India Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The theme in Monday’s election results of three of the four major states that went to the latest hustings was the same—anti-incumbency. Incumbents were sent packing in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) holding ground in Assam and likely Puducherry.When the euphoria peters out, the hard part will be in governing for all four major states.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: India is set to implement a new framework for fire and life safety across all healthcare facilities, moving beyond general building codes to address the specific vulnerabilities of patients and critical care units.The ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) has released a comprehensive manual titled “National Guidelines on Fire and Life Safety in Healthcare Facilities (2026)” in the backdrop of recurring tragedies that highlight systemic safety failures in Indian healthcare.The manual provides a technical and operational roadmap to identify high-risk zones such as ICUs, operation theatres, and oxygen storage areas for targeted interventions. Under these guidelines, all major structural elements in new hospitals must be non-combustible, and existing buildings must maintain compartmentation to limit the spread of fire and smoke.The updated framework responds to a history of tragic incidents where electrical faults—specifically short circuits and malfunctioning equipment—were identified as the primary cause of hospital fires, exacerbated by high oxygen concentrations and limited patient mobility.In 2021, an oxygen leak at Dr.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Godrej Properties Ltd (GPL), India's best-selling residential developer, has set an ambitious sales target of ₹39,000 crore for 2026-27 even though home prices are likely to remain stable, executive chairperson Pirojsha Godrej told Mint in an interviewIn FY26, GPL's sales bookings rose 16% year-on-year to ₹34,171 crore. That was achieved through the sale of 17,513 units spanning 27 million sq ft, the highest ever by an Indian real estate firm.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.As a non-resident Bengali of my generation, I have witnessed with deep anguish the steady decline of West Bengal from its once-prominent position in India’s economic and intellectual landscape. What has been even more disheartening is the repeated pattern of large electoral mandates being given to successive governments—first the Left Front, and then the Trinamool Congress—followed by a growing sense of unmet expectations and a sense of repeated betrayal of trust.When Mamata Banerjee came to power in 2011, she carried with her a powerful promise of change: an end to decades of Left Front rule, which many believe had pushed the state into fiscal stress, industrial stagnation, and governance fatigue.

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.MUMBAI: Global investment firm Carlyle has acquired a majority stake in Knack RCM and EqualizeRCM, two US-based healthcare revenue cycle management (RCM) providers, the companies said in a statement on Monday, as it looks to build an artificial intelligence (AI)-led platform in the US healthcare RCM market.The transaction combines two complementary RCM operators to create what the companies described as an AI-native, multi-specialty platform serving physician groups, rural hospitals and durable medical equipment (DME) providers.Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.“The US healthcare revenue cycle market is growing rapidly, driven by margin compression, workforce shortages, and the shift to value-based care,” said Kapil Modi, Partner at Carlyle India Advisors. “We believe Knack and Equalize stand out as leaders with their AI-native, specialty‑focused, and outcomes‑driven approach, which aligns well with the growing needs and demand in healthcare RCM.”The combined entity is expected to expand scale and delivery footprint across the US, India and the Philippines, while deepening capabilities in automation and analytics, the company said.Carlyle said it intends to pursue additional acquisitions to build out the platform, underscoring a consolidation strategy in a sector that remains highly fragmented.“One of the core tenets of this investment is to build a scaled, strategically attractive physician and rural hospital RCM platform in a fragmented industry.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Crude oil, the undistilled kind right out of the ground, was known to the Mesopotamians, Persians and Babylonians. The Chinese were the first to dig shallow wells and transport flammable oil through bamboo pipelines. Canadian geologist Abraham Gesner was the pioneer who began to distil oil and coined the term ‘kerosene’ in the mid-1850s.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.On 29 April, the Centre issued guidelines requiring electric truck makers to localize components such as battery management systems and vehicle control units to qualify for incentives under the PM E-Drive scheme. E-truck makers must use domestically produced components from September 2026.The government had eased rules during the 2025 rare-earth magnet shortage by extending deadlines for importing related subassemblies without forfeiting incentives.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mumbai: Milky Mist has raised about ₹482 crore in a pre-IPO round led by Singapore-based Temasek’s subsidiary Jongsong Investments Pte. Ltd, the dairy product maker said in a statement on Monday.The fundraise comprises a primary capital infusion of about ₹357 crore and a secondary share sale of about ₹125 crore ahead of the company’s proposed initial public offering (IPO) later this year.As part of the primary issuance, Milky Mist allotted 5,43,789 equity shares at ₹139.76 per share, aggregating about ₹7.6 crore.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.How soon will the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raise rates and how high will it take them? Those have become urgent questions for bankers in Mumbai after elevated energy-import costs pushed the rupee to a record low last week. RBI governor Sanjay Malhotra has signalled a preference to stay on pause. The central bank would step in, he said in an 18 April speech at Princeton University, “through its influence on inflation expectations rather than through blunt demand compression,” a euphemism for monetary tightening.Still, Malhotra’s cheap-money era is likely drawing to a close, thanks to the pressure from the foreign-exchange market.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.For many Indian households, the rupee hitting a record low of 94.85 to a US dollar might feel like a distant headline that has little to do with their finances. Especially when no child studies abroad, no holiday is booked overseas, and no money sits in any international fund.It is easy to assume households are insulated from the volatility of the foreign exchange market.However, the reality of a globalized economy is that the dollar is woven into the daily life of an Indian household, even with no direct spending in dollars.

