central Asia, Mongolia, Russia, A camera, a pair of binoculars, a second time in two days, I knew immedi-
mous grey clouds loomed above us, with Siberia and Europe at the onset of winter (clockwise from top, left) Asian openbill; common merganser; migratory ducks; and water bottle, a cap, and snacks. ately he had spotted another rare species.
the vast Teesta barrage behind us. I was at in the subcontinent. The ducks we saw guide Taposh Mondal. Three cotton pygmy geese, with their
Gajoldoba, a hamlet in the Jalpaiguri dis- were the few that had delayed the perilous STAY spotless, bright white heads, had sensed
trict of northern West Bengal. The mas- journey back to their breeding grounds. sighted the well-camouflaged, grey- declared the 14.09 sq. km reservoir Pakh- The Bhorer Alo Tourism Prop- the approaching boat. Before we could
sive Kangchenjunga serves as a backdrop The river’s depth wasn’t as impressive as brown bird eyeing us suspiciously from ibitan Wildlife Sanctuary to protect the erty (7029435557). You can brace ourselves, they flew over our boat
for this picturesque settlement in the its width. The sedimented water only the sandbar. Other waders, such as the birds and conserve their habitat. Today, check availability and book a like aeroplanes over a parade.
Dooars region of the Himalayan foothills. reached Mondal’s knees when he stepped common sandpiper, green sandpiper, lit- an informal network of fishers and locals room at the West Bengal Tour- Back at my cottage, as I observed the
A reservoir formed by the barrage wel- out to pull his sal wood boat, stuck in a tle-ringed plover and kentish plover, too ply around 30-odd boats in the reservoir ism Development Corporation unsuccessful hunting attempts of a pied
comes hundreds of migratory birds every patch of gravel. A pair of migratory crested were foraging on the sandbar. The shrill from morning to evening. Though the website. kingfisher, my thoughts circled back to
year to the village. grebes waltzed nearby. Further ahead, a call of a river lapwing broke my reverie. sanctuary remains open through the year, what Mondal had told me when he left me
Taposh Mondal, a self-taught birder lone river tern rested on a floating log a few Mondal, who has recorded more than it sees maximum footfall during the winter at the jetty: “Visit again in the winter. We
and local resident who has been guiding metres away from a flock of brown-headed 120 species of birds in Gajoldoba, says months from November-March. will see huge flocks of ducks all around us.”
tourists at Gajoldoba since 2013, was keen gulls. The raucous gulls, with their hooded birdwatching took off in the area in 2003, We decided to explore the reservoir the
to show me the migratory waterfowl ensembles, flew away as our boat neared. when fishers realised they could supple- following day to see more birds, while Anirudh Nair is a feature writer with
which had lingered past their wintering A small pratincole on a nearby sandbar ment their income by guiding tourists. In secretly hoping to glimpse an elephant or RoundGlass Sustain, a social impact initia-
season. The tide dictated the movement of was more tolerant of our presence. I 2016, the West Bengal government two stopping by for a drink from the sur- tive telling stories of India’s natural world.
A
s stones go, it looks quite ordinary, death. The Newman Brothers were Bir-
even though this felsite boulder mingham’s last coffin-furniture factory,
was deposited during the Ice Age operating for 100 years. Today, Coffin
by a glacier. Once a boundary stone, the Works is a museum with rooms dedicated
War Stone now lies on a plinth inside a to the many aspects of burials. There are
cemetery on a street named after it. Leg- coffins, fitted with trimmings, shrouds
end has it that two giants got into a fight and face veils, brass handles (including
and the Birmingham giant was hit by a secting lanes of Warstone and Vyse Street, replicas of those made for Winston
large boulder that killed him and which house jewellery shops, their win- Churchill and Princess Diana), chair and
destroyed his castle. In his honour, his fol- dows a-dazzle with gems. We walk into coffin nails, a stamp room with mechani-
lowers erected a stone in the lane. Hence alleyways with red-brick buildings. We cal presses, sample pieces that travelling
the name War Stone. Museum (the area once produced 75% of pass by a Sikh temple, beautiful in blue, salesmen would carry in leather bags, and
In Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, pens in the world), and hidden in the soft which was once the Highbury Independ- order books going back to the 1940s.
even the rocks tell a story. Once an indus- earth in Birmingham’s last Georgian ent Chapel. On the pavement, we look out As I walk around the museum, it is clear
trial town manufacturing metal products Square. St Paul’s Square is lush with for plates embedded in the pavement that women were at the heart of it. In the
(pens, chains, coins, whistles, coffin parts, autumn foliage, a shaded courtyard with which offer more history lessons—on Gra- shroud or sewing room, seamstresses sat
trophies), it was home to traders working old tombstones and memorials, and, in the ham Street, a sign indicates that it was with machines, stitching the cloth used to
on every stage of the jewellery manufac- centre, the 18th century St Paul’s Church, once the site of a roller-coaster. dress the bodies, and the coffins. It was the
turing process. The Great Depression and with its stained-glass windows. Along the way, Wall feeds me nuggets: late Joyce Green, the last owner of New-
World War II saw a decline in industry but I get a brief lesson in the Quarter from Factories with “works” in the name were man Brothers, who turned the factory into
it still has about 700 jewellery-linked Josie Wall, a PhD student, guide and part actually workshops; the steam from the a museum. Green joined as the office sec-
businesses producing 40% of the jewel- of the Jewellery Quarter Business ing than retailing. Factories typically (clockwise, from top) The pen factory was used for Turkish baths; retary at 18, and, over the next 50 years,
lery made in the UK. Improvement (JQ BID), a company dedi- worked on one aspect of the process, like Jewellery Quarter; a display at census records show the Quarter had climbed up the ranks—a woman who had
The conservation of the Quarter has cated to improving the district. Wall’s pas- plating or finishing. Beyond jewellery, Coffin Works; and workers from South Africa, Australia, to fight to prove herself.
turned it into a space for creative business sion for the region is evident in the way many small metal items were made here. Chamberlain Clock. Trinidad and Russia; and the cemeteries I came to the Jewellery Quarter seeking
and hospitality ventures. Yet, there is his- she rattles off figures and trivia, and the You needed the same skilled workers to PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOANNA LOBO are one of the few untouched open green bling. Instead, I find stories of industry
tory here—in the listed red-brick build- way her eyes light up when talking about make coffin handles, or a coffee pot or a spaces. Wall grins when I suggest we visit and trade, and of women fighting for
ings, once bustling factories, the century- its history. “The 1960s were the heydays of nib,” she says. them. “You don’t find too many people change.
old Chamberlain Clock, the ink in the Pen the Quarter. There was more manufactur- The heart of the Quarter is the inter- interested in hanging out in cemeteries,” Joanna Lobo is a Goa-based journalist.
CULTURE SaturDay, 28 JaNuary 2023
New Delhi 11
Everyone’s a
winner in
‘Pianoforte’
This Sundance film follows pianists dealing with
the pressures of a prestigious competition
A
t the Chemould Prescott ing, however, that moment is so precise. school—do “mental practice”, sitting in front of the piano without touching
Road, Mumbai, one is One can see a huge shadow of the actor the keys. As the film progresses, you get a sense of who might handle the pres-
greeted with a mixed sense falling on a blank wall, which might not sure and who might crack. It’s especially evident in 17-year-old Eva, who
of the familiar and the have been noticed while watching the keeps advancing in the competition but never seems to find the calm she’s
novel. The 24 oil paintings film. Such frozen moments are special,” looking for. “Flat. Everything is flat,” her coach says. “The piano or…?” some-
on display, as part of the exhibition Dr. explains Dodiya. one asks. Eva just looks on, her eyes searching for an answer that isn’t forth-
Banerjee In Dr. Kukarni’s Nursing Home Over the past five-six years, the artist coming.
And Other Paintings (2020-2022), evoke took photographs of such moments on his
a feeling of nostalgia, featuring frozen phone. He would download and print
moments from Indian films from the them. Dodiya would keep these on his
1960s-70s. You can recognise the silhou- table and mull over how he wanted the fig-
ette of Amitabh Bachchan from Anand, ure to be, the movement of hands, etc.
