India Financial News

The escalating US-Iran conflict has wreaked havoc on market sentiment, leaving investors anxious about spiking crude oil prices and the economic fallout of a prolonged confrontation. This instability carries significant implications for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies, particularly with the threat of supply disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint for global energy.Consequently, Indian firms with meaningful exposure to the Middle East are facing heightened near-term volatility.

CDs near maturity, they reflect as outflows in the next 30 days, dragging down the LCR.“We expect a sharp decline in LCR for Q4FY2026 driven by huge CD issuance in past months. However, this decline shall be recouped partially with the revised LCR norms effective 1 April, which is driven by lower outflow rates on certain other deposits,” said Gupta.In December 2025, banks raised a total of ₹1.56 trillion through 176 CD issuances, followed by ₹1.48 trillion in January through 111 CDs and ₹2.67 trillion in February, according to data provided by Prime Database.In 2025, banks raised ₹13.4 trillion through 1,446 CD issuances, higher than the ₹12.33 trillion raised via 1,284 issuances in 2024, data from Prime Database showed.The spurt in CD issuances comes as credit growth continues to outpace deposit accretion.

India’s energy regulator is moving to plug a widening hole in the country’s gas supply chain as the conflict in West Asia threatens supplies of natural gas that is vital to power, fertiliser and city gas distribution networks.According to two people aware of developments, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) is preparing to propose overground storage facilities for natural gas near the country’s existing LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminals—India currently has eight such terminals. The storage would be used for both commercial purposes and for strategic requirements during exigencies, they said.“PNGRB may propose the government to set up storage reserves for LNG, preferably near existing terminals to support India’s growing demand at times of exigencies and ensure energy security,” one of the two people said on the condition of anonymity, adding that the regulator would approach the ministry of petroleum and natural gas to frame rules under the PNGRB Act.The urgency follows a halt in tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which carries more than half of India’s LNG imports, and a spike in prices of LNG after an attack on QatarEnergy’s Ras Laffan complex on Monday.The move assumes significance considering India imports 55% of its gas requirement and holds barely 20 days of inventory—including supplies in transit.

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

Jammu and Kashmir, the strain on the region’s hydropower sector is growing, exposing the risks facing an energy economy built on snow-fed rivers.The scale of the disruption is already visible in weather data. According to the India Meteorological Department, the Union territory has recorded an overall rainfall and snowfall deficit of 39% during this winter season, with most districts witnessing significantly below-normal precipitation.

The market’s reaction to the joint US-Israel strikes on Iran wasn't exactly subtle. The war is choking the Strait of Hormuz, hurting tanker flows and causing oil markets to react. Brent crude price is now at $78 a barrel.Back home, the benchmark Nifty 50 index fell by 1.2% on Monday, while shares of state-run Indian oil marketing companies (OMCs) were down around 4%.

Mint shows the standards establish common definitions for cloud systems, introduce performance metrics for data centres, and embed ethical considerations within AI system design, formalizing the technical and governance backbone of India’s AI expansion.The standards have been notified under Sub-rule (1) of Rule 15 of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Rules, 2018. They are Indian Standards derived from international ISO/IEC frameworks.For now, they are not mandatory.

AIFs. Unlike mutual funds that pool in investors' money to invest primarily in listed equities and bonds, AIFs are also pooled investments but can invest beyond securities and bonds to invest in less traditional assets such as private equity, venture capital, real estate and hedge funds.“My allocation to AIFs was driven by one simple realization that traditional instruments capture broad market beta, but they rarely provide access to early-stage alpha.

₹26,000 crore. Over 10 crore folios are active. By most measures, India is making meaningful progress on wealth creation.Yet a gap remained.

₹1,000 crore over the last two years in acquiring stakes in startups such as BlackBuck, OfBusiness, Purplle, Shiprocket and BlueStone.The size of the first fund was about ₹300 crore, followed by a ₹400-crore second fund. The third fund is likely to have a corpus of ₹500 crore and will go live shortly, Oister’s co-founder and co-chief executive officer Sandeep Sinha told Mint in an interview.

