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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. As the world continues to dissect the latest season of comedy-drama The White Lotus, the mood at luxury label house Verandah is cheerful. It’s been that way since the series trailer launched last year and the label’s kaftan was seen on Sritala Hollinger (Thai actor Lek Patravadi).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.American hospitality chain Marriott International is betting on a surge in outbound Indian travellers despite temporary disruptions from the West Asia war and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for austerity, with this growth likely to reshape customer loyalty programmes that reward customers with points and perks for repeat stays.The company said loyalty-conscious Indian travellers are increasingly driving demand across Southeast and East Asia, and now expect far more from hotel loyalty programmes than simple earn-and-burn on room nights, including upgrades and experiences beyond stays.“We’re seeing Indian travellers explode into Southeast Asia -- not just Thailand -- but in every destination, from Bali to Japan to South Korea, this summer,” said John Toomey, chief commercial officer for Asia Pacific (excluding Greater China) for Marriott International. He attributed part of the growth to rising air connectivity, led by IndiGo and Air India.The hospitality chain expects travel demand to remain strong through the summer months, with a significant jump in June and July compared to the same time last year.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Every month, Mint’s Plain Facts gives you an update on key global data to help you thread together the biggest developments 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 could have an impact on India.After months of steady cooling, consumer prices are rising once again as the escalating war in West Asia continues to disrupt energy markets and global supply chains.The inflationary shock is most severe in import-reliant Asian economies.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: The US-Iran war has crimped energy supplies, raised fuel prices, threatens to spike India’s import bill and thus strain its foreign exchange reserves. It was in this context that Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to citizens on Sunday to cut fuel use, avoid unnecessary overseas travel and explore domestic destinations instead.For some affluent Indian travellers, that shift is already underway—India's premium domestic destinations are seeing stronger demand, higher occupancies and rising room tariffs this summer.A Delhi-based family of nine abandoned their usual summer plan of a European holiday as business class tickets surged past ₹5 lakh a seat on some key routes, nearly double the typical fares.

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.The Trump administration announced criminal charges, sanctions and multimillion-dollar rewards aimed at combating online scams coming out of Southeast Asia and targeting Americans.The measures—some of which were directed at a Cambodian senator featured in a recent Wall Street Journal investigation into cyber-scam operations in the country—are the latest attempt by the U.S. to stem the fast-growing illicit industry.Americans alone lost $10 billion to online fraud originating from Southeast Asian nations in 2024, according to U.S.

Since US President Donald Trump started hiking tariffs last year, many commentators have called attention to Asian exporters’ resilience. But the narrowly concentrated gains in Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand have been driven primarily by electronics, obscuring the sharp divisions that a protectionist US and an export-reliant China are perpetuating across the region. Beyond electronics exports, other sectors are being undercut, leading several governments to announce targeted support measures for firms and consumers, even as headline growth has headed higher.

Indian audio and video content, usually considered a draw for domestic audiences and specific diasporic markets, is now finding a home in unusual export destinations.Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Philippines are among the countries where Indian content is popular, according to the Content Trends Report launched recently at the Content India Summit 2026, organized by Dish TV.Experts said this demand is not diaspora-led, unlike more established markets such as the US or the UK. Instead, it appears to be driven by cultural alignment.

. is looking to capitalise on that shift, betting on city hotels and experiential resorts.“Travel is shifting, with Asia, including India, likely to benefit as some European and West Asia-bound tourists who may divert their travels from elsewhere,” said William E. Heinecke, founder and chairperson of Minor International, which runs hotel brands like Avani and Anantara.It’s the right time to focus on India, he told Mint. "There’s tremendous potential for both domestic and international travel here,” said Heinecke, who is in India to attend the Hotelivate hospitality conference in Mumbai this week.The Thailand-based hotel company is signing an Anantara at the World Trade Centre in Kolkata this month.

The swimwear market is being transformed as fitness and geopolitical shifts in travel have diverted millions of vacationers to pools and beaches in India. The sector, which nearly doubled to ₹8.5 billion over the last five years, is shedding its seasonal reputation as more people use it as a year-round low-impact cardio exercise.This surge is bringing a wave of direct-to-consumer (D2C) firms, challenging Speedo's decade-long dominance.