Soumitra Chatterjee walking away in It’s also interesting that all the scenes
Kapurush, and, in the only film from an that he chose are set indoors. Dodiya was
earlier period, Nargis as Rita playing the interested in the décor shown in the films
piano in Awara. Yet there is a sense of from the 1960s-70s. The sets featured a lot
mystery to the scenes—the protagonists of knick-knacks, often randomly put
are shown with their backs turned, faces together. “In the films from that era, the
covered, often suspended in motion. The actors were so good that the audience
play of light, shadow and colour adds focused solely on them. Rest of the things
immense depth to the scenes painted by were relegated to the background,” says
Atul Dodiya. Dodiya. “However, when I was painting,
When you move beyond body lan- everything was carefully attended to. I was
guage, you start noticing other details in interested in the furniture, the way things
the setting you may not have noticed in were kept, and the design on the walls and
the film. In Aarti In Office, which features doors.”
Madhabi Mukherjee in Satyajit Ray’s If you view the painting Bindu And The Pianoforte is composed and handsome, far from the Pennebaker tradition
Mahanagar, you begin to observe the Mirror, which shows a scene from of musical verité. Unlike another great Polish documentary, All These Sleep-
poster on the wall about a knitting Padosan featuring Saira Banu, you will less Nights (2016), it doesn’t redraw the boundaries of the fly-on-the-wall film.
machine, the weighing scales, the texture suddenly notice a vase plonked on top of Its success is derived almost entirely from how sympathetic and interesting it
of the curtains and the stance of a man an almirah. Its placement has no signifi- makes its protagonists. There’s Marcin, who resembles a young Jean-Pierre
looking back at Aarti. Each work comes cant relevance to the scene, but in the Léaud, playing for his cat, which is more interested in pizza. There’s the
with detailed captions, mentioning the painting, still life like this attracts the eye. straight-shooting Michelle, who packs off the film-makers with a firm, “Now
actor, the name of the character they are tery. That is more lasting as an experi- (from top) ‘Rita At The Piano’, 2020- There is a certain vibrance to the paint- it’s time.” We see Hao practise in a tiny apartment in Guangzhou, his father
essaying and the film title. When taken ence,” adds Dodiya, who created these 2022; ‘Dr. Banerjee In Dr. Kulkarni’s ings, with the artist consciously adding a looking on, his mother cooking. The ease of the film belies the work that must
out of context— if one were not to look at works between 2020-22. Nursing Home’, 2020-2022; and touch of kitsch. He was interested in the have gone into building relationships with so many young musicians, earning
the captions and were to dissociate the The artist’s engagement with cinema is ‘The Coward’, 2020-2022. quality old black and white photographs their trust till they were comfortable with being recorded at their most vul-
scenes from the films—the paintings not new. Having grown up with interna- acquire when hand-painted. “That is a nerable.
become a storyboard of their own. It feels tional and regional films, the impact of method I adopted. I would paint all images The editing by Ula Klimek-Piątek is a masterclass in precision and canny
like one is going through a blown-up con- Satyajit Ray, Jean-Luc Godard and Guru in thick black and white and then add thin choices. Five minutes into the film, we haven’t heard anyone play. There’s a
tact sheet of Dodiya’s own film. Viewers Dutt is evident in his work. In 2019, he cre- layers of transparent colours,” he explains. quick series of shots showing the participants poised to play the first note. We
can create their own narrative based on ated a set of 36 paintings that brought to The images you see in these paintings focus on Leonora. Her fingers descend. We expect Chopin. Instead, as the
how they navigate the show. life Alfred Hitchcock’s 1929 film Black- can’t be found on the internet, for they are film’s title appears on screen, it’s the rumbling beat of Elephant by Tame
For Dodiya, 64, it was a conscious deci- mail. In 1994, he worked on a self-portrait, his chosen moments. This also reflects his Impala, a choice so witty and so perfectly executed it made me laugh. Later,
sion to allow for this kind of reading. “The The Bombay Buccaneer, inspired by the deep familiarity with the films of the time. there’s another musical montage, set to Arcade Fire’s Rococo, as the pianists
paintings are not just about specific films 1993 film Baazigar. “My intention was to Dodiya calls this a love-hate relationship unwind, stroll, play football. Here, too, is a smart little decision: As the song
and sequences. That would have become think how can I interpret the narrative, with popular Hindi cinema. “I hate the explodes, the camerawork does too, turning frenetic for once as it follows
very limiting. One of the devices I have without making it a direct depiction of the term Bollywood. But if you look back at Alex bearing down on goal.
used is to conceal the faces of the actors. film. The work ought to stand on its own as the golden era, from the 1940s to the I would have been happy with any of the protagonists winning, so appeal-
The actors are so well-known, and if the a painting,” he had mentioned in a 2019- 1960s, the cinema was okay, but the music ing does Piątek make them. However, the stakes are clearly the highest for
viewers simply focus on the faces of interview to the Architectural Digest. was so beautiful. Sometimes we didn’t Eva. The film knows this, focusing on her as the final results are announced.
Rajesh Khanna, Sharmila Tagore and He carries forward a similar ethos in this even know which film the song hailed That scene is wrenching but then Pianoforte is full of dreams deferred and
Saira Banu, the experience will be limit- set of works as well. Walking around, you from, or which actors sang it on screen, denied. Vivian, Hao’s coach, was a talented young player herself, but, as she
ing,” he explains. However, now you sim- can’t help but wonder why Dodiya chose The artist’s engagement with but still remember the melodies and lyr- says ruefully, she never had the ambition for competition. Michelle predicts
ply notice a generic figure of a housewife, these particular moments to paint. “When ics. That led me to explore the film fur- she won’t advance in the tournament beyond that night’s performance, say-
a lady in an office, or a man emerging from you watch a film in a cinema hall, you sit cinema is not new. Having ther—who was the cinematographer, was ing, “I don’t believe in unicorns.” Even in defeat, though, there’s grace. A
the kitchen. And then you start taking in through the entire duration. However, at grown up with international this Rajesh Khanna’s second film?” he musician from China, eliminated in an early round, is at the airport. He sees a
the décor and the surroundings—there is home, whether you are watching a film on and regional films, the impact reminisces. “And that led to a total immer- piano. You may think he would be sick of pianos by then but his face lights up.
so much more to engage with. a DVD or the OTT, there is a remote con- sion in the subject of cinema.” He sits down and plays, beautifully. A small crowd gathers; one woman seems
“Also, when you see a person from the trol in your hand. If someone rings the bell
of Ray, Godard and Guru On view till 25 February, 10am-6pm overcome. Michelle would roll her eyes at the sentiment but to be able to
back in a painting, there is a sense of mys- or calls you, there is the option to pause Dutt is evident in his work (closed on Sundays and public holidays). move people this way must be its own reward.
12 SaturDay, 28 JaNuary 2023
New Delhi BUSINESS LOUNGE
Manu Chandra
READY TO SERVE
The chef talks about his evolution as an entrepreneur, the business of running
successful fine-dining restaurants, and his new venture LUPA
Illustration by Priya Kuriyan
Shrabonti Bagchi
[email protected]
C
hef Manu Chandra has been
profiled several times in the
Indian media, including in
the pages of Lounge. Any-
body who follows the res-
taurant scene in India knows about the
meteoric rise of the young chef, fresh from
I have eaten at a
culinary school in New York, who took
over as executive chef of the Olive group
and opened its Bengaluru outpost, Olive
Beach, in 2004, helping transform a nas-
lot of these
cent stand-alone fine-dining scene into
the vibrant, competitive space it is today—
far more interesting than its five-star com-
restaurants,
petition, once the unquestioned leaders of
fine-dining in India.
So do we really need another profile of
chef Chandra? Well, it becomes difficult
Noma included.
to avoid when he reinvents himself so
completely every few years. In his new
turn as an entrepreneur and business
And boss, I
owner, 42-year-old Chandra today is on
the brink of opening his own restaurant;
one that promises to refresh the jaded
fine-dining scene in Bengaluru. He is
didn’t get feels. I
watched by everyone in the industry—as
someone who gave pub food a quality
upgrade with Monkey Bar in 2012,
brought the baos and ramens of Asian
got zero feels.
cuisine into focus while breaking the
hegemony of Indian Chinese with Fatty
Bao in 2014, and propelled the gin revo-
lution in India with Toast and Tonic in
2016 (all in Bengaluru before branching
out in other metros). Chandra is univer-
sally acknowledged as someone who
knows not just what the next big thing is
going to be, but who can flip it into an
of-the-moment trend.
