India Financial News

beer (5% alcohol content), making it more affordable relative to spirits/IMFL with alcohol content over 40%, said a Nomura Research report on 8 March. The higher tax burden on spirits can pressure volumes in the price-sensitive popular and below segments and improve the affordability for the prestige & above (P&A) segment, given same alcohol content.P&A contributed 89.4% of United Spirits’s 9MFY26 net sales value.

NEW DELHI: India builds some of the world’s fastest expanding highway networks but depends on imports for a large share of the bitumen used to bind asphalt.The country needs about 9 million tonnes of bitumen each year for road construction. In FY25, domestic production was 5.3 million tonnes, with the rest imported—largely from West Asia, a region currently facing conflict.Against this backdrop, bio-bitumen, an alternative derived from biomass, could replace up to a third of petroleum-based bitumen, potentially reducing India’s import dependence.

Bharat Forge Ltd stock hit an all-time high of ₹1,935.50 on Friday. It’s up 24% so far in 2026, making it the best performer in the Nifty Auto index. Ashok Leyland Ltd is a distant second, up 4%.

₹10,485 crore—higher than what any equity category received in the same month.The asset-allocation and diversification argument underpinning multi-asset funds, strengthened by the inclusion of gold and silver as investable components, appears to be driving their rising popularity among investors.But just as investors were getting comfortable with the multi-asset pitch, fund houses have begun multiplying their offerings.Sebi’s 2025 directive on fund-of-funds (FoF) re-categorization appears to have triggered a fresh wave of multi-asset products. But do investors really need this variation of the multi-asset strategy, or does it simply amplify noise in an already crowded market and make choice harder?When Sebi first introduced fund categorization rules in 2018, FoFs were tucked into a residual “Other Schemes” bucket.

₹480–540 crore across eight new hotel and resort projects as it expands both owned and asset-light operations.The company will add about 600 rooms to its existing portfolio of 1,000-odd keys, Samir MC, chief executive officer (CEO) of Tamara Leisure Experiences, told Mint.Alongside owned developments, Tamara plans to expand by managing and franchising hotels through an asset-light model that enables pan-India expansion with lower capital investment and risk.This comes at a time when many Indian hotel ownership companies have been moving towards an asset-light or asset-right strategy over the last decade to balance out their portfolios amid strong travel demand.Founded about 15 years ago by billionaire co-founders of Infosys, SD Shibulal and S Gopalakrishnan, Tamara operates nine self-owned and managed properties across its three brands. These include The Tamara, a luxury leisure property which it owns and operates, O by Tamara, which are upscale city hotels, as well as Lilac by Tamara, a mid-scale hotel brand.

Write to Austin Ramzy at [email protected], Chun Han Wong at [email protected] and Joyu Wang at [email protected] updated with the latest Trending, India , World and US news.

Every month, Mint Plain Facts brings out an update on key global data to thread together the biggest developments in the world that are worth paying attention to. The accompanying analysis and charts explain how each story is creating ripples on the global stage, where it is headed in the coming weeks, and whether it can impact India.Here are the five key global events:After US and Israel air strikes on 28 February killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the West Asian nation has been fighting a high-risk survival war.It has responded to the US-Israel offensive, mostly targeting its capital, Tehran, by attacking nearly all nearby Gulf countries, widening the conflict.

Over a decade ago, domestic projects had dominated L&T’s business, but the picture is different now. As on 31 December, 49% of its ₹7.33 trillion order book came from international markets, and India contributed the rest.

Stock market recap: A day after posting gains of more than 1% each, India’s benchmark indices—the Sensex and the Nifty 50—resumed their decline on Friday as investors booked profits amid persistent concerns over the US-Iran conflict, a spike in crude oil prices and heavy foreign capital outflows.The Sensex plunged 1,097 points, or 1.4%, to close at 78,918.90, while the Nifty 50 fell 315 points, or 1.3%, to 24,450.45. Mid- and small-cap stocks, however, outperformed the benchmarks despite ending in the red.

Mint.Saraswat also said that specific features and the incentive structure under the second phase of the India Semiconductor Mission announced in Union budget 2026 are being worked out.Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the second phase of the mission in her budget speech in February to scale up the country’s capabilities in equipment, materials, design, intellectual property rights and to fortify the supply chain. In the budget for 2026-27, the Centre announced a second tranche of incentives under the mission, five years after rolling out the first ₹76,000-crore programme.India will also strive to explore and produce select critical minerals found domestically despite their low resource intensity making them costlier to extract, to guard against the risk of supply denial by other countries in future, Saraswat said.India’s push to build domestic capabilities in semiconductors and critical minerals, which are vital for IT, clean energy and defence sectors, comes at a time technology is increasingly shaping industrial and military power in a de-globalising world with weakening adherence to the rule of law.

copper demand is expected to surge globally amid electrification, renewable energy and grid expansion, even as supply remains constrained. Global benchmark copper prices are currently around $11,000-12,000 per tonne, jumping a little over 30% over the last one year.Drawing a parallel between operating a mine in Gadchiroli and in Congo is not entirely fair, said Suman Kumar, assistant vice-president for metals and mining at brokerage Philip Capital.In India, companies understand regulatory and political ecosystem, but in foreign jurisdictions, especially parts of Africa, execution risks are far higher, said the sell-side analyst.He pointed to examples of Indian companies that struggled to scale overseas mining projects, including Jindal Steel and Power Ltd in Mozambique and Vedanta Ltd's challenges at Konkola Copper Mines in Zambia.“Even companies with significantly deeper financial muscle have struggled.

