India Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.KKR-backed InCred Holdings Ltd, primarily operating through its material subsidiary InCred Finance, has filed its updated draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the markets regulator.The initial public offering (IPO) size is likely to be around ₹3,000 crore and value the firm at up to ₹15,000 crore, two people aware of the matter told Mint.The offering comprises a fresh issue of equity shares totalling ₹1,250 crore and an offer for sale of up to 99 million shares from existing investors, as per the updated DRHP filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).Shareholders participating in the process include KKR India Financial Investments Pte, MNI Ventures, MEMG Family Office LLP, and V’Ocean Investments Ltd.The company said it may also consider a pre-IPO fundraise of up to 20% of the fresh issue size, which comes up to ₹250 crore, and then reduce the fresh issue size proportionately.The Mumbai-based firm, which had ​confidentially filed draft papers in November 2025, intends to use the net proceeds to increase InCred Finance's capital base, specifically to strengthen tier-I capital and support onward lending.Founded by former Deutsche Bank AG executive Bhupinder Singh in 2017, InCred Holdings now operates as a holding company for the same.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Most of the recent conversations around Bima Sugam, the IRDAI-backed one-stop digital insurance marketplace, have focused on access – simpler purchases, standardised products, and possibly lower costs through zero-commission policies. If executed well, this could reduce the friction in buying and managing insurance.But for households dealing with ageing parents, this addresses only one part of the financial reality. The more relevant question is not whether insurance is easier to buy, but whether it meaningfully covers the full cost of ageing.India is already at an inflection point.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Aditya Birla Sun Life Asset Management Co. is raising a ₹2,000 crore alternative investment fund (AIF) that will target the stocks of mid- and small-cap companies, joining a growing list of asset managers targeting wealthy investors with hedge fund-style products.The fund, ABSL Select Sector Fund, will open with a base corpus of ₹1,500 crore and a greenshoe option of ₹500 crore, executives at the Mumbai-based firm said.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Banks are at their peak performance in India. Credit growth is faster than nominal GDP growth, world-class digital platforms have arisen and regulations have been supportive. Return on assets reached a milestone 1.4% and gross non-performing assets (NPAs) fell to a 13-year low in fiscal year 2024-25.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Shares of Polycab India jumped over 7% on Thursday, also hitting a 52-week high of ₹8,991.50 despite 160 basis points year-on-year drop in its March quarter (Q4FY26) Ebitda margin to 13.1%.While a sharp increase in input prices and higher logistics costs hurt margin, price hikes taken last quarter helped Polycab beat analysts’ estimates. Plus, the company’s market share improved by four percentage points in FY26 to about 30-31%, which should benefit Polycab as demand stabilizes.Despite the near-term disruption, the domestic demand outlook remains strong, primarily led by the power sector.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In 2019, Arvind Subramanian, India’s former chief economic advisor, argued in a Harvard working paper that Indian GDP had been overestimated by 2.5 percentage points a year from 2011-12 to 2016-17. His central exhibit was a chart of 17 economic indicators, 11 of which had turned negatively correlated with GDP after 2011. The starkest case was the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for manufacturing, at minus 0.78.Extend the data by seven years using the same method.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The usage gap in India’s flagship financial inclusion programme has widened further, with inactive zero-balance accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) surging to 26% at 143.83 million at state-run banks, while falling to 36% at 6.3 million at private banks as of March 2026.The total PMJDY accounts across state-run and private banks stood at 581.8 million, with deposits reaching ₹3.02 trillion by early April 2026. State-run banks had 449.8 million accounts, while private banks held 20.8 million.This spike in inactive accounts has been broad-based across public sector banks, which had 112.4 million dormant PMJDY accounts, or 21% of the total, at the end of March 2025.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The weak performance of Indian shares hasn’t just dampened wealth creation, it has also put India’s stock market at risk of being overtaken in terms of capitalization by the bourses of smaller economies. Catching up fast are Taiwan and South Korea; the former’s market cap is now about $4.6 trillion, within sniffing distance of India’s $4.9 trillion, and South Korea’s is at about $4.2 trillion.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The surging shares of US chipmakers such as Intel and Micron point to a deeper shift in artificial intelligence (AI). First, the narrative is moving from a speculative buzz around AI models to hard spending on the infrastructure that powers them. Second, big money is flowing into computing power and memory, the choke points of the AI economy.