Get ready for more roads under construction

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 Friday, June 28, 2024. My name is Nelson John. Let's get started:

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The equity markets rose on Wednesday. Both Nifty and Sensex were up by about 0.7 percent yesterday.

The bond market is up and kicking again. Starting today, India's bonds will be included in JP Morgan's emerging markets bond index. This will make India the 25th country to join the index. 23 Indian bonds will join the much-tracked index, and will certainly bring in a flurry of income. Mayur Bhalerao and Gopika Gopakumar write that foreign investors bought around 67,000 crore worth of bonds ahead of this much-anticipated decision. JP Morgan will itself passively invest around 25 billion dollars into Indian bonds over the next 10 months.

If you're travelling to a small town, chances are you might see an Air India flight pop up on your route. Air travel between smaller cities is called regional aviation, and is less popular among airlines due to lack of occupancy and highly competitive pricing. The Tata Group is now planning on entering this space, report Anu Sharma and Mihir Mishra. Market leader Indigo currently dominates this landscape, while other routes are fulfilled by state-owned Alliance Air. Air India is also beefing up its fleet with aircraft suited to ply on these routes, Anu and Mihir add.

Indians have mastered chess. We have 85 grandmasters at the moment. But to become a grandmaster, one might need to spend around 30 lakh rupees a year. Gaurav Laghate writes that through online chess games, entering the world of chess is easy. But to hone your skills, you have to compete with the best — and the best come together in international tournaments. To facilitate that, parents often have to take loans to fulfil their kids' potential. Thankfully, there are scholarships available. Chess players also earn money by playing for clubs, competing in tournaments, sponsorships, and appearance fees. Gaurav's piece covers the breadth of the global chess world and the work it takes to get to the top.

While the earning avenues for chess players are growing, those for actors are dwindling. OTT platforms like Netflix, Hotstar, and Amazon Prime are tightening their purse strings. This is directly affecting actors' salaries. Lack of shared data on viewership and performance also makes it difficult for actors to determine the success of certain seasons — leading to a stalemate when it comes to salary discussions. According to industry estimates, popular OTT actors like Manoj Bajpayee, Pankaj Tripathi, and Nawazuddin Siddiqui earn between 8 to 10 crore per season. While OTTs want to give a raise of 10 to 12 percent, actors are demanding as much as twice if the previous season was successful, reports Lata Jha.

The Indian government wants to keep building roads. Subhash Narayan reports that the centre is mulling an increase in capital expenditure to the ministry of road transport and highways. However, this increase will be moderate — around 5 to 10 percent of last year's budget. More than 20 percent of the total roads this year are expected to be built by private entities, who use tolls to recover their costs. In FY23, private entities are expected to have invested 20,000 crore rupees in the road infrastructure segment. Get ready for new roads, and a lot more construction on your way to work.

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Show notes:

Indian bonds back in action with inclusion in JP Morgan index

Air India eyes regional aviation space in challenge to IndiGo

Checkmate: How Indians mastered Chess

As OTTs tighten purse strings, top stars may feel the pinch

FY25 budget likely to see moderate increase in allocation for road construction