There is a lot of buzz in his new Euro-
pean restaurant, LUPA (named after the
legendary she-wolf La Lupa of Roman
mythology), where we are meeting on a
windy January morning. Chandra shows
me around the large space in the heart of
New policy
m MINT SHORTS
India budget seen pro-growth,
to classify Chemical firms face demand
prudent, and not so populist
New Delhi: India’s government will look to maintain its pace of
spending to bolster growth as it leans on asset sales while shun-
ning subsidies to shrink the deficit, according to a survey of econ-
economic
activities
woes though cost stress eases
omists. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will likely increase
expenditure by about 12.5% year-on-year to ₹44.40 trillion in the Reuters
year beginning April, according to the median of estimates in a [email protected]
Bloomberg survey ahead of the 1 February budget. BLOOMBERG Demand for agrochemicals remained steady but channel inventories in some regions worry
I
ndia is working on a policy
to classify economic activi-
India seeks changes in decades- ties and technologies into Ujjval Jauhari December and imports fell 7.5%, as per
sustainable and non-sustaina- [email protected] analysts at Kotak.
old water treaty with Pakistan ble categories to help inves- New DelhI Among chemicals, demand for dis-
tors looking for green pro- cretionary applications such as dyes and
D
jects, three government offi- espite strong long-term pigments, polymers, and automobiles
cials say. growth drivers, the Indian continues to face headwinds, analysts
Under the proposal, similar chemical industry is facing said, though demand for essentials such
to the Green Taxonomy pio- pressure from rising raw as agrochemicals is steady. Higher crop
neered by the European material prices, logistics prices are supporting agrochemical
Union (EU), the government issues and supply-side constraints, as demand, though high channel inven-
will certify sustainable activi- well as demand concerns because of tory could impact sales in the near term.
ties, which it hopes will attract the economic slowdown in Western Although domestic demand for
more funds and give investors markets. chemicals continues to remain healthy,
an extra layer of comfort, said Some respite, however, is now being exports trend needs to be monitored
the three government offi- provided by China, which has eased amid demand weakness across the
cials, who did not want to be longstanding covid curbs. Lower oil pri- European and Chinese markets, said
New Delhi: India wants to change a 1960 World Bank-ne- named because they were not ces are another positive, as it helps ease analysts at Centrum Broking. Analysts,
gotiated Indus river water-sharing agreement with Paki- authorised to speak to the raw material prices and supplies. Even however, do expect companies to bene-
stan and has issued a notice to its South Asian neighbour, media. shipping rates and container availability Demand concerns related to economic slowdown in the West have further added fit from lower chemical prices.
people with knowledge of the matter said. The current dis- The renewable energy have improved over time. Strong to the near-term headwinds the industry is facing. ISTOCK “Most basic chemicals saw a sharp cor-
pute first flared in 2015 when Pakistan objected to two ministry and the finance min- domestic demand for chemicals is rection in prices in Q3FY23 as crude oil
hydro-power projects on tributaries of the river in India’s istry are working on the draft another major positive. He, however, kept a positive view of the India’s exports and imports of organic prices moderated 10% sequentially and
portion of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. policy. Neither ministry However, analysts remain cautious prospects of the Indian chemical indus- and inorganic chemicals trended lower chemical feedstock prices witnessed a
Islamabad said the projects violated the pact by aiming to responded to queries from and watchful about the impact of the try. from a year ago in December 2022. fall of up to 20% sequentially on weak
divert the Indus waters. BLOOMBERG Reuters. global slowdown amid lingering reces- Trade data across India, China and Exports fell 6.6% from a year ago demand. Ocean freight costs declined
The officials said the draft sion worries. the US reflect weakness engendered by (although they rose 9.8% sequentially 40-50% sequentially and are currently
framework is the first step in a Analysts feel that while compared with a back to normalized/ historical levels.
Multiple bids received for NMDC long process of identifying the pace of rate hikes and UNDER PRESSURE depressed base), while Rupee depreciated 3% versus the dollar,”
sustainable projects and inflation are falling, the imports fell 20.4% from a analysts at Prabhudas Lilladher said.
Steel disinvestment: Dipam secy phasing out others. interest rate hike cycle AMONG chemicals, THOUGH domestic DOMESTIC firms year ago (down 0.5% Chemical prices generally trended
New Delhi: The government received interest from several bid- India projects $10 trillion to may continue for some demand for those in
discretionary
chemicals demand
remains healthy,
may benefit only
partially due to
sequentially) in US dollar downwards sequentially in Q3,
ders for the planned strategic disinvestment of NMDC Steel Ltd $15 trillion in investment is time and inflation is still applications are still exports trend must spillover of high-cost terms, as per Kotak. impacted by demand weakness in
(NSL), Dipam secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said in a Twitter needed to achieve net-zero much higher than the 2% facing headwinds be watched inventories in Q3 Even trade data from Europe and China. Domestic companies
post on Friday. Mint reported earlier in the day that several steel carbon emissions by 2070, in targeted by developed the US and China, too, are expected to benefit only partially
makers including Tata Steel, Jindal Steel and Power, JSW Steel, alignment with its Nationally economies such as the US. reveal softness. US chemi- due to the spillover of high-cost inven-
Adani Group and Vedanta Group are likely to bid for the govern- Determined Contribution Prahalathan Iyer, chief general man- an economic slowdown. Consequently, cal exports were lower by 9.5% from a tories in Q3, said analysts at Centrum.
ment’s majority stake in NMDC Steel. GULVEEN AULAKH (NDC) commitments to the ager (research and analysis) at the export revenues of Indian companies, year ago at $13.4 billion in November, Nonetheless, they expect some gross
United Nations Framework Export-Import Bank of India, said reces- particularly those exposed to cyclical and imports declined 2.5%, while margin expansion for the chemical pro-
Convention on Climate sionary concerns may lead to caution end-users, are under pressure, said ana- China’s overall exports (across all sec- ducers, with major benefits likely to
Tata Motors to raise prices of Change (UNFCCC). prevailing for about two quarters more. lysts at Kotak Securities Ltd. tors) fell 9.9% from a year earlier in accrue in the current quarter.
passenger vehicles by 1.2%
Swiss watch imports touch JioMart tests India-UAE trade gap widens cial declined to be identified.
Corporate houses with
Centre’s e-com heavy leverage or expensive
$200 mn as Indians splurge platform ONDC FROM PAGE 16 The pact immediately elimi-
nated duties for 90% of India’s
valuations were hit the most
during this selloff on Friday,
said Nishit Master, portfolio
dra Modi-led government since exports in value terms to the manager, Axis Securities.
FROM PAGE 16 lar strengthening and the their Asia-Pacific and other FROM PAGE 16 it came to power in 2014 and is UAE, covering sectors such as Foreign portfolio investors’
rupee devaluing. global counterparts in the ultra likely to benefit about $26 billion gems and jewellery, textiles, (FIIs) cautious stance ahead of
Also, newer clients are continu- “The prices of luxury high-net-worth individual cat- ber, said ONDC may reach 250 worth of Indian products that are leather, and engineering goods the budget and US Federal Open
ing to enter the fold,” he said. watches have increased by 25%. egory. As much as 53% of Indi- million users by 2027. subjected to 5% import duty by among others. Market Committee meetings
The major growth is prima- But the overall demand for lux- ans are likely to purchase lux- In December, T. Koshy, the UAE. Gems and jewellery exports also contributed to the collapse.
rily being driven by products in ury products in India has gone ury watches compared to 48% managing director and chief Ajay Sahai, DG and CEO, to the UAE grew by 33% in May. FIIs sold shares worth a provi-
the price range of ₹8-16 lakh. up. Just like other Asia-Pacific and executive of ONDC, said the Federation of Indian Export It grew 18% during the June to sional ₹5,977.86 crore, while
Late last year, Swiss luxury asset classes, Indi- The Swiss luxury 46% global coun- company might charge a Organisations (FIEO), high- December period to $3.38 bil- domestic institutional investors
watchmaker Franck Muller ans are now seri- watch industry terparts. “small fee” from platforms in lighted that the rising trade def- lion. Electrical machinery and purchased ₹4,252.33 crore
launched a watch collection ously investing in could be gaining in “The proposi- future. He didn’t specify when icit with UAE is primarily on equipment exports expanded worth of stocks on Friday. FIIs
exclusively for the Indian mar- luxury watches,” terms of value tion of investible this would begin, however. account of large imports of Imports of crude oil surged by 28% to $2.25 billion in the have net sold ₹13,206 crore
ket, priced between ₹8-20 lakh. said Nitin Chain- wealth towards The person also said that the petroleum and polymers. “In 60% in April-November to same period. While automo- worth of equity till 25 January.
