Best of the Week: A testy week for businesses, amid markets setting record highs

Dear Reader,

Here are the best stories from the week, brought to you by Mint's reporters and editors:

🏦 Shayan Ghosh, Mint's banking correspondent, disclosed one of the ways in which Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is going to market with its consumer finance business. Mukesh Ambani's Jio Financial Services, which will become the RIL's financial services company, is testing the waters by offering monthly instalment options (EMIs 🪙) to customers buying consumer durables from its retail outlets. 

🏩 SWAMIH to the rescue? Shayan Ghosh and Madhurima Nandy, Mint's in-house real estate expert, wrote about the central government's collaboration with the Reserve Bank of India to revive distressed residential projects. Read about the steps being taken under the government's SWAMIH (special window for affordable and middle income housing) investment fund, which seeks to facilitate completion of distressed housing projects.

📍Nandita Venkatesan from Mint's data team has a grim warning about India's battle with diabetes. A fresh government-funded report from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) shows that the disease is spreading faster than previously known. Read this piece to understand the details of diabetic prevalence among the Indian population in 6 charts.

🦉 There were plenty of announcements from the Paris Air Show last week, headlined with Indigo's record order of airplanes. But to get a bird's eye view of what this means for the India's aviation sector, dive into this 5-chart explainer by howIndialives.com. From a consumer perspective, the not-so-good news is how this could reduce competition due to fewer airlines. As it turns out, the antitrust regulator will be examining the effects of the proposed Air India-Vistara 👬🏽 merger by the Tata Group, reported by Mint's Binoy Prabhakar.

🤖 The corruption scandal that Mint broke last week at IT major TCS resulted in some major moves, including a new head of hiring and an investigation into alleged kickbacks involving recruiters and staffing firms. Mint's Varun Sood and Devina Sengupta explain what's going on at the bluechip technology services company. 🐻 Read their piece to understand how TCS could emerge from this hit to its reputation. 😪 Later this week, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran also expressed his anguish about the bribes-for-jobs scandal. 🧹 Our editorial team also weighed in on the scandal, arguing that cleansing the company of such practices is the right way to go instead of trying to contain the reputational damage.

✂️ Another major company, this time in the unlisted space, that is seeing massive challenges is Byjus. The ed-tech startup saw one of its lead investors drop its valuation to $5.1 billion (from a record high of $22 billion in March 2022). 🪓 The company's founder sought to reassure its 50,000 employees about its future, report Devina Sengupta and Sneha Shah. Meanwhile, the government recognised a regulatory loophole in the framework for auditors, reports Mint's policy maven, Gireesh Chandra Prasad from New Delhi. 📝 Read this important, fast-moving development about how the audit regulator could react in the face of one of India's largest startups not having filed its audited results from FY22 and the dramatic exit of Deloitte as the ed-tech unicorn's statutory auditor.

🏏 Perhaps an indirect consequence of Bjyus troubles is that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) remains without a title partner and jersey sponsor. The high price of sponsoring cricket, especially ahead of the 🏆 2023 Cricket World Cup, might in fact force the richest sporting body in India to revise its terms according to this report from Varuni Khosla.

💰⏳ The Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group raised INR 14,300 Cr from a clutch of private credit investors and high net worth individuals, reports Mint's investment correspondent Ranjani Raghavan from Mumbai. This exclusive story explains the structuring of the deal and the purpose of the financing activity, including the pledging of the SP Group's shareholding in Tata Sons.

⚕️💊 Raghavan and Mint's managing editor Satish John wrote about Lupin, and how the Gupta siblings, Vinita and Nilesh, are trying to turnaround the pharma company's US business. Here's a deep dive into what they are working on to set the company on the right track.

💚 Investing in a fund because you believe in its sustainability thesis might be a great way to feel good. But there's more to it in the case of Quant's ESG Fund, explains Mint Money's Sashind Ningthoukhongjam. The fund drew public attention by topping the charts with its 26 percent return in the past year. But with that scrutiny, investors and ratings agencies also noticed a few problematic things. ❎ Read Sashind's piece to understand what to consider before taking the ESG route to investing.

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That's all for this week folks.

Please write to us with your thoughts, ideas and feedback. We would love to hear from you.

Thank you for your time and have a great weekend!

Nikhil Kanekal

Head of Subscriber Experience

nikhil.k@livemint.com