Ever heard of a part time CEO?

At long last, Jet Airways revival in sightTweaked stock options, coming soon to a job contract near youPetrol pumps cap inventory amid hopes of fuel price cutStartups, SMEs increasingly covet so-called fractional CXOsNetflix needs another midstream change in India. Here’s why Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Wednesday, March 13, 2024. My name is Nelson John. Let's get started:Indian benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty trimmed some of their gains, yet managed to end Tuesday in the green. Largely the indices remained flat with NSE’s Nifty 50 gaining a miniscule 0.01 per cent. BSE’s 30-company index Sensex too rose only 0.22 per cent. HDFC Bank, TCS, Maruti Suzuki India, Infosys, and Reliance Industries emerged as the top gainers on Tuesday.Finally, there’s been some progress in the possible revival of Jet Airways. The grounded airline got a second wind on Tuesday, after a decision by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal. N-C-L-A-T has asked the bankrupt airline’s lender’s to handover the carrier to the Jalan-Karlock Consortium within 90 days. The National Company Law Tribunal — a lower body than the N-C-L-A-T, had approved the consortium’s resolution plan for Jet Airways back in June 2021. It had even allowed the handover in January last year. However, Jet’s lenders challenged this decision in the higher tribunal over alleging the consortium to be non-compliant with the resolution plan. Mint’s legal correspondent Krishna Yadav reports on the development, crucial for not just Jet but also the Indian aviation industry. In a bid to retain top talent amid rising attrition, companies are juggling with different kinds of stock options for employees. India Inc is experimenting with hybrid forms of stock options, as opposed to the regular ones. Some of them include stricter forms of performance based stock options, analysts told Mint’s HR and workplace correspondent Devina Sengupta. These restricted stock units or RSUs, are shares given to an employee as a reward upon fulfilling a predetermined period of service. On the other hand, performance stocks are granted only when an employee achieves particular objectives, remains with the company for a designated duration, and the company itself reaches its goals within its industry. For businesses, these stock options are considered "less dilutive." According to consultancy firm EY, the number of companies choosing alternative stock incentives for employees has increased by 25 to 30 per cent in the last few years.General elections are only a few weeks away. Freebies and price cuts usually become the main weapons against anti-incumbency for governments around this time. One such important pre-election move is cutting down the price of fuel. Anticipating a price cut, fuel stations are running low on inventory. Petrol and diesel pumps are keeping enough stock for only three days, as opposed to their regular inventory of five days. This is to save on any losses that may occur in case a price cut is announced. In case of a price cut, the new rates take effect immediately — leaving fuel retailers with losses on the stock they bought for a higher price. Mint’s energy correspondent Rituraj Baruah reports on the cautious move by fuel retailers. He explains how a 5-rupee deduction in the price of petrol and diesel could mean losses of up to 1.5 lakh rupees for retailers in rural areas. The number only goes up for petrol stations in tier-3 and tier-2 cities. Petrol pumps in metro cities usually see losses of up to 25 lakh rupees on a 5-rupee price cut. Ever thought of a life where you can be a banker by the day, and manage finances for a startup as its CFO by the night? No, I am not talking about moonlighting for another company. Fractional C-suites employees are becoming more and more common across startups and small and medium enterprises in India. What’s that you ask? These are experienced executives with deep competencies in domains like finance, marketing, and strategy who work with multiple companies at a time on a part-time basis. With the kind of flexibility a fractional CXO gig is able to offer, more senior executives are getting attracted to it. There is a demand factor to it also. Companies are increasingly looking for fractional CXOs to access good talent at affordable costs. Mint’s startup correspondent Samiksha Goel writes about this unique trend shaping boardrooms across startups. She also spoke to C-suite executives following the trend and working as a fractional CXO. Globally, there's been about a 25 per cent increase in the hiring of fractional CXOs, while India saw a 10-12 per cent uptick among startups in sectors such as legal, finance, e-commerce, and technology, according to HR consulting firm Randstad. Remember Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s iconic dialogues in Sacred Games? The Netflix original, parts of which were set in the Bombay of the 80s, became a pop culture phenomenon across languages in India. But pause for a moment and think. Has there been any other Netflix show as iconic as Sacred Games that comes to mind? The answer is highly likely to be no. The streaming pioneer, who entered India in 2016 has largely been facing flak for its strategy (or lack thereof) for the Indian market. Until recently, the streaming platform was struggling with adding and retaining subscribers. That is when it changed its password sharing policy, allowing only four devices to be linked to an account. The change, which is part of a multi-pronged strategy worked wonders for the company. Its paid subscribers have doubled over the past two years. Another change that helped, was slashing subscription prices. The mobile-only plan which would cost a user 199 rupees is now just 149, whereas for 199 a month, a user can watch Netflix on any device. Despite a big turnaround, the company lags behind its rivals which include Amazon Prime, Hotstar and JioCinema. The question remains, what’s not working for Netflix, and what other changes does the company need? Mint’s media and entertainment correspondent Lata Jha takes a deep dive into Netflix India’s current scenario and answers some of these questions. For once, the company’s acquisition strategy, where it is focusing on acquiring movies rather than producing originals, has been dubbed lazy by many. With the streaming market reaching the point of saturation in India, Netflix needs to up its game.We'd love to hear your feedback on this podcast. Let us know by writing to us at feedback@livemint.com. You may send us feedback, tips or anything that you feel we should be covering from your vantage point in the world of business and finance.