India Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Recent proposals by the Reserve Bank of India to curb digital fraud could disrupt payments and hurt small merchants’ cash flows while proving insufficient to combat the growing problem, several industry experts told Mint.In a discussion paper floated on 9 April, the RBI proposed introducing a one-hour lag at the payer’s end for transactions above ₹10,000. Other suggestions included:Industry leaders said the RBI's current ‘safety net’ approach addresses the symptoms rather than the cause.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) discussion paper, ‘Exploring Safeguards in Digital Payments to Curb Frauds,’ is part of its ongoing efforts to make digital payments safer and fraud-proof to the extent possible. Given the rapid growth of online transfers, it was but inevitable that frauds would also increase manifold.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Retail inflation edged higher to 3.4% from a year ago in March from 3.2% in February, government data issued on Monday showed. The main driver was dearer food, whose prices rose 3.9%, quicker than February’s 3.5% increase. Inflation in housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels was at about 2% while transport prices were flat.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: India plans to prepare an Approved List of Battery Manufacturers (ALBM) to be the exclusive equipment vendors for government-supported energy storage schemes and projects, following a similar mandate for the solar sector. The goal is to ensure the country’s energy security by encouraging local manufacturing and reducing reliance on imports.The government may announce its plans for ALBM and introduce draft norms for localization in the current fiscal year, two people familiar with the matter said.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.After building a ₹1,000-crore FMCG business on ghee over four decades, GRB Dairy Foods Pvt. Ltd.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: Struggled with illegible and poorly-placed labels for medicines? There may be help on way, as the apex drugs regulator is set to tighten scrutiny of how critical information, such as medicine names and expiry dates, is printed on the packaging, according to two government officials and documents reviewed by Mint.The move by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) aims to curb medication errors and improve patient safety in India's $50 billion pharmaceuticals market.According to the plan in the works, the CDSCO and state regulators will step up plant inspections and issue targeted instructions to drug inspectors with a focus on visibility, durability and placement of key information.Following complaints, the apex regulator had appointed a committee that identified a significant gap in the variability of medicine labelling implementation at the manufacturing level.Consumers' complaints ranged from the packaging information being illegible due to a host of reasons to the demand for the medicine name being printed across the package and for a universally-recognized symbol on generic medicines to distinguish them from branded ones.The CDSCO set up a sub-committee in July 2025, chaired by the drugs controller of Telangana, with drugs controllers of Kerala, Odisha and representatives of HLL Lifecare Ltd, the deputy drugs controller of Hyderabad zone and Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association (IDMA) officials as members.In its report, this panel said the CDSCO and state licensing authorities "may issue suitable advisories or internal instructions to GMP inspectors to ensure focused scrutiny of labelling practices, including visibility, durability and placement of