Mint. “There's been strong extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations in place for over a decade and that has now evolved into mandatory recycled content regulations as well.”The firm announced a first close of $220 million for its second fund, which has a targeted corpus of $300 million.

trade deficit and high gold imports.The impact of the war-led disruptions—built on top of the calibrated depreciation—pushed the rupee towards a level not previously anticipated. Even then, economists believe that the RBI should not defend the rupee too much as it may provide temporary relief, but could stoke sharper depreciation later."If this is a long-drawn-out crisis, you want to preserve your forex reserves because when we got into trouble in 2013, our reserves went down, then the taper tantrum made it worse," said Gaura Sengupta, chief economist at IDFCFirst Bank.Forex reserves declined 3.4% and 0.6% in FY12 and FY13, but failed to arrest the rupee’s decline.

trade deficit of nearly $100 billion with China. Local production funded by FDI could substitute a part of these imports.Second, net FDI inflows have fallen significantly in recent years, making new sources of capital increasingly valuable.Third, the Israel–Iran war has once again exposed India’s energy vulnerabilities.

conflict and disruptions to flows.IEA projects global oil supply to plunge by 8 mbpd in March. With that, an old nemesis of central banks may return: elevated inflation and muted economic growth. Every 10% rise in oil prices that persists for a year leads to 40 basis point growth in global headline inflation and a 0.1–0.2% decline in global output, estimates the IMF.Higher energy prices feed into transport and food costs, pressurizing household budgets.

Mumbai: The Indian stock markets slumped to their weakest weekly performance in 14 months, after conflict erupted in the Middle East between the US, Israel and Iran on 28 February.Benchmark indices NSE Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex dropped nearly 3% through the week, marking their steepest decline since the week ended 22 December 2024, when markets had corrected over 4% amid concerns over the US Federal Reserve’s hawkish stance and rising bond yields.On Friday, the Nifty 50 fell 1.27% to close at 24,450.45, while the Sensex declined 1.37% to end at 78,918.88, extending their decline following the prior session’s relief rally.Rising crude oil prices and continued selling by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) weighed on sentiment. Currency weakness added further pressure, with the rupee hitting a record low of 92.1488 against the US dollar on 4 March (Wednesday).Market volatility also spiked during the week, with the India VIX (Volatility Index)—a measure of the market’s expectation of volatility in the Indian stock market over the next 30 days—rising from 13.70 to 19.88, signalling heightened investor nervousness and expectations of larger market swings ahead.To be sure, Indian equities’ fall was milder than several Asian markets.

The Estée Lauder Companies has signed an agreement to acquire the stake it doesn’t already own in Indian luxury beauty company Forest Essentials, with the transaction expected to close in the second half of 2026, said Stéphane de La Faverie, president and chief executive officer of The Estée Lauder Companies.The deal completes an 18-year partnership with the luxury Ayurveda brand, which was founded by Mira Kulkarni.Forest Essentials sells Ayurvedic skincare and haircare products and competes with premium labels such as Kama Ayurveda. Estée Lauder had a 49% stake in the company in 2013, which it increased from a 20% stake it took in 2008.Speaking to Mint, La Faverie, said, “Today, this brand is the leader in prestige skincare in India, which is still a very small segment of the larger beauty business in India.

Domestic equities tumbled under relentless selling pressure on Monday as the US-Israel and Iran conflict stoked fears of elevated crude oil prices and clouded India Inc’s earnings outlook for the coming quarters.India’s benchmark Nifty 50 fell 1.2% to 24,865.7, tracking weakness across Asian markets, though it fared marginally better than most emerging peers. Thailand led the declines, plunging nearly 4%, followed by Indonesia and Hong Kong, where benchmark indices slipped 2-3%.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Mumbai: Smart supply-chain manoeuvres and assembling in the United States helped India’s top solar panel exporter Waaree Energies maintain its lucrative trade with the country in the face of steep 50% tariffs on India, even as the exports of its main domestic rival Adani New Industries Limited faltered. Waaree sourced solar cells, the building blocks of solar panels, from suppliers in Southeast Asia to escape the crippling tariffs levied on India, the company’s management said during recent investor calls, as the US tariffs on solar panel imports are levied based on the country of origin of the solar cells rather than the country where the panels are assembled.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: India plans to impose anti-dumping duties on ethambutol hydrochloride—a critical input used in tuberculosis (TB) medicines—to curb cheap imports from China and Thailand, according to a government order reviewed by Mint.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Few questions are as revealing today as how the world’s two largest economies—the US and China—differ in their economic approaches. In Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future (2025), Dan Wang offers a useful lens.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: India’s drug regulator has signalled zero-tolerance for polio-related risk, turning down a proposal by National Dairy Development Board's (NDDB) subsidiary Indian Immunologicals Ltd (IIL) to start human trials of its ‘six-in-one’ paediatric vaccine over concerns it could undermine the country’s polio-free status, according to two government officials and documents reviewed by Mint.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India slipped to the sixth position on Mint’s emerging market tracker in December 2025, as weakness across multiple external indicators dragged its composite score lower despite continued strength in broader economic growth and manufacturing activity. This marked the worst performance since February 2025, when the same indicators emerged as weak spots.