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Mint explains.India’s housing sector recorded its second consecutive year of declining sales in 2025, as high prices eroded affordability. Despite a fall in sales volume, rising prices led to growth in transaction value, as developers moved towards premium housing.In contrast, commercial real estate surged, with strong leasing momentum for good office space. Flexible workspaces gained more favour among occupiers and investors, as leading operators such as WeWork India Management Ltd, Indiqube Spaces Ltd, Smartworks Coworking Spaces Ltd went public.Global capability centres (GCCs) emerged as a key office occupier class in the top-tier cities.

Bengaluru: The nationwide strike called by gig workers against food delivery platforms such as Swiggy and Zomato on New Year’s Eve was largely ineffective as riders didn’t want to lose the chance to earn additional income after companies offered financial incentives for a day.Zomato set peak-hour rates at around ₹120 to ₹150 per order during the early evening to midnight on New Year’s Eve, according to its letter to delivery partners reviewed by Mint. Depending on order volumes and availability, riders had the potential to earn around ₹3,000 throughout the day.

New Delhi: India’s two-wheeler market has just logged a record year, crossing 20 million units in sales, but the milestone comes with a fresh bout of regulatory uncertainty. Manufacturers are still awaiting a formal notification on the Centre’s proposal to mandate anti-lock braking systems (ABS) on all two-wheelers below 125 cc from 1 January.Even as the cost increase-wary industry pushes for a combined braking system (CBS) as an alternative, Mint explains why the government is pressing ahead with ABS and the safety trade-offs at the centre of the debate.For one, India is the world’s biggest two-wheeler market by sales.

Mint. They argue that the Centre’s recent record of meeting deficit targets provides enough credibility and momentum to navigate the next phase of consolidation.“The discipline built over the past few years gives us room to navigate the current volatility without losing sight of the medium-term path,” said one of the persons mentioned above, who spoke under the condition of anonymity.According to this official, the Centre expects to end FY26 with a fiscal deficit of about 4.3% of GDP, slightly better than the 4.4% target, lifted by stronger dividends from state-run financial institutions and banks, a hefty transfer from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and buoyant non-tax revenues.The second official acknowledged near-term turbulence but maintained it does not derail the trajectory.“If revenues remain broadly stable and we keep our capital spending disciplined and purposeful, the medium-term trajectory stays intact,” the official above said.Recent reports indicate the Centre will likely limit fiscal deficit to 4.1-4.2% in FY27, keeping it aligned with the glide path to the FY31 debt goal.The central government’s debt stood at 57.1% of nominal GDP in FY25, according to FY26 union budget documents, which proposed a shift to debt-to-GDP targeting.

New Delhi: India’s top manufacturers of scooters, motorcycles and cars are set to close the year on a record high, with two-wheeler retail registrations crossing 20 million and four-wheeler registrations crossing 4.3 million for the first time.According to data from the government's Vahan portal, which records vehicle registrations after they have been sold at dealerships, two-wheeler registrations grew by 7% to 20.2 million units in 2025, breaking the all-time record of 19.6 million registrations in 2018. Meanwhile, passenger vehicle registrations (cars, sports utility vehicles and vans) grew 9% year-on-year to 4.38 million units, also a new record.This growth is reflected in investors' bullishness for the automobile sector, with the Nifty Auto rising 22% during the year, against 10% for the benchmark Nifty 50.Independent analysts have noted over the past few days that the automobile sector as a whole benefited from the goods and services tax (GST) cuts in September, helping it achieve record-high sales.“Following the GST rationalization, demand has picked up across segments and seems to have remained intact even after the festive season.

₹10 crore, compared with ₹1 crore earlier (excluding penalties of up to ₹5 lakh per day for delayed compliance).Delayed filings of claim details, including date of filing and reason for rejection, could lead to penalties as high as ₹1 lakh per day. It can even conduct search and seizures on insurers, brokers, banks, non-banking finance companies, distributors or third-party associates in case of tampering of proof or documents for fraud.The new bill also formally recognises repositories for e-policy servicing.These moves could collectively rebuild trust in insurance and enhance insurance adoption in India, which dropped to 3.7% in the last fiscal year from 4% in 2023-24, even as non-life insurers witnessed a rise in net incurred claims ratio to 82.88% in 2024-25.“India still has relatively low insurance penetration and uneven social security coverage.

