What the border pact means for India and China

Top of the Morning

Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Thursday, October 24, 2024. My name is Nelson John. Let's get started.

It was another quiet day for Indian markets as the initial rally in IT stocks, which powered the indices upward, was quickly offset by a sharp downturn in the financial and auto pack, resulting in a flat close for both the Nifty 50 and Sensex on Wednesday.

The Sensex and Nifty have fallen more than 5 percent in the last month. One thing is for certain: foreign portfolio investors are pulling out money from Indian markets. But where is this money going? Dipti Sharma writes that while China is the biggest beneficiary, other Asian countries like South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia are also seeing inflows. The shift has also happened partly due to profit-taking in India after a strong market rally. Analysts told Dipti that investors feel the potential for returns is higher in other markets, especially like Indonesia and South Korea where the valuations are more moderate.

India and China have announced that they have reached an agreement on patrolling their common border. This marks a significant step towards mending the strained relationship between the two countries since the clash in Galwan in 2020. N. Madhavan writes that despite some unresolved issues, bilateral trade has in fact grown between India and China. China became India's largest trading partner this year. However, given the vast restrictions, Chinese investment in Indian companies remains scarce. Madhavan writes that India stands to gain a lot by easing these restrictions, especially in the manufacturing sector.

India is rethinking its approach to highway development, shifting focus from the ambitious long-term Vision 2047 plan to prioritizing shorter-term projects. The decision comes as the complexities and delays of lengthy projects prove challenging. While Vision 2047 aimed to guide development up to India’s centennial in 2047, the government now favours projects that can be quickly approved and completed. Ongoing projects under the earlier Bharatmala program will continue, with possible individual approvals for those yet to start. This strategic pivot is about efficiency—getting roads built faster and making them useful sooner, reports Subhash Narayan.

Two years ago, HDFC Bank announced a huge merger with its parent company, HDFC Ltd, marking India's biggest-ever M&A deal. The merger aimed to boost synergies and enhance the housing sector and the overall economy. However, despite the initial excitement, which saw the bank's stock jump 10% on announcement day, the performance has been somewhat disappointing. Over two-and-a-half years, the stock has only seen a modest 4.7% increase, underperforming compared to market benchmarks. Market sceptics have pointed to the difficulties of maintaining growth momentum and managing financial metrics like net interest margins and the loan-to-deposit ratio on such a large balance sheet. Abhishek Mukherjee writes on how the bank’s investors can learn a lesson or two on persistence from none other than the Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar himself.

Yann LeCun, Meta Platforms Inc.'s chief AI scientist, decided to visit India for a third time after an encounter with Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Inspired by Nilekani's introduction to India's vibrant tech ecosystem, LeCun attended Meta's first 'Build with AI Summit' in Bengaluru, he told Leslie D’Monte. LeCun talked about witnessing the impressive adoption of Meta AI tools across major platforms like WhatsApp and Messenger, noting that India has the largest user community globally.

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