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French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday reappointed his outgoing prime minister, Sebastien Lecornu, back into that position, just four days after Lecornu gave his resignation.Both allies and the opposition had been hoping for a fresh face in government to help end months of paralysis over an austerity budget, but Macron instead reappointed Lecornu, 39."The president of the republic has nominated Mr Sebastien Lecornu as prime minister and has tasked him with forming a government," the Elysee Palace said.France has been mired in political deadlock ever since Macron gambled last year on snap polls that he hoped would consolidate power -- but ended instead in a hung parliament and more seats for the far right.Lecornu on X said after the Elysee announcement that he had accepted the mission "out of duty"."We must end the political crisis," he said.He pledged to do "everything possible" to give France a budget by the end of the year and added that restoring the public finances remained "a priority for our future".Macron, facing the worst domestic crisis since the 2017 start of his presidency, has yet to address the public.Lecornu's reappointment was met with indignation.Far-right National Rally party leader Jordan Bardella called it a "bad joke" and pledged to immediately seek to vote out the new cabinet.A spokesman for the hard left said Lecornu's return was a huge "two fingers to the French people".The Socialists, a swing group in parliament, said they had "no deal" with Lecornu and would oust his government if he did not agree to suspend a 2023 pensions reform that increased retirement age from 62 to 64.The French parliament toppled Lecornu's two predecessors in a standoff over cost-cutting measures.No 'presidential ambitions'Lecornu, a Macron loyalist who previously served as defence minister, after he quit agreed to stay on for two extra days to talk to all political parties.He told French television late Wednesday that he believed a revised draft budget for 2026 could be put forward on Monday, which would meet the deadline for its approval by the end of the year.But it was not immediately clear if this would require a fresh cabinet line-up to be announced by the end of the weekend.He warned on Friday that all those who wanted to join his government "must commit to setting aside presidential ambitions" for 2027 elections.Lecornu's suggested list of ministers last Sunday sparked criticism that it did not break enough with the past, and he suggested on Wednesday that it should include technocrats.The escalating crisis has seen former allies criticise the president.In an unprecedented move, former premier Edouard Philippe, a contender in the next presidential polls, earlier this week said Macron himself should step down after a budget was passed.But Macron has always insisted he would stay until the end of his term.The far-right National Rally senses its best-ever chance of winning power in the 2027 presidential vote, with Macron having served the maximum two terms.Its three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has been barred from running after being convicted in a corruption case, but her 30-year-old lieutenant Bardella could be a candidate instead.

Mumbai: Multiple trustees of Tata Trusts are discussing revisiting a July resolution that said Tata Sons should stay private, in a move that could remove the main opposition to the conglomerate’s holding company getting listed on India’s bourses, in line with a mandate set by the country’s banking regulator three years ago. Tata Trusts is majority shareholder of Tata Sons. Minority shareholder Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group has been clamouring for a public listing for years, as the debt-ridden group could use the liquidity a listing would unlock. The move to potentially modify the resolution comes amidst divisions in the Tata Trusts that ET first reported on September 12. The change in stance comes days after Tata officials met home minister Amit Shah and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi, where the government urged them to avoid further confrontation, maintain stability within the Trusts and not let differences impact operations of India’s largest business group. Whether the trustees favouring clearing the path for a Tata Sons listing can secure a majority decision is as yet unclear. There is a desire among trustees to avoid the show of a divided house, even as differences remain, persons close to the developments said. On Friday, SP Group reiterated its demand for a Tata Sons listing. Tata Trusts stands divided between two factions after four trustees — Darius Khambata, Mehli Mistry, Pramit Jhaveri and Jehangir Jehangir — broke precedent by voting to remove a fellow nominee trustee, Vijay Singh, from Tata Sons’ board on September 11. They then suggested nomination of Mehli Mistry to the board.124465695Business as Usual at Board MeetingThat was blocked by chairman Noel Tata, vice-chairman Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh, who remains a Tata Trusts trustee.Tata Trusts, which owns a controlling 66% stake in Tata Sons through the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, had passed a resolution in July that Tata Sons should remain a privately held company, a stance that could now be revisited.On Friday, it was business as usual at the Tata Trusts board meeting, with an agenda focused on project funding and other regular matters, people aware of the details said.Growing pressure to find a viable solution for SP Group's exit — and to unlock value in the group holding company — has been reshaping internal discussions, said people with knowledge of the matter. “There is no animosity between SP Group and Tata Sons now,” one of them said.Tata Trusts did not comment.The development comes amid shifting power dynamics within Tata group, following the appointment of Noel Tata as chairman of Tata Trusts after the death of half-brother Ratan Tata last October.Tata Trusts chairman Noel Tata is married to Aloo Mistry, daughter of the late Pallonji Mistry and sister to Shapoorji and the late Cyrus Mistry. The Mistry family runs SP Group.SP Group Wants IPOSP Group on Friday clarified that its demand for going public — citing the need for greater transparency and accountability — was not in opposition to Tata Sons or Tata Trusts, but in alignment with the values of the founding families.