Can ULCCS Win Outside Kerala?

ULCCS Sees National Opportunity, But Winning Orders Is The Test

By Manish Pant

What?

Nearly two decades before Amul became the flag‑bearer of India’s cooperative movement in Gujarat, Kerala’s Kozhikode district saw the birth of the Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society (ULCCS) in 1925. Founded by social reformer Vagbhatananda, the cooperative sought to provide work to unemployed labourers based on its motto of “Work with dignity, share collectively, serve the community.”

A little over 100 years later, it has grown into one of Kerala's largest construction organisations, delivering everything from bridges and highways to industrial parks and institutional buildings.

Now headquartered in Ernakulum, it is looking to expand beyond its home state and compete for private-sector infrastructure projects across India through its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) subsidiary, U-Sphere. 

U-Sphere believes its expertise in industrialised construction and the backing of its century-old parent position it to capitalise on that shift.

Biju Mahima, CEO of U‑Sphere, told The Core that the company aims to leverage its parent arm’s expertise and human resources to “build for the people” in India and, eventually, overseas. 

“U‑Sphere was created (in February 2025) because the parent arm wants to focus on innovative and futuristic construction technologies and make them accessible to the wider public. For instance, steel is not a new technology, but it is still not used properly in the construction industry. We aim to adopt the right technology for each project and bring the best solutions to the people.”

Yet ambition alone won’t be enough to make this expansion succeed. Outside Kerala, U-Sphere will be competing against some of India's biggest engineering companies—firms with deeper client relationships, larger balance sheets and established track records across private-sector infrastructure.

Why? 

U‑Sphere is targeting private companies, though historically its portfolio has mostly comprised government projects. 

The company has already finalised projects in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, and is in advanced discussions in Vijayawada, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. The company plans to invest Rs 10 billion in Bengaluru as it readies to expand beyond Kerala, though it declined to share more details.

The bigger test will be whether geographic expansion translates into a steady pipeline of projects.

"There are enough opportunities in real estate and infrastructure," said a former chief executive of a leading EPC company. "But U-Sphere must win orders to justify expansion. Additional business requires winning orders and converting them into cash flows. What is the secret sauce U-Sphere has that will enable it to win additional orders outside Kerala and generate positive cash flows?"

An area the company is keen to enter is data centre construction, among India’s fastest-growing infrastructure segments. 

India’s broader infrastructure story is also embracing digitalisation, with investment flowing into digital infrastructure, battery storage and green hydrogen

A rapidly expanding market, however, does not necessarily make it easier for new entrants.

Diversified infrastructure giants, including Larsen & Toubro, Tata Projects, Shapoorji Pallonji and Hindustan Construction Co., are competing alongside specialists such as Sterling & Wilson Renewable Energy and KEC International in the segment. 

Many bring decades of execution experience, established customer relationships and balance sheets capable of handling increasingly complex projects.

Is there still room for a new player?

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73.81 lakh units

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Overview: Passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles and three-wheelers logged their best-ever Q1 sales, and all segments, including two-wheelers, recorded their highest-ever quarterly exports.

Passenger vehicle sales rose 26% to 12.73 lakh units, while two-wheelers grew 20% to 56.28 lakh units. Three-wheelers and commercial vehicles posted growth of 30% and 18%, respectively.

Setting: SIAM President Shailesh Chandra attributed the strong show to supportive domestic demand, lower GST rates, softer financing costs, a low base effect, and new model launches, even as disruptions in West Asia posed headwinds.

He added that while consumer sentiment remains steady, the industry is watching geopolitical developments and monsoon progress closely, given their bearing on rural demand.

India Approves Semiconductor Mission 2.0

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the second phase of the India Semiconductor Mission with an outlay of Rs 1.27 trillion, significantly higher than Rs 76,000 crore allocated under the first phase, which was approved in December 2021.