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Representatives of the Association of NSE Members of India (ANMI) met with central bank officials on Wednesday, seeking a relaxation of an imminent regulatory restriction on lenders funding capital market proprietary traders, arguing that not all such trades are speculative, according to a person aware of the discussions.While Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials heard out the ANMI delegation, they offered no commitment , he said, requesting anonymity.While confirming the meeting, an ANMI official said, "A lot of things get discussed. It's unfair to be point-wise and specific about what is discussed or not." "With due respect, everything discussed in a closed room is not open to transmission everywhere," the official added.The meeting, requested for by the brokers' body, came after the central bank on 30 March deferred its 13 February circular on banks' capital markets exposure for three months through 1 July.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: India is tapping alternate trade routes to facilitate movement of cargoes—exports as well as energy imports—moving shipping lines at some of the West Asian ports not affected by the Strait of Hormuz blockade amid the ongoing US-Iran war, said a government official on Wednesday.Speaking to reporters, Opesh Kumar Sharma, director in the ministry of ports, shipping and waterways, said India and West Asian countries are taking these options to ensure least interruption in trade between the Gulf region and India, including fuel shipments, at a time when the Strait of Hormuz, a key channel for 20% of global oil and gas trade, remains largely closed.Alternate shipping services have been operationalized in the backdrop of the West Asia crisis, he said, with shipping lines including CMA CGM (Compagnie Maritime d'Affrètement - Compagnie Générale Maritime), Unifeeder and AP Moller-Maersk connecting Indian ports such as Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority, Mundra and Hazira to Sohar (Oman), Fujairah (UAE), and Khorfakkan (UAE) in West Asia."So, there are many places which have been activated. The cargo is moving,” he said.The industry and the government have noted issues related to trade routes, and the reduction in congestion at the ports indicated “normalization”, Sharma said.West Asia and North Africa (Wana) is a key region for India for energy imports and non-oil exports.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: The government’s subsidy spending has already reached 91% of the revised estimate for financial year 2026 in the first 11 months, highlighting sustained strain from welfare commitments that is unlikely to ease soon, as the West Asia war fuels cost pressures in the economy.According to the Department of Expenditure data, reviewed by Mint, total expenditure on major subsidies including food and fertilizers stood at ₹3.89 trillion during April–February, against the revised estimate of ₹4.29 trillion. The department is still collating the final month's figure.The subsidy spending is higher than ₹3.63 trillion recorded in the same period of FY25.Despite higher subsidy spending, the fiscal deficit moderated to ₹12.52 trillion during April–February FY26, lower than the ₹13.46 trillion in the same period last year, the ministry data showed.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mumbai: India's latest emergency credit scheme could turn out to be a timely tailwind for banks, offering both incremental loan growth and a crucial buffer against rising stress linked to the West Asia war, three brokerages said in a report.The Union cabinet on Tuesday allocated ₹18,100 crore under the fifth edition of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS 5.0), unlocking ₹2.55 trillion in additional credit flow to businesses to help them tide over the war-induced liquidity stress.Analysts see this loan-support scheme as credit and asset quality supportive, with the sovereign guarantee structure sharply reducing downside risks for lenders.“ECLGS 5.0 is a net positive for banks—a modest loan growth tailwind and a more meaningful near-term asset quality buffer. These loans carry zero credit risk, with no provisioning drag or capital consumption,” Nomura Global Markets Research said in a note on 6 May.At a time when the market is watchful on the impact of the West Asia crisis on bank asset quality, ECLGS 5.0 provides a meaningful policy cushion, the foreign bank’s research note said.The scheme allows eligible borrowers ranging from micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to larger corporates and airlines to access additional working capital loans backed by a government guarantee.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.BENGALURU: Godrej Properties Ltd (GPL), the country’s highest-selling residential developer, is stepping up its push into high-value housing, lining up a series of premium and luxury launches across key markets as part of a ₹48,000 crore pipeline for fiscal year 2027 (FY27), executive chairperson Pirojsha Godrej said Wednesday.GPL is targeting ₹39,000 crore of sales bookings this year, on the back of a strong launch pipeline and demand for branded developers.The planned launches span prime micro-markets, including Golf Course Extension Road in Gurugram, Ashok Vihar in Delhi, and Bandra Bay in Mumbai, underscoring a clear tilt towards higher-ticket projects.The shift follows a year of aggressive land acquisitions in top locations and marks a more pronounced move into luxury, even as GPL has previously developed such projects.In Gurugram, now emerging as one of India’s key luxury hubs, GPL will develop a project on an 11.36-acre land parcel acquired earlier this year, with a revenue potential of about ₹4,500 crore. In Delhi, the company plans to launch a much-awaited project spread over around 27 acres in Ashok Vihar, where apartments are likely to be priced at ₹5 crore and above.In Mumbai’s Bandra Bay, where developers such as Adani Realty and others are preparing luxury launches, GPL is planning a project with apartments priced at over ₹15 crore each, as per analyst estimates.