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A viral video clip of McDonald’s CEO Christopher Kempczinski eating the fast-food chain’s Big Arch burger has been memed and roasted across the internet. It surely cost him a little bit of his dignity. But that’s a small price to pay for the equivalent of millions of dollars in free publicity.

Mint India Investment Summit 2026, held in Mumbai last week.Shaji Varghese, chief executive officer of Muthoot Fincorp, said that of India’s 60 million small businesses, only 20–30% have access to credit, underscoring the critical role NBFCs play in bridging the gap. “That relevance is only further pronounced now.

Water is life. Our lives, environment and livelihoods depend on this vital resource. As we aspire to a new India, we stand at a crossroads in our water management journey.

Godrej Enterprises is planning price hikes of 6% to 10% across categories from April, as rising input costs, freight rates, and supply disruptions continue to put pressure on margins, Kamal Nandi, business head (appliances) at Godrej Enterprises Group, told Mint.“Largely, the prices are going up due to the shortage in key raw materials like plastic, which are dependent on crude oil, rupee weakening and shortages in liquified petroleum gas (LPG) and piped natural gas (PNG).”Intex Technologies expects to raise AC prices by around 4-5% and washing machines by about 5-6%, even as it tries to absorb a significant portion of the cost escalation internally to limit the impact on consumers, Keshav Bansal, director at the appliance maker, said.Hisense India is closely monitoring the evolving situation and may consider price hikes of 7-10% in the second week of April, depending on how demand trends and competitive responses unfold, according to chief executive Pankaj Rana.The war-led disruption comes at the start of the crucial summer season, when demand for cooling appliances peaks, forcing companies to balance margin protection with sustaining sales.“We are seeing simultaneous cost increases across plastics, metals and packaging, which is very unusual and is putting pressure across all product categories at once,” Bansal said.While prices typically rise ahead of the season, the increase is far more pronounced this year, creating a dual challenge of rising costs and uncertain consumer demand.Madhur Singhal, managing partner (consumer and internet) at consultancy Praxis Global Alliance, said companies are likely to take upfront price increases rather than staggered hikes through the season.

Three of India’s mid-sized IT companies—Persistent Systems Ltd, Hexaware Technologies Ltd and Firstsource Solutions Ltd—are looking to scale up their business and employ more people outside the US, which makes up more than three-fifths of their business. This mirrors the trend of their larger peers shifting their focus from the US to Europe and growth markets including Asia and South Africa.From acquisitions and large deals to strategic employee hubs, India, Australia, South Africa and West Asia are emerging as the key hotspots for these mid-sized IT services companies earning $1 billion to $5 billion in revenue as they look to insulate themselves from macroeconomic tensions and tap new growth markets.Persistent Systems, the country’s ninth-largest IT services company, got about 80% of its $1.41 billion revenue from North America.

For foreign investors backing Indian equities, the financial year 2026 was one they would rather forget. It was a period dotted with global disruptions, starting with US-led tariff uncertainties and ending amid the US-Israel-Iran war.

India’s retail brokers are bracing for a sharp erosion in active clients and revenue as the escalating West Asia war threatens to further dampen market sentiment and trading activity.The active retail client base of brokerages has already shrunk over the past year due to muted, rangebound markets and the impact of regulatory curbs on derivatives trading. The outflow of active clients is set to intensify from March as the US-Iran war increases the risk of more retail investors stepping away from the stock market.“Broker revenues are down 20-30% across the industry year on year.

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Mint, he said such corrections often create compelling entry points for long-term investors.Markets tend to react sharply to geopolitical events, especially in the early stages. However, over time, volatility usually stabilizes as markets adjust. What makes the current situation more complex for India is its dependence on energy imports.

The Iran war has laid bare a paradox: Gulf money is helping underwrite America’s effort to win the artificial intelligence race, and now the US has started a conflict that could destabilize those investments. Some estimates have projected $2 trillion in long-term pledges from Middle Eastern nations to the AI boom, money that now looks precarious.

Amid the US-Israel war with Iran, concerns are growing about the safety of subsea cables in West Asia—the hidden network that carries most of the world’s internet. A large part of India’s data travels through these cables, many of which pass through regions now at risk of conflict.

Vietnam War. It was 8 June 1972. Dozens of children were running for safety after the US bombing in Vietnam’s Trang Bang region.

Mint India Investment Summit, Ravishankar said India’s AI opportunity lies less in outspending global leaders and more in building useful products quickly and cost-effectively at scale, leveraging the country’s deep engineering talent.He outlined two broader areas where Indian startups can still create large businesses, even if the country is not yet at the cutting edge of global AI development.The first opportunity, he said, is that India will be a quick adopter of AI across large, everyday use cases. As AI tools improve, many familiar consumer and service categories could be reimagined from the ground up, he said.“India will be a fast follower and a quick consumer of AI in areas such as customer support, citizen services, travel and jobs, where new companies are beginning to rebuild internet products with AI at the centre,” Ravishankar said.The second opportunity lies in the layers around AI itself: infrastructure, software and tools that help other companies build and use AI products.Ravishankar said Indian teams are well-placed because of the country’s large developer base and growing technical talent pool.