from the dollar
But one of the top distributors ani, CEO of Swiss passion invest- source code for a reference value-added segments of elec- $20.12 billion from a year ago. biles and cereals exports grew Amid the gloom, the one silver
of luxury watches in the country Promotion Pvt. strengthening and ments changed in ONDC app would be put up on tronics, electricals, automotive, by 35% and 39%, respectively, lining was India on Friday became
cautioned that the sharp increase Ltd, a firm that rupee devaluing the last four to five the Microsoft-owned code machinery, gems and jewel- much lower. But after the that for machinery and electri- the first country in the world to
in sales of luxury watches could distributes luxury years. Today, since repository GitHub within a lery, our exports growth has Ukraine war, prices spiked and cal appliances expanded by 17% have a T+1 settlement cycle, which
be due to certain factors. watches here. 2018, when Indians few weeks. While ONDC is not been remarkable. Of late, we one of our major imports is oil. in this period. is expected to augur well for the
The Chinese have been And it is no surprise that pas- spent 3% of their wealth on these a platform like the unified pay- have seen good growth in However, we can see that the Arpita Mukherjee, professor, equity markets from a liquidity
largely absent from the global sion investments that are likely types of investments, there has ments interface (UPI) or apparel, textile and leather crude LPG that we are import- ICRIER, said a high-tariff coun- perspective, with settlements
luxury consumption market in to be made in 2023 showed a been a 1% increase. Luxury account aggregator (AA), com- footwear sectors,” said Sahai. ing from the UAE, we are re-ex- try like India will see a higher being made within 24 hours.
the last couple of years; as a high percentage of growth in watches, for instance, which are panies can still build ONDC- While imports of crude oil porting half of that in terms of import bill once tariff is reduced. The shift will boost opera-
result of this, several interna- the Indian context. relatively better to store, transact compliant apps. surged 60% in April-November to finished products to the UAE. “However, we may gain through tional efficiency as the rolling of
tional companies have According to a recent report, with and resell, compared to oth- The reference app to be put $20.12 billion, imports of poly- It’s contrary to intuition that oil investment. Besides, the UAE is funds and stocks will be faster,
renewed their focus on India. titled The Wealth Report: Out- ers, are highly investable for this up on GitHub will allow any mers were up 30% to $1.09 billion. and gas trade flows only one used as a transshipment hub. said Ajay Menon, managing
The Swiss luxury watch look 2023, by Knight Frank, asset class of people,” said Vivek developer to gain access to the “The trade deficit has wid- way,” India’s ambassador to the Exports may not be rising due to director and CEO of broking
industry could also be gaining Indians were more likely to buy Rathi, senior vice-president of basic source code required to ened largely because of higher UAE, Sunjay Sudhir, said in a slowdown in key export mar- and distribution at Motilal
in terms of value from the dol- luxury watches as compared to research at Knight Frank India. build such an app. oil prices. Last year, prices were recent interview. kets,” said Mukherjee. Oswal Financial Services. l
14 SaturDay, 28 JaNuary 2023
New Delhi NEWS LIVEMINT.COM
Vedanta plans
Centre grants solar
firms extra time to
Bajaj Finance net profit up 40% $570 mn more
complete projects in Q3 on higher interest income dividend to
aid parent co
Rituraj Baruah
[email protected] Bloomberg
NEW DELHI [email protected]
The company also recorded its highest-ever new customer addition of 3.14 million in Q3FY23
I V
n a bid to provide relief to edanta Ltd. will give an
solar power projects stuck interim dividend for a
amid a shortage of modules, Shayan Ghosh fourth time this finan-
the Centre has extended the
deadline for completion of pro-
[email protected]
MUMBAI
OYO expects cial year as billionaire Anil
Agarwal seeks to collect funds
jects for which bids were final- to pay off debt obligations at
first operating
C
ized before the announcement onsumer financier Bajaj parent Vedanta Resources Ltd.
of the basic customs duty on Finance Ltd on Friday The mining company’s total
modules. Several projects got delayed
In a letter to the Solar Energy due to the pandemic and the
Corporation of India (SECI), supply chain disruption. AFP
said consolidated net
profit in the December
quarter rose 40% from a
profit in FY23, disbursements so far in the year
to March come to ₹30,112 crore.
That includes ₹4,650 crore
NTPC and NHPC, the ministry
of new and renewable energy said the letter dated 25 January.
year earlier to ₹2,973 crore thanks to
higher interest income. says Agarwal ($570 million) in dividends for
the third quarter, according to
said the projects for which bids Arindam Ghosh, partner for Net interest income (NII) increased an exchange filing Friday.
were submitted before 9 power advisory at Nangia 24% to ₹7,435 crore during the quar- PTI The latest announcement
March, 2021, can now be com- Andersen LLP said: “It is a wel- ter, as against ₹6,005 crore in the third [email protected] comes even as the group’s net
pleted by March 2024. come move as it had implica- quarter of the previous financial year. income tumbled 41% to ₹2,460
H
On 9 March, 2021, the Cen- tions on 15 GW of capacity bid However, NII grew 28% after adjusting ospitality and travel-tech crore in the October-December
tre announced that from 1 prior to 9th March 2021. It is NII of ₹203 crore earned in IPO firm OYO estimates its quarter. However, that beat the
April, 2022 imported solar PV needed to address the supply financing in Q3 of FY22, which has revenue in 2022-23 to be average analysts’ estimate for a
modules would attract a basic chain disruption and as the since been discontinued due to $751 million on the back of profit of ₹1,740 crore.
customs duty (BCD) of 40% and domestic manufacturing has change in regulations. which it expects to post its first Agarwal has been sucking up
imported solar PV cells would not picked up after covid Bajaj Finance recorded the highest- operating profit in a full year, cash through dividends from the
attract BCD of 25%. period. The project execution ever new customer addition of 3.14 Given the strong momentum in first three quarters, Bajaj Finance expects new company Founder and Group Mumbai-listed firm and its unit
It noted that there are several would have been delayed fur- million in Q3 FY23. Given the strong customer addition at over 11 million in 2022-23. BLOOMBERG CEO Ritesh Agarwal has told its Hindustan Zinc Ltd. as debt matu-
projects for which bids were ther if the extension had been momentum in first three quarters, it employees. rities at Vedanta Resources loom.
finalized by government agen- extended, hence transmission expects new customer addition at over quarters, remains highly elevated. between the two (growth and mar- At an employees townhall Last week, Vedanta Ltd.
cies before the announcement charges and bid bonds would 11 million in 2022-23. Everybody seems to want to do retail gins), the choice is clearly on margins held this week, Agarwal is announced plans to sell its inter-
of the customs duty, which in need to be liquidated.” “(It was a) good quarter across all and between margin and growth, mar- as it creates a greater sustainability of understood to have shared how national zinc operations for $2.98
normal circum- “However, the financial and portfolio metrics, albeit gin takes precedence (for us) and that the business from a long-term stand- the company has been able to billion to Hindustan Zinc, the
stances would The projects for ambiguity regard- marginally lower assets under man- is our fundamental view at a manage- point,” he said. gradually strengthen its finan- group’s cash cow, which
have been com- which bids were ing either provid- agement (AUM) growth,” the lender ment philosophy level,” said Rajeev Bajaj Finance’s total deposits stood cials after overcoming announced a third-
pleted before the submitted before ing change in law said, adding that it is on track to Jain, managing director, Bajaj at ₹42,984 crore as of 31 December the challenges of the CORPORATE quarter dividend of
imposition of the 9 March, 2021, can provisions or deliver ₹52,000-53,000 crore of core Finance. 2022, showing a net deposit growth of pandemic. EARNINGS about ₹5,500 crore.
