Beyond Financial News

Three words uttered from Mission Control to Reid Wiseman, commander of Artemis II, perfectly capture the groundswell of emotion many of us have experienced over the past week as a team of astronauts flew beyond the previous reaches of human space travel: “Amaze. Amaze. Amaze.”That line, borrowed from the hero of the science-fiction blockbuster Project Hail Mary, came as Wiseman took in, for the first time, the full majestic scale of the moon.

Indian audio and video content, usually considered a draw for domestic audiences and specific diasporic markets, is now finding a home in unusual export destinations.Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Philippines are among the countries where Indian content is popular, according to the Content Trends Report launched recently at the Content India Summit 2026, organized by Dish TV.Experts said this demand is not diaspora-led, unlike more established markets such as the US or the UK. Instead, it appears to be driven by cultural alignment.

When Raunak Bhinge first approached institutional investors seeking funding for Infinite Uptime, the pitch was straightforward: much of India’s factory equipment was still analogue, and digitising it could help manufacturers improve output. Over time, the venture pivoted from being seen as a software startup to proving it was an artificial intelligence (AI)-backed business built on proprietary industrial data and models refined over years of deployments.“Investor due diligence has become deeper over the years as we raised funding,” said Bhinge, whose venture has raised over $60 million since inception.

₹40,000-2.5 lakh range. Nearly 70% of the collection carries a sub- ₹2.5 lakh tag.India's jewelley demand remains anchored in weddings and festivals, but it's increasingly being reshaped by millennials, who are keen on lightweight designs, gemstone-led fusion pieces and craftsmanship.The company already offered coloured gemstone jewellery, largely rooted in traditional designs.

West Asia crisis with resilient activity indicators and still-supportive demand. Further, the inflation environment too has remained benign.

India’s luxury hotels are exploring ways to capitalize on their brands by going beyond room bookings and food and beverage sales. Chains such as Taj, Marriott, Leela, Oberoi and Sarovar are increasingly moving into branded residences and serviced apartments to diversify their offerings.The trend, which has been around for a few years, gathered pace in FY26, with at least half a dozen projects signed and launched across Mumbai, Gurugram, Noida and Greater Noida as hospitality companies looked for more asset-light revenue streams tied to real estate.Indian Hotels Company Ltd, which runs the Taj brand of hotels, signed an agreement to manage 74 Taj serviced apartments with the Gulshan Group in Noida last month.

music markets globally, with the recorded music industry crossing ₹3,000 crore in annual revenues and digital contributing over 60%," said Vitasta Kaul, chief marketing officer, Hoopr, a music licensing platform. "However, per-stream payouts remain among the lowest globally, often fetching a few paise per stream.

Mint. “There is no need for a manager to fold up a fund.

Escorts Kubota, a pure-play tractor manufacturer, reported a 16% jump in sales volume for FY26. Tractors sales are more seasonal than those of other automobiles, so the focus should be on annual numbers.

Masaan, is now backing theatre productions, Adarsh Gourav will soon be seen in a docu-series titled The Tribal Voice, while Ridhi Dogra will feature in a travel series for National Geographic Channel.Industry experts say that for film actors, the shift toward theatre, documentaries and other formats is both creative and strategic. Cinema is inherently project-driven, so these avenues allow actors to stay engaged between releases while continuing to build their craft.From a brand perspective, diversification helps actors evolve from being seen purely as performers to more rounded creative voices.

Wow! Momo Foods Pvt. Ltd, the Tiger Global-backed quick-service restaurant chain, is turning packaged foods into a major revenue driver.

With the rupee under pressure from capital outflows and higher crude prices, India’s central bank is expanding its scrutiny beyond banks to corporate treasury positions in the foreign exchange market to assess large arbitrage trades, two bankers familiar with the matter said.According to these bankers, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) data call is aimed at assessing the extent of arbitrage exposure with corporate clients, rather than signalling immediate regulatory action.The exercise follows the central bank’s move on 27 March to cap banks’ net open positions in the domestic market at $100 million at the end of each day, which forced several lenders to unwind trades.“Corporates might have to unwind as well if things come to a head,” one of the two bankers cited earlier said, requesting anonymity. Corporate treasuries manage firms’ foreign exchange exposures through hedging to ensure that earnings and cash flows are not hit by currency swings.An email sent to the RBI on the matter remained unanswered till press time.A Jefferies report on 29 March said that the forex derivative market is dominated by larger banks with gross onshore positions of $30-40 billion that largely offset each other.

