Beyond Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp has doubled its share buyback programme to $2 billion in 2026, with the flexibility to buy shares worth as much as $3.45 billion as the Nasdaq-listed company looks to instill investors with confidence after its stock was battered this year.The board of directors authorized the increase in the share repurchase target from $1 billion originally planned for 2026, the company said in a statement 18 May. The repurchase is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2026.“Our plan to increase the amount of share repurchases reflects our strong conviction in the long-term opportunity AI creates and our critical role in it as an AI builder,” S Ravi Kumar, chief executive officer of Cognizant, said in the statement.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Should India tighten capital controls in response to its dollar crunch? Not unless the country faces a dire emergency. That’s a key lesson from the ‘taper tantrum’ crisis of 2013.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: India’s microfinance institutions (MFIs) are returning to growth mode after almost two years of sector-wide stress, but management commentary indicates the recovery will be measured and cautious as these lenders grapple with geopolitical uncertainty, inflation risks and a structurally altered lending environment.CreditAccess Grameen Ltd, Spandana Sphoorty Financial Ltd and Satin Creditcare Network Ltd suggested that collection efficiency and asset quality have improved materially, aided by stricter underwriting norms and guardrails introduced after the recent microfinance crisis.“The sector is healing,” H.P. Singh, chairman and managing director of Satin Creditcare, said during the company’s Q4 earnings call on 12 May.Portfolios at risk (PAR), a percentage measure of overdue loans by number of days, have declined in the sector.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Executives at Nippon Life India Asset Management and Deutsche Bank’s asset manager DWS said global investors continue to view India as a key long-term market despite continued foreign portfolio outflows from equities.Global investors may be in a temporary “wait-and-watch” mood, said Sundeep Sikka, managing director and CEO of Nippon Life India Asset Management Ltd.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: More than half of IPO-linked capital expenditure in India in the first quarter of 2026 went into technology, cloud and network infrastructure, reflecting a broader shift in how newly listed companies are deploying capital.The trend was visible in the composition of initial public offering (IPO) spending patterns. Data from Uniqus Consultech shows capex accounted for about 30% of the ₹18,778 crore raised across 18 mainboard IPOs in the quarter.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Indian currency has been experiencing sharp depreciation amid the West Asian crisis, driven largely by rising energy prices and moderating capital flows. That said, the weakness of the Indian rupee has been a persistent concern over the past year, even before the conflict began. It has depreciated by about 11% over the past year, with about 5% of this value loss having occurred after the US-Iran war began on 28 February.The main concern for the rupee is India’s weak balance-of-payments position.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Art has always been Neha Gupta’s quiet escape. She would spend hours sketching and painting, exploring her creativity as a little girl. Over time, she gained interest in a deeper understanding of spaces and buildings.“Architecture felt like art that people could actually live in and interiors were what made those spaces warm, inviting and personal,” says New Delhi-based Gupta, co-founder, principal designer and restaurateur at Beyond Designs.As a student of architecture and design, she first realised that functionality was as crucial as aesthetics.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Two centuries and a half ago, Adam Smith used the example of a pin factory in The Wealth of Nations to explain how capitalism uses division of labour to boost productivity by splitting production into specialized tasks done by workers paid to work in close coordination for efficiency. But what happens to this model if AI agents run factories and companies?Andon Labs, a US-based startup, runs a cafe where tasks like inventory control, hiring, scheduling and operations are supervised by Mona, an AI agent powered by Google Gemini, even as human baristas brew and serve coffee.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s social capital deficit registers as a factor in its current account deficit through the demand for gold. Our appetite for gold is not an irrational cultural quirk. It is, in part, a revealed preference and a tangible symptom of our collective distrust in one another, society and civic institutions.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.My phone and I, usually joined at the hip, were recently separated on a forest safari where mobile phones were not permitted. Sans a camera, I had to experience Satpura Tiger Reserve without capturing it through a lens. Freed from digital distractions, I gradually found my attention sharpening.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Sugar Cosmetics, once among India’s fastest-growing beauty startups, is seeking a sharply discounted funding round after an aggressive offline expansion and slowing sales growth strained its finances, according to four people familiar with the matter.The Mumbai-based beauty brand has begun a process to raise ₹100-150 crore after grappling with a severe cash crunch over the past six months amid declining revenue, a shrinking offline footprint and rising employee attrition, the people said.The fresh fundraise is likely to happen at a valuation of ₹1,400-1,500 crore, sharply lower from its peak valuation of about ₹3,000 crore in 2022, two of the people said. While typical growth investors are unlikely to invest in the current state, the company will tap family offices and high net-worth individuals (HNIs) alongside some existing investors to facilitate the capital raise even as its revenue declined further to about ₹380 crore in FY26, the person added.The need for fresh capital has intensified as the company struggles to manage working capital and employee payouts.