duty but got exempting these AUM growth in FY23. ₹3,562 crore. The company The London-based
now be
delayed due to the
completed by
projects from Bajaj Finance said it TAKINg STRIDES The company said that expects its revenue in FY23 to be parent has bonds worth $4.7 bil-
pandemic and BCD applicability witnessed the highest- deposits contributed 21% $751 million, up 19% from $629 lion maturing in the next 3 1/2
resultant supply March 2024 remains and any ever loans booked in Q3 BAJAJ finance saw IT saw an AUM THE lender is set to of consolidated borrow- million in FY22, he told the years, including $900 million of
chain disruption. additional costs and crossed 31 million the highest-ever
loans booked in Q3
growth of ₹12,476 cr
in Q3; it was slower
deliver its goal of
25% of borrowings
ings as of 31 December employees during the townhall. notes due in the first half of 2023,
“While a deci- incurred by net users on the mobile & crossed 31 mn net in mortgages due to from deposits in 2022 and it is on track to In the first half of the fiscal year, as per data compiled by Bloom-
sion on bids which were final- developers will be borne by app. With its second users on mobile app pricing pressures medium term deliver its goal of 25% of OYO posted an adjusted Ebitda of berg. Revenue at Vedanta Ltd.
ized before the announcement them directly,” he said. phase of consumer app consolidated borrowings $8.3 million. It had registered an was little changed at ₹33,690
of customs duty is pending, in Ghosh said that due to the starting to go live, it said from deposits in the adjusted Ebitda loss of $37 million crore during the three months.
the meantime, the extended extension of the applicability that it is on track to go fully digital Jain said the lender does not believe medium term. in the same period of FY22. Total costs climbed 17% to
completion dates of many pro- date, these projects will have to across all products and services by in compromising margins for growth In Q3, its gross non-performing For the second half of the fis- ₹31,330 crore.
jects have expired. It has there- pay the additional custom duty March 2023. and that is evident from the fact that asset and net non-performing asset cal, continued momentum on Shares of Vedanta Ltd.
fore been decided that solar if they fall under this period and The lender reported an AUM while its cost of funds went up by 23 ratios stood at 1.14% and 0.41%, respec- topline coupled with margin declined 2% in Mumbai on Fri-
PV/solar PV-wind hybrid pro- the project cost will increase as growth of ₹12,476 crore in Q3, and said basis points (bps) sequentially to tively, as against 1.17% and 0.44% as on expansion and healthy operat- day before the earnings were
jects, for which bids were final- a result. The high duties were it was slower in mortgages due to 7.14%, the overall net interest margin 30 September 2022. Its total capital ing leverage are expected to published. There are nine buy
ized before 9 March, 2021, may imposed to curb cheap imports intense pricing pressures. (NIM) remained flat and did not dilute. adequacy stood at 25.14% as of 31 result in $24 million adjusted recommendations on the com-
be given time for completion of from China and boost domestic “Competitive intensity, as I have “We, of course, want to grow and December 2022, of which tier-1 capital Ebitda, he added. pany, four holds and two sells,
project up to March, 2024,” supplies. talked about in the last three-four are a growth-oriented business, but was 23.28%. according to Bloomberg data.
Air India daily Athleisure, casual wear stay robust in post-covid world India’s CAD quite
flights up 30%
within a year
Suneera Tandon
[email protected]
manageable: RBI On Thursday, Myntra ting a lot of colour and print
announced the launch of Bol- elements incorporated in their
lywood actor Akshay Kumar’s assortment.
under Tata NEW DELHI
fashion brand Force IX on its “We are confident about the Gopika Gopakumar economy is projected to con-
D
emand for athleisure platform. The brand will sell category continuing the [email protected] tract significantly in 2023 in
Anu Sharma and casual clothing will t-shirts, sweatshirts and caps momentum for calendar year MUMBAI the aftermath of multiple
[email protected] continue growing in targeted towards consumers 2023 with customers coming shocks. The Indian economy,
I
NEW DELHI line with the post-covid trend looking for street wear and in from both metros, as well as ndia’s current account deficit however, remains resilient,
that has held strong despite casual wear. smaller towns and cities,” is eminently manageable and drawing strength from its mac-
A
year after being the return of festive clothing “Athleisure as a category Samuel added. within the parameters of via- roeconomic fundamentals, he
acquired by the Tata and occasion wear in the (apparel and The pandemic bility, said Reserve Bank of India added. While inflation has sof-
Group, the number of December quarter, retailers accessories) has In peak covid also took away Governor Shaktikanta Das. tened during November and
operating aircraft at Air India said. witnessed a time, consumers the dominance of Speaking at the FIMMDA- December 2022, core inflation
has increased 27% to 100, the Companies said the trend steady growth in swapped office formal clothing as PDAI Annual Conference in remains sticky and elevated.
airline said in an anniversary points to consumers finding Demand for casual wear held strong despite the return of festive demand from shirts with casual c o n s u m e r s Dubai, Das said the net balance Das highlighted a few areas for
update. more comfort in casual wear clothing and occasion wear in the December quarter. HT customers swapped office under services and remittances financial market development,
t-shirts and
With more capacity availa- and also mixing day-to-day including from shirts with casual remains in a large surplus, including the need to ensure
ble, the airline has been able to pieces with formal clothing. grew. The casualization trend within apparel will continue to metros as well as joggers to stay t-shirts and jog- partly offsetting liquidity for retail
increase average daily flights In the December quarter, that has happened (post-covid) remain strong, Nair said. tier-2 cities and at home gers to stay at the trade deficit. RBI Governor investors in the
by 30% and weekly interna- department store chain Shop- will continue to be strong. Jubi Samuel, senior beyond, with home for While slowing Shaktikanta Das government secu-
tional flights by 63%. pers Stop saw strong demand Athleisure is a subset—that I director, category manage- increasing focus extended peri- global demand is said that the net rities market. He
The Tata Group acquired for casual wear, despite an think will definitely continue ment, sports at Myntra said and enthusiasm for fitness par- ods. weighing on mer- balance under also noted that sec-
Air India and Air India Express increase in demand for wed- to grow because the base itself that athleisure is now “well ticularly since the pandemic. However, even prior to the chandise exports, ondary market
services and
under a government-led stra- ding wear and festive clothing. is low. It’s eventually about ingrained” in people’s every- Interestingly, the growth of pandemic, athleisure clothing exports of services liquidity in g-secs is
tegic divestment programme “I think if we look at the whole comfort and that’s something day wear. With more and more athleisure for women is faster such as leggings, tights, sweat- and remittances remittances is in a currently concen-
in January 2022. casual space, that has which customers have gotten brands focusing on inclusive than for men,” Samuel said. pants, sneakers, hoodies, and remain strong, he large surplus trated in a few secu-
Air India has 113 aircraft, expanded and continues to used to,” said Venu Nair, man- sizes, any-wear and all-day Samuel said the platform is jackets was established in pop- said. rities and tenors.
comprising 70 narrow-body grow. Even during the third aging director and chief exec- stylized comfort wear, this seeing leading brands in this ularity. India’s current “A term money
and 43 wide-body jets. In quarter, where festive was a utive officer, Shoppers Stop. segment is poised to grow fur- segment betting big on Covid further accelerated account balance recorded a market remains absent, not-
December, the airline said 19 strong category, casual wear Casualization as a trend ther, said Samuel. women’s athleisure and get- the trend. deficit of $36.4 billion, or 4.4% withstanding a host of facilitative
long-grounded aircraft have of the GDP, in the September policy measures. Access of the
returned to the skies and nine quarter, up from $18.2 billion, retail segment to markets, espe-
more were expected to follow. or 2.2% of the GDP, in the first cially derivative markets, needs
In order to address the sup-
ply chain issues experienced
by global aerospace compa-
MCA to introduce e-adjudication before March-end quarter. In November 2022, to improve further,” he said. “In
the government’s chief eco- the forex markets, while corpo-
nomic advisor said the CAD for rates benefit from the tight bid-
nies, the company plans to the current fiscal year was ask spreads, smaller users con-
induct 36 aircraft on lease in Gireesh Chandra Prasad tion and compliance manage- The planned roll out of the ministry of corporate affairs. ing the rules on conducting expected at around 3-3.2%of tinue to face pricing disadvanta-
the first half of 2023 for short- [email protected] ment are proposed to be e-adjudication facility follows Version three of MCA21 envisa- board meetings. GDP, which is much higher ges notwithstanding regulatory
to-medium-term capacity NEW DELHI launched within this financial the decriminalisation of offen- ges introduction of artificial Also, the ministry relaxed than 1.2% in the previous year. requirements for fair and trans-
needs. These will comprise 21 year. The ministry said it is also ces under the Companies Act. intelligence and machine mandated physical meetings According to Das, the global parent pricing.”