“The public listing of Tata Sons is not merely a financial step — it is a moral and social imperative,” chairman Shapoorji Mistry said in a statement, adding that the move would serve the interests of stakeholders and align with the vision of Tata group’s founder. “Our position is not in conflict, but completely in consonance with, the ideals of (founder) Jamsetji Tata,” he said.SP Group has long pushed for a public offering by Tata Sons, especially since a legal dispute erupted between the two sides, following Cyrus Mistry’s ouster as Tata Sons CEO in October 2016. The group has used its entire holding in Tata Sons as collateral to raise money from private credit funds. The value of its stake in Tata Sons, based just on the latter’s holdings in listed Tata group companies, is more than ₹3 lakh crore ($35 billion).In April, SP Group formally urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to back a public listing of Tata Sons, arguing that such a move would benefit all stakeholders. Struggling to service substantial debt, SP Group had also expressed its concerns to Tata Sons over not being informed about the company’s decision to apply to surrender its registration as a non-banking financial company (NBFC).Shapoorji Pallonji Group said a listing would unlock value for more than 120 million shareholders of listed Tata companies, indirect stakeholders in Tata Sons. In addition, Tata Trusts would also benefit through a more transparent dividend policy, allowing for sustained funding of philanthropic efforts, it said.It also cited regulatory obligations under the central bank’s scale-based framework for NBFCs. Under the rules, companies in the ‘upper layer’ category, such as Tata Sons, are required to go public by September 30. “We trust that the 30th September 2025 compliance timeline... will be viewed with the seriousness and sanctity that regulatory commitments deserve,” the SP Group statement read.Tata Sons has sought to deregister as a core investment company (CIC), hoping to avoid the mandatory stock market listing. The company controls companies such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tata Motors and Air India, and shifted from a net debt of ₹20,642 crore in March 2023 to a net cash surplus in 2024, partly due to its ₹9,300-crore TCS stake sale.Valued at over ₹15.8 lakh crore through its listed holdings alone, Tata Sons is seen as systemically important by regulators.RBI’s concerns extend beyond financial metrics to governance and transparency at the conglomerate’s helm. Government sources say officials are watching closely, balancing stability within SP Group with concerns over the growing concentration of control within Tata Trusts.

Mumbai: Carlsberg global chief executive Jacob Aarup Andersen said the company continuously evaluates value creation opportunities across major markets including India but stopped short of confirming any active listing plans. His comments came after media reports suggested the Danish brewer had been exploring a possible initial public offering (IPO) of its Indian unit with investment banks."We have seen the rumours, and we are going to keep it at that. What we can say is that we are always focused on creating value for our shareholders and, of course, that means we assess all the opportunities there are in terms of value creation. That also means that India is, of course, one of the options that we would always look at, like we would look at other large markets for opportunities to create value for our shareholders," he said during the company's capital markets day.Carlsberg entered the Indian market in 2007 through a joint venture with Nepal-based Khetan Group, and was engaged in a commercial conflict with its partner for the past several years. Last fiscal, the Danish brewer bought its Indian partner's stake to own 100% in the country and had said it would step up investments in India, in terms of both capital expenditure and sales and marketing.For 2023-24, Carlsberg India reported a 15% increase in sales to ₹8,045 crore with net profit of ₹323 crore, a 61% jump. Rival United Breweries (UB) is twice its size by sales but its net profit is just 25% higher than that of Carlsberg, which is focussed on mainstream and premium brands in select markets.UB, owned by Heineken, has a market cap of ₹47,000 crore and Carlsberg is looking at an overall valuation of about ₹30,000-35,000 crore, said industry officials."The global team already had an initial round of meeting with bankers and the Indian team is expected to meet and shortlist investment bankers in the coming weeks," an executive privy to Carlsberg's IPO plan said on condition of anonymity.Despite India's long-standing preference for spirits, the Danish brewer has expanded its footprint in the country. From 2011 to 2024, Carlsberg India's volume increased ninefold, outpacing the broader industry's twofold growth during the period.At a volume of six million hectolitres, India accounts for about 5% of Carlsberg Group's sales. One hectolitre is equivalent to 100 litres. Last month, the group signed a memorandum of understanding with the food processing industries ministry to invest ₹1,250 crore over the next three years to expand its manufacturing footprint across key states.India-a warm, tropical country with promising demographics and increasing affluence-remains one of the largest beer markets worldwide. UB currently controls half of the Indian beer market followed by ABInBev and Carlsberg.Beer accounts for just 22% of consumption, indicating its potential upside, particularly among the youth and urban middle class."We are continuing our positive trajectory in India by capturing market share and driving growth in both mainstream and premium segments," Nilesh Patel, managing director, Carlsberg India, told investors, adding that the company's India strategy hinges on a bottom-up, state-cluster approach in a market where each of India's states maintains its own regulatory framework on pricing, licensing, taxes and distribution.