The 16th Finance Commission (FC) report, covering 2026-31, arrives at a consequential moment for India’s fiscal federalism. It is wide-ranging, analytically rich and notable for making underlying data publicly available.

OpenAI, the creator of foundational artificial intelligence behind ChatGPT, announced on Friday that it has signed a deal with the Pentagon. It allows the US department of war (DoW), formerly the department of defense, to use the Sam Altman-led company's models in classified environments.That has raised eyebrows and questions over the use of the OpenAI technology stack in India, among the largest markets for AI and the fastest adopter of the technology worldwide.

₹345.47 trillion ($3.93 trillion)—3.26% lower than the ₹357.14 trillion estimate published in January under the 2011-12 series.The downward revision stems from those earlier overestimations. In an interaction with Mint, the statistics ministry confirmed that proxy indicators used in the older series had led to overestimations, validating concerns raised by economists, policymakers and researchers for nearly a decade.But the shrinkage is only part of the story.

A new term that entered the lexicon after India’s budget for 2026-27 was the ‘orange economy.’ Synonymous with the creative economy, it is emerging as a formidable engine of growth that transcends traditional industrial boundaries. Once viewed as niche, the intersection of culture, technology and intellectual property now accounts for roughly 3.1% of global GDP and 6.2% of all employment.For a country like India, where recent budgetary initiatives recognize the strategic value of creative assets, the growth of this sector offers more than just economic expansion.

In today’s ‘digital-first’ times, is it possible the last handwritten note you received was from a grateful small business thanking you for your purchase? These little touches—a personalized feedback request on WhatsApp or a delighted repost of your review on social media—can turn one-off transactions into sustained customer relationships. In these simple yet meaningful ways, small businesses across India are leaning on direct channels and tech infrastructure to connect with buyers.

India is preparing for one of the biggest overhauls of its highway tolling architecture since the rollout of FASTag. Instead of the previously considered Global Navigation Satellite System-based tolling model, the ministry of road transport and highways and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) now plan to implement the Multi-Lane Free-Flow electronic toll collection system across the country’s 146,560-km national highway network.

agriculture, with a significant intervention underway in Maharashtra. The state government has structured a large programme that brings in private sector participation on the generation side while farmers remain the primary beneficiaries.

The American-Israeli attack on Iran raises a number of vital questions for India and the rest of the world, delving into which is necessary to make the best of a bad situation. The prices of oil and liquefied natural gas have begun to rise as Iran attempts to choke the Strait of Hormuz, through which about one in every fourth barrel of all seaborne crude oil moves. If this grip lasts, it will make energy imports dearer, weaken the rupee and give inflation a cost-push.

India’s manufacturing sector is doing better than we thought, as the Union statistics ministry’s revised GDP estimates showed last week. The purchasing managers index (PMI) could have a told-you-so moment, given how it has been showing robust readings now for an extended period. The HSBC India Manufacturing PMI, compiled by S&P Global, rose to a four-month high of 56.9 in February.

₹1 trillion towards highway construction in FY27, potentially marking the largest annual private sector investment in India’s roads sector, according to two people aware of the matter.Projects worth around ₹35,000 crore, reserved exclusively for private participation under the build-operate-transfer (toll) model, are likely to be bid out in the first three months of the next fiscal year, according to the first person cited above.Detailed project reports for projects worth ₹50,000–60,000 crore are being finalised and are expected to be opened for bidding in the third and fourth quarters of FY27.“As all these would be BOT (toll) projects, the private sector is expected to give investment commitments of close to ₹1 trillion for building greenfield highways,” the person said.The push signals a renewed push to crowd in private capital after years of limited activity under build-operate-transfer (BOT) model.

Information technology services has been among the most talked-about sectors in the Indian market over the past few days, driven by sharp swings in sentiment and price action.On Tuesday the Nifty IT Index slipped nearly 4% to its lowest in about 10 months, highlighting the extent of the pressure on technology stocks. However, the trend seemed to reverse on 25 February, when Indian IT stocks staged a strong rebound.