T
Airbus A320, four Airbus A321, he ministry of corporate setting up a new national cen- Once imple- learning which on specified matters and
five Boeing B777-200LR affairs will roll out the tre—the Centre for Processing mented, the facil- The introduction will further facili- allowed all the matters in board CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS
widebody aircraft and six Boe- facility for e-adjudication Accelerated Corporate Exit—to ity is expected to of AI and ML tate ease of doing meetings to be dealt with
ing B777-300 ER jets. of company law violations act as a single window facility lower the compli- will further business, the min- through video conferencing or Mint welcomes comments, suggestions or complaints about errors.
In a speech to airline entirely in the virtual mode for companies that wish to vol- ance burden of facilitate istry said. other audio-visual means.
employees, Chief Executive before the end of this financial untarily exit from business. businesses. For The ministry Annual general meetings and Readers can alert the newsroom to any errors in the paper by
ease of doing emailing us, with your full name and address to
Officer and Managing Director year, the ministry said. The e-adjudication facility will the de-criminal- said it played a extraordinary general meet-
Campbell Wilson said the It said the ongoing process of be available for compoundable ised offences, a business, the proactive role in ings have also been allowed vir-
[email protected].
turnaround of Air India is “one revamping the corporate filing offences and will help in pre- designated gov- ministry said enabling hassle- tually.The ministry said the It is our policy to promptly respond to all complaints. Readers
of the most ambitious turn- system will also be completed venting litigation reaching the ernment official free functioning way it has leveraged technol- dissatisfied with the response or concerned about Mint’s journalistic
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LIVEMINT.COM NEWS SaturDay, 28 JaNuary 2023
New Delhi 15
T
[email protected] investor and partner of Equirus. Post the he Centre is considering every four months. It was
mumbai initial investment, the bank has partici- hiking the quantum of launched on 24 February,
pated in our rights issue and has always cash given to farmers 2019, when the first instalment
T
he year 2022 was a difficult one invested in the past. under PM-KISAN, an income- was paid.
for dealmaking, especially in Will capital market deals such as IPOs support scheme from ₹6,000 The PM-KISAN funds are
capital markets, as global macro- and QIPs see a good run in 2023 or do to about ₹8,000 annually, in a deposited directly to the bene-
economic woes kept Indian mar- you see a repeat of 2022? bid to boost rural demand and ficiaries’ bank accounts. In the
kets volatile and foreign inves- 2022 had been sluggish because of the consumption, two people last instalment, cash transfers
tors withdrew liquidity. In an interview, external headwinds. However, 2023 is a familiar with the matter said. worth over ₹21,000 crore were
Ajay Garg, founder and managing director year of hope as we expect the headwinds to A proposal to enhance pay- made to nearly 100 million
of Equirus Capital, owned 20% by Federal fade and therefore, capital market deals outs to farmers covered under cultivators.
Bank, spoke about the dealmaking outlook should revive. Needless to say, the backlog PM-KISAN was discussed dur- A proposal to enhance payouts to farmers covered under PM- Finance minister Nirmala
for this year and the investment banking of 2022 itself will provide the much- ing preparation of the Union KISAN was discussed during preparation of the Union Budget. HT Sitharaman will likely increase
platform’s plan to expand its asset and needed boost. As we will see return of for- Budget, for which inputs were expenditure by about 12.5%
wealth management businesses with an eign capital and revival of equity markets, sought from various minis- also likely announce new per- the first person said, adding year-on-year to ₹44.4 trillion
investment of ₹750 crore over the next five deals should improve. The attractiveness of tries, including agriculture formance linked incentive that, according to a set of cal- in the year beginning April,
years. Edited excerpts: Indian companies, the confidence in ministry, one of the persons (PLI) schemes, especially for culations, an increase of according to the median of
Indian markets remains intact. What is cited above said. sectors involved in production ₹2,000 under PM KISAN (tak- estimates in a Bloomberg sur-
What is the growth plan for Equirus needed is the return of risk in the global The budget may renew of mass-consumed goods, the ing up the payment to ₹8,000 vey ahead of the February 1
for the next five years? How are you arena which will happen with the abate- focus on the Atmanirbhar second of the two people said. per annum) will entail an addi- budget.
building out the asset management ment of the headwinds. It is imperative to Bharat (self-reliant India) push In discussions during the tional expenditure of ₹22,000 Sitharaman’s final full-year
and wealth management businesses? for our clients in our flagship fund Equirus note that not just the private sector, but while staying the course on fis- budget’s preparations, various crore. The Niti Aayog last budget before the 2024 elec-
Equirus is rightly placed in all its busi- Long Horizon and replicating the same in government is also “eagerly” awaiting the cal consolidation given the proposals for an enhanced month proposed converting tion is likely to keep spending
nesses to enjoy significant growth in next a more diversified portfolio. We would also momentum with a sizable divestment pro- high expenditures in the past PM-KISAN payout were evalu- PM-KISAN into a broader uni- steady for the poor and mid-
five years. Equirus Wealth is strategically wish to add debt PMS and AIFs as a part of gramme, the success of which is imperative two years due to the pandemic, ated. One of the proposals sug- versal basic income scheme dle-class to spur demand,
poised to significantly scale up in the next asset management offering, which shall in to long term fiscal discipline and consolida- the people cited above said. gested doubling the amount of for the poor and invulnerable. while curtailing subsidies,
five years as both the wealth and asset man- turn increase our overall proposition. tion path. Yes, tightening liquidity not just The annual financial state- ₹6,000 per annum that farm- Under PM-KISAN, the gov- especially in fertilizer and
agement businesses have been steadily How much capital do you plan to locally but globally means the easy money ment of the government will ers receive under PM KISAN, ernment provides income food.
growing for the last 5-6 years and are oper- invest in the platform for these plans? is no longer available. However, that reaf-
‘
ationally profitable as well. We are adding Will you look at going public to firms that only those companies with
a tech and digital team to increase our capa- raise the funds or will strong business funda-
bilities on the digital side as we have started
HNI broking, which was missing in our
overall proposition. Family office is
you look at private
equity investors? 2023 is a year of
mentals will get access to
the market. Overall, we
We plan to invest hope as we expect the could see activity pick up
Dealshare lays off around 6% of workforce
another proposition that we intend to start around ₹750 crore in all headwinds to fade with the pace and quan-
to cater to our businesses put tum increasing with Q2/ Priyal Mahtta difficult decision to reduce the the firm’s founder and co-chief investments, before becoming
and therefore, capital Q3 onwards.
m INTERVIEW the ment at
seg- together. There is specific
deployment for our digital market deals How are you planning
[email protected]
new delhi
size of the team by 100 employ- executive Sourjyendu Medda,
ees which constitutes only 6% are likely to continue in the
profitable.” The firm aims to
realign its operations, particu-
w h i c h wealth business and should revive to grow the advisory of the company. We have taken near term. “We have toned larly in Madhya Pradesh and
J
Equirus parent entity has been operating NBFC business to help side of the investment oining the long list of Indian adequate meas- down the busi- Tamil Nadu, which were
Ajay Garg
over the last 15 years. At Equirus Wealth, we our wealth platform. We Founder and managing banking business? startups that have been ures to compen- The firm will ness plan a bit in among the recently launched
keep client at the centre of all decision- are adding the direct equi- director of Equirus Capital We continue to trimming their headcount sate the affected provide a notice terms of geo- geographies, as a measure to
making and all solutions that we develop ties options for wealth strengthen our track to cut costs, grocery-fo- employees,” a period of about 3 graphical expan- contain its costs. It currently
are to take care of client needs. This strat- platform. With Gift City records and broaden our cussed social commerce company state- months to laid off sion, and the operates in 150 cities.