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Even though Indian gold retailers sold less jewellery in the March quarter as soaring prices forced shoppers to cut back on purchases, higher rates helped prop up their revenues.Jewellery buyers typically stick to fixed budgets, buying smaller quantities when prices are high, executives said. “When prices are low, the volume will be higher.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The quest for the perfect watch never ends. You may be rolling your eyes when you read that line.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Until recently, artificial intelligence was a welcome tailwind for U.S. growth.We’re beyond that now. AI is more like a hurricane-strength weather system making itself felt across the entire economy.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Quant Mutual Fund believes this year is about identifying undervalued and under-researched segments of the market while avoiding overcrowded trades.In the Mint Money Guru series, Quant Mutual Fund founder and chief investment officer Sandeep Tandon explains why he believes this is the biggest buying opportunity since the covid pandemic.It's largely a behaviour call coming from some analytics that we have built. The element of fear is very high. People are worried about crude prices, the rupee and the exit of foreign institutional investors (FIIs).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Nifty generated a sense of confidence that we have been searching for the last few weeks. We had identified important zones, and this strong thrust seen yesterday could now fuel some trends ahead.Best stocks to buy today (All buy trades are rates of equity, and sell rates are based on F&O)Sun Pharma Advanced Research Co. Ltd: Buy above ₹169 | Stop ₹158 | Target ₹193 (multiday)Laxmi Organic Industries Ltd: Buy above ₹165 | Stop ₹157 | Target ₹181 (multiday)One 97 Communications Ltd (PayTM): Buy above ₹1,200 | Stop ₹1,150 | Target ₹1,290 (multiday)On 7 May 2026, Indian equity markets ended marginally lower after another volatile session, as profit booking erased early gains despite optimism over easing geopolitical tensions following reports of a possible US-Iran peace deal.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Indian ethnic and fusion wear brand Libas is looking to become a broader lifestyle house, adding new categories and labels as it works towards a public listing by FY28."We want to be a lifestyle house of brands over the next five to ten years…So you will see some categories like handbags or maybe accessories, even home furnishing that we might explore over the next two years,” said Sidhant Keshwani, founder and CEO, without specifying the segments where the company wants to grow.The expansion plan comes as Libas scales both distribution and revenue ahead of its initial public offering (IPO) ambition. The company is targeting ₹1,000 crore in revenue by FY28, while maintaining annual growth of 30-35%.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: Poriborton (meaning change in Bengali) was the big call across West Bengal, and poriborton it was when the final results emerged on Monday.The Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to register a watershed win in the 294-member assembly to unseat the ruling Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) and end a 15-year rule.As of 5.30 pm, BJP had a vote share of 45.4% and had won or was leading in 202 of the 293 seats for which results are available. It was largely a binary contest, and the other parties, like the Indian National Congress (INC) and Communist parties, barely registered a presence in seats.In the 2021 assembly polls, the BJP had emerged as the leading opposition party with 77 seats and around 38% vote share, up from a mere three seats and 10% vote share in 2016.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.There is a discomforting paradox at the heart of India’s current macroeconomic situation. By almost every conventional measure of sovereign economic health—growth, inflation, fiscal trajectory, external vulnerability and investor confidence in the real economy—India’s fundamentals are among the strongest of any large emerging market. Yet the rupee has depreciated by over 13% against the dollar in the past two years and by more than 15% since January 2023.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The original 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada, adapted from the novel by Lauren Weisberger, was a glossy workplace comedy that quickly became much bigger than its premise of a stressed assistant navigating fashion’s most terrifying boss. Inspired by Weisberger’s own experiences in magazine publishing, the David Frankel-directed film presented a sharp, endlessly quotable pop culture favourite with influence that stretched beyond cinema into fashion, and internet meme history, with Miranda lines like “That’s all” and “By all means, move at a glacial pace.”Over time, the film developed full cult status as both comfort viewing and a story about ambition, identity, and the personal cost of success.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The House of Rare aims to evolve beyond apparel into a broader lifestyle-led retail powerhouse as it expands into categories such as fragrances, luggage and women’s footwear, while also betting on faster delivery timelines and quick-commerce-led fashion discovery.Founded over a decade ago, Bengaluru-based The House of Rare owns a portfolio of premium fashion brands, including men’s label Rare Rabbit, women’s line Rareism, kidswear brand Rare Ones, and footwear venture Rare’Z.“The idea is to expand into different categories which fit the brand ecosystem and target the lifestyle of the urban consumer,” Akshika Poddar, founder of Rareism from The House of Rare, said in an interview with Mint.The expansion comes at a time when premium fashion retailers in India are increasingly looking beyond core apparel to build wider lifestyle ecosystems around consumers, while also adapting to shopping habits shaped by quick commerce and faster delivery expectations. As competition intensifies in the premium westernwear segment, brands are also pushing deeper into tier-2 and tier-3 markets to tap rising aspirational demand.The company is set to launch women’s sneakers in June, and plans to introduce girlswear under its kidswear brand Rare Ones by January next year, while also scaling categories such as luggage and fragrances.