We are told that the dawn of agriculture was about bread. That our Stone Age ancestors settled down to plant wheat and barley so they could bake loaves. But a growing body of research suggests that this may not be entirely true. The real lure of grain was not bread. It was beer. The frothy, fermented drink may have nudged humanity from nomadic hunting and gathering into the settled villages that became the seedbed of civilisation.In the 1950s, botanist Jonathan Sauer asked a simple question: why would early people put so much effort into farming for such meagre returns of grain? His answer was striking-because fermented mash yielded a nutritious and enjoyable drink. This was a far greater incentive than dry flour and flatbread. Archaeological evidence backs this intuition. At Raqefet Cave in Israel, traces of beer-like residue dating back 13,000 years have been found. These were made by the Natufians, semi-nomadic people who lived before the first domestication of cereals. They were brewing for ritual feasts long before they were baking. Ancient sites like Gobikele Tepe, in Turkey, which is over 10,000 years old, have revealed evidence of beer making. The perforated pots of Harappan cities also indicate beer making.Even the kinds of crops that were first domesticated hint at intoxication as the goal. In Mexico, a primitive maize called teosinte was cultivated, but it was far better suited to brewing than grinding into flour. Across continents, the pattern repeats-grain makes better sense as beer than as bread.Brewing beer required something new from our ancestors: stability. One cannot plant grain, wait for it to grow, harvest, and ferment it without staying put. Thus the thirst for beer may have tethered humanity to the land. Once people began to settle, villages grew, surpluses appeared, and the Neolithic Revolution unfolded. Beer did not just nourish the body-it structured the rhythm of life.Archaeologist Brian Hayden pushes this further. He argues that it was not hunger, but culture, that birthed farming. Beer was the centrepiece of feasts where people bonded, celebrated, and made decisions. These gatherings forged trust, encouraged cooperation, and allowed leaders to build alliances. In that convivial haze, power structures were negotiated and communities began to take shape.Sceptics have always asked: could people really live on beer? Perhaps not entirely-but beer was more nutritious than bread at the time. Fermentation unlocked sugars and vitamins, making it calorie-dense and rich in proteins. Beer was also safer than water. As settlements grew, rivers and wells became polluted with human waste. Drinking raw water carried disease. Beer, through fermentation, killed bacteria and reduced pathogens. It was liquid food, medicine, and safety rolled into one.Workers in ancient Egypt were even paid in beer, which sustained those who built pyramids and temples. In Sumer, beer was a unit of currency and a measure of fairness. Hymns were composed to Ninkasi, the goddess of brewing, celebrating recipes in poetic form. The world's first written epic, Gilgamesh, mentions beer. Civilization's earliest laws, hymns, and myths all carried the mark of this humble drink.The social role of beer cannot be overstated. Communal drinking bonded people together. The buzz made strangers friends and eased tensions. This mattered immensely as tribes grew larger and strangers had to coexist in crowded villages. Political elites quickly realized its power. Hosting a feast with plentiful beer was a way to display wealth, cement loyalty, and mobilise labour. In many societies, from Mesopotamia to Egypt, beer was both reward and persuasion.Even decision-making was tied to drink. Ancient sources tell us that in Persia and Germany, councils made collective decisions after drinking -and then confirmed them when sober, or the other way around. Either way, alcohol was seen as an aid to deliberation. In other words, beer helped build not just barns, but bureaucracies.None of this means bread played no role. Nutritionally, bread and porridge were essential. Beer was not the sole driver of agriculture, but one of its key companions. Together, bread and beer shaped human diets, rituals, and economies. The 'beer before bread' hypothesis is less about exclusivity and more about emphasis-it reminds us that culture, pleasure, and ritual can be as powerful as survival in steering human history.In Hindu mythology, Varuni was churned out of the ocean of milk. Varuni, the goddess of alcohol, is closely linked to Balarama, the god of farming. Was this an Indian way of connecting beer and bread? We can surely speculate. Bread fed the body, but beer shaped the village. And in shaping the village, it shaped the world.