egy has helped us cross ₹5,000 crore AUM presence, we are seeking to further our domain and deal track record. With the startup Dealshare run by Mer- ment said. newer spheres of The firm will provide a
staff, along with
across wealth and asset management and AMC vertical. Our core business of invest- broad platform, Equirus is the only middle abo Labs Pvt. Ltd on Friday said Layoffs at the the business that notice period of about three
over the next five years, we would want to ment banking and institutional equities are market bank which can help clients dis- it has laid off 100 employees, or social commerce out-placement we were going to months to the laid off employ-
increase this penetration into partner looking to broaden and strengthen the cover true value across private equity mar- around 6% of its 1,500-work- startup were support invest into,” ees, along with out-placement
banks by increasing our location network capability. Besides internal accruals, we ket, strategic market, and public market. force, across several verticals as undertaken Medda said. support. Medda said the com-
and RM (relationship manager) footprint. will supplement the same with the right Through this product-agnostic capabil- part of a corporate realignment across functions, The firm looks pany may offer and extension
Asset management would be focussed on external raising to implement the plans. ity, we are able to have a stronger client-ori- process. the company said. to pare down expenses from to the notice period to employ-
creating and managing high-quality alpha- Federal Bank is a minority investor in ented approach to deliver the best solution “As part of our business The realignment plan comes those parts of its operations ees unable to secure a job offer
generating portfolio; we would want to Equirus. Will they be investing more relevant for the client situation rather than restructuring plan and to sus- amid challenging macroeco- which “could lead to longer at the end of the three-month
piggy on the alpha that we have generated capital to fund these growth plans? force-fit solution at our product capability. tain growth, we have taken a nomic conditions, which, as per periods of cash infusion and period.
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Chemical cos face demand woes Bajaj Finance Q3 net grows 40%
livemint.com though cost stress eases uP13 on strong interest income uP14
SENSEX 59,330.90 874.16 NIFTY 17,604.35 287.60 DOLLAR ₹81.52 ₹0.07 EURO ₹88.73 ₹0.06 OIL $87.62 $0.83 GOLD ₹56,878 ₹25
T
he exposure of Indian wealth business with ₹750 cr
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI FrEE FAll Adani Ent FPO banks, primarily state-run
lenders, to the Adani
Ajay Garg, founder and managing director of
Equirus Capital, said the investment banking
A
dani Group stocks fell
5-20% on Friday,
Six of the 10 Adani group stocks hit the lower circuits before recouping some losses on Friday, while four that
don’t have price bands—Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, Ambuja Cements and ACC—fell between 12% and 18%.
subscribed just group has dropped to 40% of the
conglomerate’s total debt as the
platform plans to expand its asset and
wealth management businesses with an
wiping out ₹3.19 tril-
lion in investor
% change from last session (closing) Sensex 1% on first day group diversified its funding
sources, including from bonds
investment of ₹750 crore over the next five
years. >P15
60,300 Swaraj Singh Dhanjal
wealth after Hinden- Adani Total Gas -20.00 60,205.06 and foreign banks, according to
Previous close
burg Research said it stood by its (in ₹)
[email protected] analyst reports published after
Adani Green -19.99 Air India daily flights up 30%
findings of alleged share price 60,170.48 MUMBAI US investor Hindenburg
Open
manipulation and accounting Adani Transmission -19.99 59,900 Research alleged that the group within a year under Tata
T
fraud by the conglomerate. he ₹20,000 crore fol- engaged in accounting fraud and A year after being acquired by the Tatas, the
The rout in Adani shares also Adani Enterprises -18.52 low-on public offering stock manipulation. number of operating aircraft at Air India has risen
59,330.9
impacted stocks of state-owned Ambuja Cement -17.16 Close (FPO) of Adani Enter- A 26 January CLSA report, 27% to 100, the airline said in an anniversary
and private lenders with an expo- 59,500 prises Ltd got off to a weak titled Adani—Where does the debt update. With more capacity available, the airline
sure to the group, fuelling the fall Adani Ports -16.03 start on Friday with a sub- sit?, said Indian banks’ exposure has been able to increase average daily flights by
in the benchmark indices, Nifty scription of just 1%, as the is under 40% of total group debt, 30% and weekly international flights by 63%. >P15
ACC -13.04
and Sensex, to three-month lows. 59,100 fraud allegations made by with private banks’ share plum-
Adani Enterprises, the flagship Adani Power -5.00 Hindenburg Research buf- meting from 31% to 8% and pub-
of the Adani Group, dismissed the feted Adani group stocks. lic sector banks’ share falling Centre may hike cash payouts to
report as “unresearched” and Adani Wilmar -5.00 The FPO received bids from 55% to 26%. farmers under PM-KISAN to ₹8,000
“maliciously mischievous”, which NDTV -4.99
58,700
9.15am 2.30pm
for only 470,160 shares CLSA estimates that the group The Centre is considering hiking the
seeks to undermine the “goodwill against an offer size of 45.5 has a bank debt of quantum of cash given to farmers under PM-
Source: Capitalmarket,
Source: RIL earnings Bloomberg
documents
and reputation of the Adani group million shares, stock ₹70,000-80,000 crore out of the KISAN, an income-support scheme from
and its leaders and sabotage the exchange data showed. total ₹2 trillion of debt at the end ₹6,000 to about ₹8,000 annually, in a bid to
FPO (follow-on public offering) MARKET MOVEMENT To be sure, the first-day of FY22. While the group’s debt boost rural demand and consumption, two
from Adani Enterprises,” a day ADANI Ports and Adani jITTTEry investors also sold ThE 18% fall in Adani Ent. INVESTor nervousness was subscription figures are a levels have doubled to ₹2 trillion people familiar with the matter said. >P15
after its release on Thursday. Enterprises, part of the Nifty, bank stocks such as SBI, ICICI, took it below the lower reflected in the fear gauge, poor indicator of the in three years, the group’s bank
However, six of the 10 Adani crashed by 15% and 18% which fell between 4% and 5% band of the FPO’s floor price India Vix, surging 18% to 17.32 demand for a share sale, as debt has increased only by 25%. A
group stocks hit the lower circuits these share sales typically greater part of the group’s funding Vedanta plans $570 mn more
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT
before recouping some losses on draw the lion’s share of now comes from bonds at 37% and dividend to aid parent firm
Friday, while four that don’t have two-day loss since the Hindenburg Adani Ports and Adani Enter- Enterprises to ₹2,768.50 apiece investor demand on the foreign banks at 18% of the debt.
Vedanta will give an interim dividend for a fourth
price bands—Adani Enterprises, Research report surfaced on prises, part of the Nifty, crashed by took it below the lower band of the final day of the offering. Shares of Indian banks and time this fiscal as billionaire Anil Agarwal seeks to
Adani Ports, Ambuja Cements and Wednesday to ₹4.4 trillion. Adani 15% and 18% each. Jittery investors FPO’s floor price of ₹3,112. The price range of the Life Insurance Corp. of India collect funds to pay off debt obligations at parent
ACC—fell between 12% and 18%. Group stocks’ market value loss also offloaded bank stocks such as The cascading effect on the bank FPO, running through 27-31 plunged on Friday amid concerns Vedanta Resources The mining company’s total
The fall in Adani Group stocks accounted for 47% of the overall State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and stocks dragged down the benchmark about their exposure to the Adani disbursements so far in the year to March come to
saw investor wealth worth ₹3.19 ₹6.98 trillion loss of investor IndusInd Bank, which fell between TURN TO PAGE 13 ₹30,112 crore. >P14
trillion get wiped off and took the wealth on Friday. 4% and 5%. The 18% fall in Adani TURN TO PAGE 13 TURN TO PAGE 13
India-UAE trade RIL’s JioMart tests e-commerce Swiss watch imports touch
deficit widens by platform ONDC before going live $200 mn as Indians splurge REUTERS
R D
Growing gap eliance Jio’s grocery Retail has done with the net- emand for luxury watches directly from their
[email protected] platform JioMart is cur- work. In August, Reliance watches in India has own monoband retail bou-
India’s exports to the UAE
NEW DELHI
grew by 11% in May-Dec, while
rently testing the Open Retail-owned logistics platform soared, with Swiss watch tiques,” he said.
imports climbed 24.4%. Network for Digital Com- Grab.in went live on ONDC. imports nearly doubling in 2022 This is primarily because the
E
ight months into a free trade (year-on-year growth, in %)
merce (ONDC) network and Reliance Jio did not respond to from 2020, the Federation of super-rich never stopped buy-
agreement with the United Exports Imports may join the platform soon, a a request for comment. the Swiss Watch Industry said. ing collectable luxury watches
Arab Emirates, India’s trade Trade deficit ($ bn) person aware of the matter ONDC officially went live in Watch distributors in India during the pandemic, and the
gap with the Gulf nation has wid- said. September, with a pilot launch imported luxury watches worth more unique the watch was, the
ened by more than $5 billion on a Seven hundred companies, The ONDC network aims in Bengaluru. It has since started Swiss franc 187.6 million ($200 more collectable it became.