Why it’s recommended: Strong presence in the US generics market, diversified product portfolio, robust R&D capabilities, improving margins and cost control, growth in the speciality and injectables segment, healthy balance sheet, consistent revenue growth, backward integration benefits, expanding global footprint, and regulatory compliance improvements.Key metrics: P/E: 21.34 | 52-week high: ₹1,330.00 | Volume: ₹245.07 croreTechnical analysis: Cup-base breakoutRisk factors: The USFDA regulatory risks, pricing pressure in generics, high dependence on the US market, currency fluctuation impact, litigation and compliance risks, API business volatility, intense industry competition, delay in product approvals, margin pressure risk, and geopolitical and export risks.Buy: ₹1,300-1,320Target price: ₹1,450 in two to three monthsStop loss: ₹1,240Why it’s recommended: Government-owned status with strong backing, integrated power and mining business, consistent profitability track record, expansion into renewable energy, large capex growth plans, stable cash flows due to utility nature, diversification into EV and storage, improving revenue growth trend, decent margins over cycles, and strategic importance in the energy sector.Key metrics: P/E:13.46 | 52-week high: ₹292.20 | Volume: ₹67.59 croreTechnical analysis: Reclaimed its 21-DMARisk factors: High capex leading to cash flow pressure, dependence on lignite and thermal power, regulatory and environmental risks, long gestation project risks, possibility of increased debt, power tariff regulation risk, execution risk in expansion plans, uncertainty in renewable transition, commodity and fuel price risk, and PSU-related governance constraints.Buy at: ₹268-271Target price: ₹298 in

Future wealth will be driven by active stock-picking, identifying newer growth segments currently outside the major indices and holding them through their growth phase, said Viraj Gandhi, chief executive officer (CEO) of Samco Mutual Fund.“In this volatile environment, shifting from a passive mindset to an active, selective strategy is the only way to navigate the new investment horizon.”Even as current market conditions offer a strong buying opportunity, he believes the old passive-playbook approach of sticking to large-cap indices is unlikely to work.Edited excerpts:The outlook depends on key leading indicators. If crude stays elevated for the next three to twelve months, fuelling global inflation, this could be the start of a deeper fall.

the New York Times. This is to give Trump additional military options even as he weighs a new diplomatic initiative with the Islamic republic, according to the report.“About 2,300 Marines from the 31st Expeditionary Unit are scheduled to arrive in the Middle East later this week, and U.S.

The Wall Street Journal has reported. That would add to roughly 5,000 Marines and 2,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division already ordered to the region. The additional troops would likely include infantry, armored vehicles and logistics support.That’s far fewer than the 150,000 troops the U.S.

BPCL) signed a long-term contract to procure 12 million barrels of crude in 2026-27 from Petrobras in January this year, renewing a previous contract signed in 2025.While Brazil is largely self-sufficient in crude oil production, it has one “vulnerability”, according to Nóbrega. “One vulnerability is that we are self-sufficient in crude oil production, but we are not self-sufficient in refined oil,” he said, adding that diesel is required for a bulk of the freight transport in the country by road and rail.“India also could install refineries in Brazil because you are one of the largest countries in terms of oil refining,” he said, noting that one of India’s biggest exports to the largest country in South America is refined oils, including diesel.India has a refining capacity of 258 million tonnes per year and has helped countries such as Nigeria and Mongolia develop refineries.

The US Department of Labor has proposed new rules with a near 11% increase in base wages for new H-1B visa applicants, a move that could raise costs for large information technology (IT) services firms which deploy significant visa-linked talent.As per a 26 March notification, the changes would lift pay benchmarks by at least $14,500 across entry-level and experienced hires, as Washington said it looks to curb “misuse” of the visa programme and bring foreign worker wages closer to parity with those of US employees. Going by this, an employee working on an H-1B visa in the US, who earned a base wage of $133,850 last fiscal year, would now earn about $148,439.The department has invited feedback on the new rules on or before 60 days of publishing of the draft.H-1B visas are non-immigrant visas that allow foreign nationals to temporarily work in the US in specialized occupations, including IT services-related work.The US department said the move aims to curb abuse of such visas "by reducing the incentive to displace American workers with low-wage foreign visa holders.”“This proposed rule will help ensure that employers pay foreign workers wages that reflect the real market value of their labor, in addition to protecting the wages and job opportunities of American workers," said Lori Chavez-DeRemer, US Secretary of Labour, as part of the Labour Department’s press release dated 26 March.

hospitals, and since only 20–25% of work is outsourced today, there is still a lot of room to grow. This could act as a tailwind for Sagility’s services.The type of work is also changing. Clients now want partners who can handle bigger and more complex tasks, not just basic services.