Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Tuesday, May 14, 2024. My name is Nelson John. Let's get started:

Indian benchmark indices remained upbeat on Monday, with both Nifty and Sensex closing the session in the green. BSE’s 30-company Sensex surged 0.15 percent while NSE’s Nifty-50 saw a rise of 0.22 percent.

Mini-cars have long been the gateway to four-wheeled transport for many in India, but they're facing a bit of a rough patch. Maruti Suzuki, the big player in India's car market, is hitting the pause button on sprucing up this segment. Why? Well, it boils down to costs and affordability. Right now, Maruti dominates the hatchback market, holding about 70% of it, but they're choosing to hold off on upgrades until these cars become more wallet-friendly for the average buyer. Their mainstays—the Alto, Celerio, and S-Presso—won't see significant changes for a while. Maruti's betting that once incomes go up, these entry-level cars will become popular again among first-time buyers. But here’s the kicker: the overall market for entry-level cars has really dipped, from more than 470 thousand units back in 2011 to just over 160 thousand in 2024. Customers are more inclined towards entry-level SUVs instead. Mint’s autos correspondent Alisha Sachdev writes on the shrinking market for entry-level hatchbacks.

Nasdaq-listed IT firm Cognizant, which has more than 250 thousand employees in India, is getting tough with employees who are resisting returning to the office. They've warned that continued absence could lead to termination. This move, detailed in a letter from April 15, makes Cognizant one of the first major IT companies to use firing to get people back to their office cubicles. Until recently, Cognizant was flexible about office attendance, letting individual teams decide based on their project needs. But earlier this year, they changed gears and started asking their employees in India to be in the office three days a week. They even began tracking office attendance closely. Mint’s IT correspondent Jas Bardia reports on the emerging trend of IT companies using termination as a tool to get people back to office. Companies like Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys have also been tightening policies around office attendance, linking them to pay hikes and bonuses, indicating a significant shift from the more flexible remote work policies during the pandemic.

The banking sector is basking in the glow of an extraordinary earnings season for the March quarter. State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, just posted a record-breaking profit of more than 20,000 crore rupees for the quarter, outshining even Reliance Industries, India's most valuable company. Punjab National Bank is another state-run lender that's making waves, with its net profit skyrocketing almost three-fold. Private players including HDFC and Axis Bank, too have reported strong numbers. However, not everything is smooth sailing. The robust post-pandemic economic recovery has led to a surge in credit growth, especially in the retail segment, which has outpaced deposit growth. This situation has pushed the loan-to-deposit ratio to a decadal high of 80%, signalling potential liquidity and credit risks. Banks are now caught in a tough spot. They need to either reduce loans, which could stifle growth, or increase deposits, which might hurt margins because higher interest rates would have to be offered to attract depositors. Mint’s Abhishek Mukherjee examines what’s behind the stellar fourth-quarter performance of banks and whether the results show the complete picture. 

Tata Motors experienced a standout fiscal 2024, thanks mainly to the performance of its British subsidiary, Jaguar Land Rover. JLR's margin climbed impressively to 8.5% from just 2.4% the previous year, a boost attributed to better scale, reduced costs for input materials, and strong sales of the Range Rover and Defender models. Additionally, JLR generated a whopping ₹24,000 crore in free cash flow for FY24, significantly cutting down TaMo's net automotive debt from ₹43,700 crore at the end of the previous year to ₹16,000 crore by March's end.

Looking ahead, Tata Motors is potentially on track to erase its net debt by FY25, thanks to the continued cash flow from JLR. Mint’s Manish Joshi brings a snapshot of Tata Motors’ fourth-quarter performance and how the growth of its British subsidiary is on its way to a slower lane. 

The buzz is real! Cinema owners across India are all smiles as they gear up for a slew of blockbuster releases from the South. With big names and even bigger stories, movies like Allu Arjun’s Pushpa 2, Prabhas and Deepika Padukone’s "Kalki 2898 AD," and  Kamal Haasan’s "Indian 2," are set to hit the screens in the coming months. Experts are predicting these films could rake in a whopping ₹1,500 crore at the box office. After a bit of a slump, with few Hindi movies catching eyes since the Eid weekend in April, these multi-language, star-studded films from the South are ready to bring the magic back. They're following in the footsteps of giants like "Baahubali" and "RRR," banking on a mix of high-octane action, deep drama, and emotional hooks to pull in audiences, including those in the Hindi-speaking belt through dubbed versions.

Mint’s media and entertainment correspondent Lata Jha spoke to several experts and industry insiders who are looking at the upcoming South Indian projects with anticipation, hoping to attract the mass-market audiences.

Mini cars stall as some can't afford them, some want more

Not working from office might lead to job loss, Cognizant tells employees

Banks had a blockbuster quarter. But don’t let that fool you

JLR drives TaMo’s FY24, but slow lane ahead?

Exhibitors pin hopes on big southern films to bring cheer to box office

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