5.09 2.2
year-on-year basis, lifted by ele- including financial services to break hegemonies in the running alpha tests in 84 cities million) last year, rising from Watch distributors imported Luxury watch retailer
vated global crude oil prices and giant Paytm, have already e-commerce industry. MINT and is in beta in two cities—Ben- Swiss franc 97 million in 2020. luxury watches worth Swiss franc Kapoor Watch Co., the Indian
increase in non-oil trade. 24.4 signed up on ONDC, while galuru and Meerut. Alpha tests Imports have grown 19% 187.6 mn ($200 mn) last year, rising retailer of Bvlgari, Cartier,
While India’s exports to the 300 are in various stages of ating a common registry of buy- are being run in Noida, Farida- over 2021. With this, India has from Swiss franc 97 mn in 2020. Omega and Tag Heuer brands,
UAE grew by 11% during this 11.02 integration, the person said on ers, sellers, logistics and tech ser- bad, Lucknow, Bijnor, Bhopal, surpassed countries such as also saw an uptick in business
10.03
period to $20.25 billion, imports the condition of anonymity. vice providers, among others, Chhindwara, Kolkata, Pune, Kuwait, Ireland, Bahrain, Bel- never stopped buying luxury last year.
climbed 24.4% to $36.23 billion, Also, companies such as ITC which all stakeholders can Chennai, and Kannur. gium, Portugal, Greece, and watches during the pandemic. Pratiek Kapoor, the com-
data from the department of Ltd are building seller services access. This prevents any one Logistics unicorns Dunzo, Malaysia in luxury watch Ashok Goel, founder of Delhi- pany’s head of marketing, said
commerce showed. This caused 2.59 for ONDC, according to the operator from controlling the Delhivery and Shiprocket imports. based Luxury Time Pvt. Ltd, a India’s purchasing power for lux-
a trade gap of $15.98 billion, company’s website. IDFC Bank, market by limiting access to buy- have already joined the plat- Despite the sharp increase, distributor of brands such as ury goods has increased tremen-
compared to a deficit of $10.89 Overall Non-oil Kotak Mahindra Bank, and pay- ers by creating walled gardens. form. Paytm and Meesho have the waiting period for some of Hublot, Tag Heuer, Zenith and dously during the pandemic.
Source: Department of commerce
billion in the corresponding ments firm PhonePe, are other JioMart is owned by billion- e-commerce integrations, the most desirable watches, Bomberg, confirmed the trend The company is adding not
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT
period last year. big brands that are set to inte- aire Mukesh Ambani’s Reli- with Flipkart and Amazon including Rolex and Patek Phil- is true for their products as well. just newer clients but their
India’s non-oil trade deficit als, etc., where India gained duty grate with the network. The per- ance Retail. The company also expected to join later. ippe, is still about six months. The company, he said, is report- existing clients are also trading
more than doubled between free access under the agree- son added that 5,000 merchants partnered with WhatsApp and A report by the non-profit And while a lot of this demand ing 50% more business than it up and buying more now.
May and December 2022 to ment. That, experts pointed out, are already part of ONDC. allows consumers to place think-tank Digital India Founda- is said to be fuelled by an artifi- did in 2019 and 250% more busi- “Existing buyers are trading
about $2.2 billion from $1.01 was a good start. The ONDC network aims to orders through the messaging tion (DIF), published in Novem- cial shortage being created by ness than it did in 2020. up with more high-end pieces.
billion a year earlier. The India- “Significant duty benefits are break hegemonies in the e-com- service. In its earnings report luxury brands themselves, sev- “Several brands across the
UAE comprehensive economic accruing to Indian exporters merce industry. It does so by cre- earlier this month, the com- TURN TO PAGE 13 eral collectors accept that they world, especially the well-es- TURN TO PAGE 13
partnership agreement (CEPA) under CEPA. This is a source of
came into force on 1 May 2022. competitive advantage for
India’s non-oil outbound ship- Indian exports to the UAE.
ments to the UAE grew by 2.59%
to $15.03 billion, while non-oil
inbound shipments jumped
Actual utilization of statistical
significance started in June
2022. Dedicated efforts have
In a close call, truck-sized asteroid whizzes past Earth
10.03% to $17.23 billion during been and are being undertaken
the May-December period. by the department of com- AFP Phew. oid ment system rapidly deter- meters (11 to 28 feet) across,
An official in the department merce to raise awareness. Reg- [email protected] The rock, which was spotted
Asteroid 2023 BU tor yo
f as
ter
mined the alien visitor was Asteroid 2023 BU is a bit small
One of the closest Earth approaches jec
EARTH Tra
of commerce said CEPA utiliza- ular industry interactions and LOS ANGELES for the first time on Saturday ever and within satellite orbit y of the Moon coming in peace. to cause too much damage,
Trajector
tion is “on an uptrend” and is continuous end-to-end hand- by an amateur stargazer in Cri- “Scout quickly ruled out and would have largely burned
B
only likely to increase further. holding is being done to assist ruce Willis: you can mea, came closest to the MOON Trajectory of
satellite
2023 BU as an impactor, but up as it hurtled through the
Pointing at the increasing utiliza- Indian exporters in leveraging stand down. southern tip of South America despite the very few observa- atmosphere.
tion of the free trade pact by CEPA...,” said a commerce A truck-sized asteroid at around 0029 GMT Friday, Geosynchronous tions, it was nonetheless able The few meteorites that
Indian exporters, the official said department official. He added that suddenly loomed out of according to scientists who satellite orbit to predict that the asteroid did make it to the ground
35,000 km above
the issuance of preferential cer- that as the UAE is a transit hub, the darkness a few days ago— were tracking it. the Earth would make an extraordinarily would have been small, not
tificates of origin (COO) under most Indian imports from the with the Earth in its sights— At its nearest point, the close approach with Earth,” the city-destroying, tsunami-
the CEPA increased from 415 UAE happen under the World sailed harmlessly past us on asteroid was just 2,200 miles EARTH said NASA’s Davide Farnoc- generating monsters of Deep
certificates worth $133.2 million Trade Organization frame- Thursday, space scientists said. (3,600 km) from Earth’s sur- chia, who helped develop Impact.
in May 2022 to 6111 worth $1.11 work. Only limited products Despite what we’ve seen in face—just a quarter of the Asteroid
Scout. The close call will leave a
billion in December 2022. that fulfil the value addition cri- movies like Armageddon, no height of many of the geosta- Friday
“In fact, this is one of the more lasting impact on the
However, while the import teria are sourced directly from global mission to blow it up or tionary satellites that make our 0029 GMT 3,600 km closest approaches by a known asteroid itself, NASA’s num-
Source: NASA above Earth
surge was largely led by high- the UAE under the CEPA. knock it off course with telephones and car navigation near-Earth object ever ber-crunchers said.
value petroleum products and The pact, negotiated in a nuclear weapons was systems work. recorded.” Earth’s gravity will affect the
raw material shipments, exports record 88 days, was signed on 18 required. Amateur astronomer Gen- ing fellow space-watchers to headed—and whether we If the math had been off, object’s orbit, lengthening the
have been led by double-digit February. It is the first major free Instead, Asteroid 2023 BU nadiy Borisov, who had the previously unknown celes- needed to start making last- however, humanity would still amount of time it takes for
expansion in gems and jewel- trade pact signed by the Naren- whizzed past without incident already spotted an interstellar tial body. minute evacuation plans. probably have been alright, 2023 BU to go around the Sun,
lery, electrical machinery and and back out into the black- comet in 2019, raised the Scientists around the world But experts using NASA’s scientists say. from 359 days to a more lei-
equipment, automobiles, cere- TURN TO PAGE 13 ness of space. alarm over the weekend, alert- raced to calculate where it was Scout impact hazard assess- At between just 3.5 to 8.5 surely 425 days.