Context: Under ISM 2.0, the government will provide grants and equity investment for strategic and commercial chip design, and a flat 30% incentive for manufacturing of equipment, chemicals, gases and materials.

Total investment under ISM is expected to reach Rs 4 trillion, with production of Rs 2 trillion and exports of Rs 1 trillion, Electronics Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

Of the 12 semiconductor projects approved so far with a cumulative investment of over Rs 1.60 trillion, three have started commercial production. The Cabinet also cleared the second phase of the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme with an outlay of Rs 62,500 crore.

The Shift: ISM 1.0 focused on building the ecosystem from scratch, clearing its first project in June 2023, Micron's $2.75 billion chip packaging unit in Gujarat, followed by the Tata-PSMC chip fabrication joint venture worth approximately $11 billion.

ISM 2.0 widens the scope to chip design, equipment manufacturing, raw materials and supply chain resilience, with a roadmap targeting 3-nanometre and 2-nanometre technology nodes by 2035.

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More than a year after an Air India crash that killed 260 people, India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has prepared a cockpit voice recorder transcript and conducted a psychological autopsy as part of its probe, a court filing showed, Reuters reported.

The Lead: The filing followed a lawsuit by Pushkar Raj Sabharwal, father of the captain, who alleged officials implied his son cut fuel to the engines.

The AAIB expects work to finish in about six weeks, with a draft report due around October before being finalised and published.

Catch Up Quick: The filing did not identify whose autopsy was conducted or disclose findings. Data from an engine monitoring unit, retrieved in late May, is still being analysed, and an assessment of organisational factors is ongoing.

Investigators have interviewed 787 pilots, crew members, technical staff, air traffic controllers, weather officials and human-factors specialists. The AAIB said media speculation blaming pilots had made some witnesses "restrictive and non-responsive."

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Ransomware group World Leaks has posted on the dark web a large cache of files related to India's Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu, including purported blueprints, supplier details, inspection records and insurance policies, Reuters reported.

Fast Facts: Anil Ambani's Reliance Group, a contractor at the plant, confirmed a "partial breach" of its data on a server hosted by third-party provider Yotta, adding that the government has been informed.

Yotta said it detected suspicious activity on May 29, immediately terminated it and prevented suspected ransomware execution, but was informed by Reliance Infrastructure in late June of claims by external threat actors.

Reuters reviewed the 19,000 files, dated 2016 to mid-2025, but could not verify their authenticity.

Reliance Infrastructure won a contract in 2018 to build infrastructure for the plant's Unit 3 and Unit 4, due to be operational by 2027 with a combined capacity of 2,000 megawatts.

Background: World Leaks previously targeted Nike and India's Tata Group, demanding $1.5 million in ransom for Tata files containing confidential Apple and Tesla component designs.

CERT-In and the Nuclear Power Corporation are looking into the breach. This is the second cyber incident linked to Kudankulam, after malware tied to a North Korean hacker group was found on the plant's administrative network in 2019.

June Employment Check

India's unemployment rate held steady at 5.5% in June, unchanged from May and slightly above the 5.4% forecast in a Reuters poll, according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Wednesday.

Fast Facts: The labour force participation rate edged up to 55.8% from 55.7% a month earlier, while the worker population ratio rose to 52.7% from 52.6%. Urban unemployment increased to 6.6% from 6.4%, while rural unemployment eased to 5.1% from 5.2%. Female unemployment rose to 5.8% from 5.6%, while male unemployment fell to 5.3% from 5.4%.

Critical Moment: Economists have long argued that India's official unemployment rate understates labour market stress. The Periodic Labour Force Survey classifies anyone who worked for at least one hour during the reference week as employed, which critics say masks underemployment and the prevalence of low-paying informal jobs.

Others also point to India's large share of self-employed and unpaid family workers, saying the headline unemployment rate alone does not fully capture the quality of employment.

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On Episode 928 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Mukesh Chand, Senior Counsel at ELP (Economic Laws Practice).

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