Greaves Cotton, known for engine manufacturing and engineering.“As an auto component company, in some ways, it's easier for us to do that. We are dealing in components; so, there's not a huge difference in the components when it comes between, let's say a CNG or a diesel or a petrol.

A regulatory overhaul of how commissions are paid will shake up the segment estimated to account for about half of India’s ₹81 trillion in mutual fund assets: small distributors. Industry experts say they will be forced to partner with larger peers to survive, driving consolidation.The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in December approved a revised framework for total expense ratio (TER) limits.

Edited excerpts:I think the move into this role happened quite naturally for me. When you understand the product deeply, it becomes much easier to sell or convince people because you know exactly what you’re talking about. My investment banking and research background helped a lot in that sense.

IPO-bound Singapore’s Sembcorp Industries Ltd’s Indian renewable energy business and Hexa Climate Solutions are vying to acquire the entire India renewable business of Italy’s Enel Group in a deal having an equity and enterprise value of around $100 million and $300 million, respectively, according to two people aware of the development. Sembcorp is present in India throughSembcorp India Private Limited and Sembcorp Green Infra Ltd (SGIL) along with other subsidiaries., while Hexa is backed by I Squared Capital.The HSBC-run sale process follows a deal signed last year—which later fell through—under which Waaree Energies Ltd had agreed to buy 100% of Enel Green Power India Pvt Ltd (EGP India) from its parent Enel Green Power Development S.R.L.

bullish investors and traders are carrying forward fewer long positions despite the market falling nearly 3% since the war began last Saturday through 24,450.45 last Friday.The value of the marketwide calls exceeded that of marketwide puts by ₹2.71 trillion on Friday, down from ₹4.34 trillion a week ago before the war began, said Rohit Srivastava, founder of analytics firm IndiaCharts."This decline clearly indicates that bulls are not buying the dip, in turn reflecting the lingering uncertainty among investors amid the escalation of the West Asia conflict," said Srivastava.He added that the figure of ₹2.71 trillion worth of excess calls over puts was close to the historic mean of ₹2.5-2.6 trillion, an "anomaly" after the recent market fall.

Quick-commerce operator Zepto Ltd is targeting a late April deadline for filing updated documents for an initial public offering (IPO) with India's market regulator, even as it faces valuation concerns, said three people aware of the matter.Zepto's December 2025 confidential filing is likely to be cleared in another four weeks, one of the people quoted earlier said–all three spoke on the condition of anonymity. Following the clearance, Zepto plans to file its updated draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) before the end of April, this person added.An updated prospectus is a public disclosure of the share sale details to investors after confidential filings.

Arnya Real Estates Fund Advisors and developer Supreme Universal have raised ₹1,030 crore for Arnya Real Estate Fund—Equity, from domestic and offshore investors, including family offices and ultra-rich individuals, marking the first close for the equity platform.The capital raised also includes around ₹220 crore of equity committed by the two sponsors. Arnya Real Estates will manage the fund, while Mumbai-based Supreme Universal will develop the projects.Arnya Real Estates has raised the capital for the platform via a Sebi-registered category II alternative investment fund (AIF)—Arnya Real Estate Fund-Equity.The two partners had announced the launch of a residential real estate platform in November that will develop housing projects in Mumbai and Pune.

crisis in West Asia intensifying, there is lacklustre sentiment among both importers and exporters due to higher freight costs and logistical uncertainties. Things are likely to be clear in due course of time," said Vikas Jain, proprietor, Osho Marketing House, a Delhi-based export firm.“Though global wheat prices have increased, it could have been a good opportunity for Indian farmers and traders to earn better returns through exports.

Mint.The proposal follows recommendations by the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) at a meeting held in February. The board also called for a strict ban on sales to minors and closer monitoring of online platforms to prevent easy access.In India, NRT products including nicotine gums and lozenges are regulated as drugs under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act as they are used to reduce tobacco dependence.

If you thought 2025 was a tough transition, 2026 now seems to have plenty more surprises in store. India, in particular, has to trek through two tricky minefields over the next 10 months: energy security and technological flux. These two prickly issues will have to fight for the political leadership’s mind-space, cluttered as it is with tricky geopolitics, rising unemployment, sticky economic growth and an always-on electoral cycle.