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Digital lending firms regained some momentum in FY26, as unsecured lending picked up and growth stabilized after a regulatory-led slowdown the previous year, industry executives and analysts told Mint.The rebound follows a muted FY25, when tighter regulations, rising costs and weakening credit quality sharply slowed expansion. Loan growth, for non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) with assets under management (AUM) below ₹15,000 crore, fell to about 13% in FY25 from around 36% a year earlier, according to a November 2025 report by Icra Ltd, as unsecured lending and microfinance segments contracted.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.For anyone scrolling through social media lately, Vietnam seems to have taken over the feed, with its cafés, coastlines and bustling streets firmly etched onto the global travel map. But the tourism buzz is only the surface of a deeper story.Emerging from the ashes of the war with the US and from being one of the world’s poorest economies in the 1980s, Vietnam is now seen as an economic miracle, delivering sustained high growth (8% in 2025) and reducing poverty to below 5% from nearly 80% in 1993.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The improvement in business ties between China and India has streamlined partnerships between companies in the two countries, providing a significant boost to JSW Group's automotive venture, according to Parth Jindal, director at JSW MG Motor India. JSW Group plans its debut car launch towards the end of the calendar year.The Indian government’s easing of investment rules for Chinese firms and the resumption of direct flights between the two countries have made it easier to collaborate with the group’s Chinese partners, Jindal told Mint.“While the relaxation of Press Note 3 has not directly benefited the auto sector, it has improved overall sentiment which, along with the resumption of flights, has made engagement with our partners more seamless,” he said.“India’s relationship with China has been improving steadily, and the relaxation of Press Note 3 has helped ease technology transfer processes between the two countries.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Bengaluru/Mumbai: Tata Trusts is expected to discuss several vexing issues, including whether to retaining Tata Sons as a private company and the possibility of giving a third full term to chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran, when the Trustees of the philanthropic entities meet in the second week of May, about four months after its last meeting in January, according to two Tata Group executives who did not wish to be named.The agenda for the meeting has not yet been finalised or shared with trustees, the two executives said, and the meeting could be convened on 8 or 12 May, depending on the availability of all trustees.Whether Chandrasekaran's third term will be discussed depends on Tata Sons' response to the questions that Tata Trusts chair Noel Tata raised at the Tata Sons board meeting on 24 February, one executive said. At that meeting, Noel Tata had raised questions about Tata Sons' strategic direction, prompting the board to defer a decision on Chandrasekaran's re-appointment for a third five-year term, set to begin in February 2027.Noel Tata, who took over as the chair of Tata Trusts on 11 October 2024, had raised three questions at the board meeting in February.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Saurabh Mukherjea is not the kind of fund manager who hedges his bets with careful language. The founder of Marcellus Investment Managers, one of India’s more closely watched boutique fund houses, has made a career of saying out loud what others whisper.His latest vehicle for that is a book—Breakpoint: The Crisis of the Middle Class and the Future of Work, published by Juggernaut in March 2026 and co-written with economist Nandita Rajhansa and human resources professional Sapana Bhavsar.“I have argued in my book that India is not creating enough jobs for the middle and lower income segments,” he said. “This would mean that the opportunity to invest in Indian businesses will come down over the next several years.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: Policy think tank Niti Aayog has indefinitely postponed a global summit aimed at reinvigorating the nation's electric vehicle sector, as the war in West Asia disrupts international travel.The Global Electric Mobility Summit, planned for 21-22 April in New Delhi, was designed to be an event to court major investments for the world’s third-largest auto market. However, government correspondence reviewed by Mint shows that the regional war has forced a strategic retreat until travel conditions normalize.The delay comes at a critical time for New Delhi.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s nearly 80 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs)—employing over 328.2 million people and contributing 31.1% to gross domestic product (GDP), 35.4% to manufacturing output, and 48.58% to exports—have been navigating a harsh global environment over the past five years. From the covid-19 pandemic-induced economic standstill to cost shocks triggered by the Russia-Ukraine war, recurring volatility in West Asia, and trade disruptions under the Trump administration, the sector has faced repeated stress.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.If your equity portfolio is hurting this quarter, you’re not alone.Indian equities have had a bruising start to 2026. As of 31 March, the Nifty 50 is down 14.5% year-to-date, the Nifty 500 about 14%, and mid- and small-cap indices have fallen 13-14% in just three months. By any short-term measure, this has been a sharp correction.Step back, though, and the picture looks very different.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi must act urgently to gather a coalition of like-minded and like-affected countries to conduct diplomacy with the warring parties in West Asia. The goal is not so much to get them to stop fighting but to prevent their war from throwing the Indian and world economy into a severe crisis. US President Donald Trump’s announcement that the US will blockade the Strait of Hormuz for ships headed for or leaving Iran’s ports threatens to impose pain and suffering on hundreds of millions of innocents.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Technological revolutions have a familiar rhythm. First comes excitement, then investment, and then an awkward phase of reality refusing to cooperate with the narrative. Artificial intelligence (AI) has now entered that third phase.Over the past year, large technology firms have cut thousands of jobs while increasing investment in AI.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Portfolio management services (PMS) firms have asked the market regulator to widen their investment universe, as the segment struggles to keep pace with rival products, four people aware of the discussions said.Key demands include allowing investments in unlisted markets and permission to participate as anchor investors in initial public offerings (IPO), both currently restricted for PMS structures.Currently, only non-discretionary PMS allows up to 25% allocation to unlisted securities, such as alternative investment fund units, real estate investment trusts and infrastructure investment trusts. Discretionary PMS, which accounts for 92% of total PMS assets as of February, is not allowed to invest in unlisted securities.The push comes as PMS growth trails mutual funds and alternative investment funds (AIFs), with industry executives pointing to tighter investment rules, operational constraints and tax friction as factors hurting competitiveness in India’s asset management market.“Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) is keen on growing this segment and making PMS a platform for wealth management.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A bunch of listed realty developers announced March quarter (Q4FY26) operational updates last week. The highlight: record FY26 pre-sales or bookings.Godrej Properties' pre-sales rose 15% year-on-year to ₹34,171 crore, 5% ahead of its guidance.

Democracy is inherently fraught. At its core lies the difficulty of translating individual preferences into a coherent social choice, a problem famously captured by Nobel laureate economist Kenneth Arrow’s impossibility theorem and later developed by another Nobel laureate Amartya Sen in his 1970 book Collective Choice and Social Welfare.

₹3,379 crore during a phase when the Nifty 50 fell more than 14%, which meant it could not meet its FY26 AUM guidance of ₹1 trillion.On the flip side, the recovery in stock price following the West Asia ceasefire announcement helped the company cross the ₹1 trillion milestone only ahead of the earnings release. The stock, too, responded sharply, gaining nearly 17% this month after remaining largely flat since September.That said, Anand Rathi Wealth is also a classic operating-leverage story. Its team strength of about 400 relationship managers (RMs) can support growth in the coming years, implying incremental revenue flows with limited hiring.

The impact of higher fuel costs due to the conflict in West Asia, along with a delay in tariff increases that’s limiting revenue growth, is expected to weigh on the financials of India’s telecom companies in the near term, according to analysts. Mint analyzes how the mismatch between high costs and limited scope for charging customers is likely to put pressure on telecom operators.Telecom operators rely on diesel-powered generators to ensure uninterrupted power supply to telecom towers, which form the backbone of mobile networks.