“The launches this year will reflect the kind of business development GPL has done last year, where it has acquired land in key micro-markets within the cities it operates in.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mumbai: Marico Ltd, synonymous with brands such as Parachute and Saffola, aims to earn ₹15,000 crore revenue in FY27 and ₹20,000 crore by FY30, as the consumer goods major sharpens its focus on premium products, packaged foods and a digital-first push. To meet its targets, the company looks to tap the growing wellness and premium personal care segments, moving from its commodity-centric profile.“We have multiple vectors of growth, and we have factored that not all 100% will fire every year,” managing director and chief executive officer Saugata Gupta told Mint in an interview.Marico on Tuesday reported a 9.3% rise in FY26 consolidated net profit to ₹1,813 crore.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mumbai: When Dilip Shanghvi walked into the press conference to announce Sun Pharmaceutical’s acquisition of Organon & Co.—an $11.75 billion deal that will effectively double the company’s revenue to $12.4 billion—he offered a rare admission.“I’m happy, excited, also a little bit anxious,” he told journalists, adding that the sheer size of the transaction reminded him of announcing the Ranbaxy Laboratories deal a decade ago.Back then, Sun was a fraction of its current size. This time, it is acquiring a company roughly equal in size, paying for it with cash and borrowed money rather than stock, and doing so at what Shanghvi described as “less than 25% of Sun’s own value.”At the surface, the Organon deal is a story about scale—a large Indian generics company buying an even larger portfolio of established branded drugs and biosimilars from a spun-off Merck subsidiary.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) plans to let online bond platform providers (OBPPs) offer products from Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), but early signals suggest platforms may move cautiously.In a consultation paper issued on Tuesday, the markets regulator recommended changes aimed at easing business conditions for OBPPs while widening the range of products they can offer. Mint explains what these changes are and whether OBPPs are likely to tap the opportunity.Sebi has proposed allowing OBPPs to offer products regulated by the International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA), such as overseas debt investments, that aren’t easily accessible to most Indian investors using digital platforms.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mahindra & Mahindra’s March quarter (Q4FY26) shows why it’s one of the most consistent growth stories in India’s auto sector. It beat Street expectations on revenue and profit. Better-than-expected realizations in SUVs – its primary segment, and a sharp rise in other income were the key drivers.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Music labels, grappling with slow growth in paid subscriptions and advertising revenue in the Indian market, are increasingly eyeing regional music catalogues to bolster libraries and returns. Times Music, Warner Music and Saregama have acquired regional catalogues recently. Such consolidation benefits both established players and smaller regional companies.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: Demand for beer in India is holding up, but for United Breweries Ltd, rising costs and delayed pricing are squeezing margins.The Heineken NV-controlled maker of Kingfisher beer reported a weaker-than-expected performance for fiscal year 2026 (FY26), with revenue and profit declining even as volumes showed some resilience. A fresh wave of input cost inflation, particularly in packaging, alongside supply disruptions linked to the West Asia conflict, is driving the pressure in India’s tightly regulated beer market.Revenue from operations fell 10% to ₹1,746.3 crore in FY26 from ₹1,940.8 crore a year earlier, according to exchange filings, while profit declined 6.6% to ₹413.4 crore.For the quarter ended 31 March (Q4FY26), revenue was largely flat at ₹440 crore versus ₹442.7 crore a year earlier, while profit rose to ₹101.8 crore from ₹97.7 crore.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In recent months, a palpable sense of concern has begun to ripple through investors. Inflationary pressures—once dismissed as a transitory aftershock of global recovery—now risk becoming entrenched.The drivers form a difficult triad: destruction of energy infrastructure in West Asia leading to volatile oil and gas prices, persistent supply chain constraints, and a domestic agricultural squeeze triggered by a lower-than-anticipated monsoon and record-high fertilizer costs.The RBI’s decision to raise the inflation forecast for FY27 to 4.6%—up from an earlier target of 4%—signals that these fears are grounded in reality.