Mumbai: Fresh capital in hand after a change in ownership, Sammaan Capital, the erstwhile Indiabulls Housing Finance, is looking beyond mortgages to diversify its loan book and build a multi-product non-bank entity, according to managing director and chief executive officer Gagan Banga.“This is growth capital, we have clearly charted out a very detailed business plan, where we are trying to make it a customer-centric franchise, targeting 5 crore borrowers in the next three years and making this from a mortgage-focused to a multi-product NBFC,” Banga told Mint. He expects the company's assets under management (AUM) to double in three years to around ₹1.3 trillion.Abu Dhabi-based IHC has infused ₹5,652 crore for a 41.5% stake in Sammaan Capital, through its affiliate Avenir Investment RSC.

Water is life. Our lives, environment and livelihoods depend on this vital resource. As we aspire to a new India, we stand at a crossroads in our water management journey.

Mint India Investment Summit held last week.Manufacturing firms, in particular, are increasing R&D spending, but say the absence of validation, at home and abroad, is becoming a key roadblock.“R&D is growing leaps and bounds…but not in the commercial space,” said Pradeep Kumar Kheruka, executive chairman of Borosil Renewables Ltd, at the panel discussion.Kheruka cited Borosil’s attempt to manufacture solar glass without antimony, a toxic chemical, as an example of innovation facing resistance. “We made glass without antimony…We proved that antimony is leaching out from glass, it should be banned and yet the question is how come nobody else has done it?” he said.Despite scientific evidence, the absence of global precedent has slowed domestic adoption.

Three of India’s mid-sized IT companies—Persistent Systems Ltd, Hexaware Technologies Ltd and Firstsource Solutions Ltd—are looking to scale up their business and employ more people outside the US, which makes up more than three-fifths of their business. This mirrors the trend of their larger peers shifting their focus from the US to Europe and growth markets including Asia and South Africa.From acquisitions and large deals to strategic employee hubs, India, Australia, South Africa and West Asia are emerging as the key hotspots for these mid-sized IT services companies earning $1 billion to $5 billion in revenue as they look to insulate themselves from macroeconomic tensions and tap new growth markets.Persistent Systems, the country’s ninth-largest IT services company, got about 80% of its $1.41 billion revenue from North America.

fintech space.“We are a well-capitalized and profitable organization, built on a disciplined and conservative approach to managing growth and expenses. Following our recent fundraise of ₹240 crore, we are not in immediate need of additional capital,” a spokesperson for the company told Mint in an emailed statement.

₹5,191.06 crore redemption, small-cap funds saw inflows of ₹3,881.06 crore in February, prompting fund houses to launch new schemes and reopen existing ones.The opportunity is real, but so are the risks. Experts warn that low liquidity, stretched valuations, and governance weaknesses can turn potential gains into sharp losses.“The runway is huge and positive, but the interim perils are also real,” remarked Harsh Gupta Madhusudan, fund manager-PIPE, Ionic Asset.Following this renewed interest, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund reopened subscriptions to its Small Cap Fund in January, Groww Mutual Fund launched a new small-cap scheme around the same time.

Mint.A second fund, still on the drawing board, is a blended finance fund of similar size, Rai said in an interview at the Mumbai headquarters of Nabfid, which was founded in 2021. The company was initially set up as a development finance institution to support long-term projects.“We are (also)likely to launch an alternative investment fund, mainly for the equity side, in the next six months,” Rai said.Nabfid’s new subsidiary will be like a holding company, under which there will be multiple alternative investment funds (AIF).

Mint in an interview.“It’s not either-or, it’s both,” Kumar said, referring to the company’s approach of building for emerging AI-driven discovery channels while continuing to strengthen its core in-app shopping experience.On Wednesday, Meesho rolled out a conversational voice assistant, “Vaani” (Hindi for voice), aimed at making online shopping more intuitive for users who prefer conversational, offline-style interactions.The move reflects a broader shift in how the company is thinking about growth – not just in terms of adding new users, but also in how quickly those users become comfortable shopping online.“For us, this goes beyond accessibility. There’s an opportunity to reimagine the shopping experience itself," Kumar said."Such AI-led tools could act as an early enabler, especially for users in tier-II and tier-III markets who may need assistance with language, price comparison and navigation, helping expand the overall addressable market for e-commerce,” said Ankur Bisen, senior partner at The Knowledge Company, a consultant.However, he said that adoption is still at an exploratory stage, with even tech-savvy users continuing to discover use cases.The push comes at a time when e-commerce growth is becoming harder to sustain.

There is a paradox at the heart of the US economy. As the federal government imposes sweeping tariffs, signals hostility to multilateral trade and unnerves long-term investors with erratic policymaking, one state has emerged as the most reliable US address for global capital: California, the world’s fourth-largest economy and America’s second-largest exporting state with $188 billion in annual goods exports.