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.Chennai: For years, Tamil Nadu has punched beyond its weight. With just 4% of India’s land area and 6% of its population, the state’s contribution to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024-25 was 9.4%.The state’s economy is growing much faster than India’s 6.5%. Even as foreign direct investment (FDI) into India has slowed, foreign investors continue to bet big on Tamil Nadu.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Split pricing has its benefits. If something is sold to price-insensitive customers at a steep mark-up, then overall utility can be maximized if the extra charge allows price reduction for others. This idea works best when consumption is easily divided.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Whether the majority of the exit poll predictions regarding the landslide victory of the incumbent National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government come true or not will be known later on Monday. However, the newly-formed government, irrespective of the party, will be inheriting an economy full of contradictions—of high economic growth and low income.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Infosys Ltd is accelerating its push into global capability centres (GCCs), leaning into a structural shift that otherwise threatens its core outsourcing business and that of the broader IT industry.The Bengaluru-based IT major has mandated dedicated GCC offerings with embedded AI capabilities across its delivery centres, while also setting aside capacity within its campuses to incubate client-owned tech hubs.The push comes as multinational companies increasingly set up their own capability centres to directly leverage India’s skilled talent and low costs, insourcing work that would have otherwise gone to IT services firms like Infosys, and potentially crimping their revenues.India currently has about 1,760 GCCs. Nasscom estimates India to have 2,200 GCCs by March 2030, with the sector reaching $105 billion by March 2030.To be sure, Infosys is not alone in trying to build a business from a trend that also poses a threat.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s power prices on electricity exchange hit zero for the first time on Friday, 1 May, raising concerns for investors and developers as the country moves towards its target 500 giga watt (GW) non-fossil capacity by 2030.Data from the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) showed power prices were at zero in two blocks of 15 minutes each on Friday, as demand dipped due to easing temperatures and low industrial demand but power supply — especially solar power — climbed, bringing prices down.The dip in demand came from partly cloudy skies, light rains, and gusty winds in northern India and Delhi-NCR, and heavy rainfall in parts of eastern India. Similar weather was witnessed on Saturday, 2 May.To be sure, power prices on the real time market (RTM) platform of the IEX had dropped to near-zero twice earlier—on the afternoon of 5 April, and on 25 May last year, under similar circumstances.In a LinkedIn post on on Friday, IEX said: “Cooler weather, record solar generation (~57.5 GW), and inflexible thermal supply are leading to ample sell-side availability on the Exchange.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: Situated 33 kilometers from the busy streets of Pune is Chakan, home to automobile manufacturers and their suppliers. One company in this area is electric bus maker Eka Mobility.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.This year’s first monetary policy meeting revealed an interesting data point on an emerging monetary product, an element that is bound to influence monetary systems and policies, including global payment systems. Its development has been characterized by caution, and while it is still some distance away from becoming widely accepted, its use-case scenarios present policy and regulatory challenges.India’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), or e-rupee, is finally emerging from the shadows. It is being tested in the domestic economy through managed programmes.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mumbai: Nestlé India flagged potential price increases if input costs remain elevated, even as it continues to prioritize volume-led growth.“We did see some commodity inflation like milk and wheat… The fuel part is a curveball,” chairman and managing director Manish Tiwary told Mint.“Of course, if it persists, while we do want more volume-led growth, we might have to make some price adjustments,” he added.Nestlé India, the maker of KitKat and Maggi, has leaned on volumes to drive growth, but Tiwary acknowledged that pricing could return to the mix depending on how commodity costs evolve. “So, from almost a complete volume-led growth, we could have some pricing (-led growth), depending on how the commodity and prices move,” he said.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.At 11.40 am on Saturday, millions of phones across India blared a loud alert simultaneously, interrupting calls and conversations. The disruption was deliberate. It was a nationwide test of a multilingual cell broadcast system developed by the state-owned Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) for emergency warnings during disasters.