In 2025, private equity and venture capital firms extracted the largest sum of cash from India’s initial public offerings (IPOs) in four years, even as their share in the country’s primary market shrank to its lowest in at least a decade. While these investors offloaded ₹20,643 crore worth of stock in 2025, they backed fewer than one in five listings, compared to around one in four in 2024 and around one in three in 2023.According to market statistics compiled by data intelligence firm Prime Database, the value of PE/VC-backed IPO stake sales this year was the highest since the all-time high of ₹31,684 crore in 2021, which came during a period of high global liquidity and a surge in technology listings following the covid pandemic.Despite the increase in the absolute value of exits, the proportion of PE/VC-backed companies within the broader IPO landscape has declined steadily over the past decade.

Despite domestic equities becoming the worst-performing among emerging markets in 2025, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have continued to invest in India through its primary markets, and the trend is expected to persist next year.Investment bankers and money managers have attributed this trend to FPIs' conviction in the country's long-term structural growth prospects, even as the cohorts tactically reduce their cash market exposure due to a range of factors, including softer US interest rates and a slowdown in earnings growth.While FPIs have net sold a record ₹2.34 trillion of cash or secondary market shares this calendar year, following steeper valuations compared to emerging market (EM) peers amid an earnings growth pause, their purchases through the primary route at ₹73,749 crore this year have been the second-highest, only to the record ₹80,314 crore inflows in 2021.This bullishness on India is also evident historically. From 2015 to the end of 2025, FPIs have been net sellers six out of 11 times in the cash market.

Mint. However, the changes are unlikely to win NFRA’s backing, which has already approved its own, tougher version of the Standard on Auditing (SA) 600 and referred it to the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) for notification, said a person informed about the development.SA 600 in its current form allows the lead auditor to rely on the work of a subsidiary’s auditor, subject to safeguards.

One, draconian limits on refugees: Admissions had grown under Joe Biden, swamping US support systems.On Trump’s first day in office, he pivoted to the other extreme with an executive order that shut the Refugee Admissions Program, leaving thousands of refugees stranded, including those with applications in process. The new admission rate is just 7,500.Trump has decried immigrants from what he calls ‘Third World’ countries and been vocal about a preference for White immigrants.

Meanwhile, the companies creating the AI superstructure are having a golden run on the stock market. Valuations of companies making advanced chips, hardware, data centres, or AI engines are loaded with expectations that AI will find ample and utilitarian business use-cases. Some of the large investment and sourcing deals across these AI companies are interlinked, and fragility in one part of the chain can have a cascading effect.

Dear reader, as 2025, a year of global tumult and volatility, rolls by, Mint's reporters and columnists look around the corner on what is coming in 2026—to help you know what to expect and prepare for it. Tell us what you think at [email protected]. Mumbai: After plummeting over 6% in 2025 and breaching the psychologically-important 90-per-dollar mark, the Indian rupee is heading into 2026 carrying the weight of weak capital flows, global trade uncertainty and shifting central bank strategy.Yet, beneath the headline depreciation, economists and market participants said the outlook for the currency next year is far from one-way depreciation and hinges crucially on how the external sector evolves, especially India's trade deal with the US.At the heart of the debate is whether this year's weakness marks the start of a more prolonged downcycle or a painful, but necessary adjustment.“Typically, the rupee needs to depreciate to the extent of the interest rate differential between the US and India, but the reality is that the external front has been hit hard by US tariffs," Neeraj Gambhir, executive firector at Axis Bank said.

on the Nifty and the Bank Nifty by 120,022 contracts on Friday from 53,442 contracts on Wednesday, as per data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Markets were shut on Thursday for Christmas.FPIs increased their cumulative net short calls by 13,953 contracts from 2,422 contracts during this period, while retail and high-net-worth investors and domestic institutional investors were net buyers.Calls are generally sold when traders expect the markets to remain flat or correct.

Apple Inc. has notched another feat in India – fuelled by easy credit, cashbacks and aspirational Indians, the iPhone 16 is now the country’s highest-selling smartphone, eclipsing the most popular budget model from China’s Vivo.The iPhone 16 series, launched about 15 months ago, sold 6.5 million units in the first 11 months of 2025, according to data from Gurugram-based Counterpoint Research.

From India and New Zealand wrapping up trade talks in record time to the Centre planning a higher outlay on rail safety, a drop in overseas education remittances, shifts in the rural job guarantee burden, and a record US court payout in the Johnson & Johnson talc case—here's a compilation of this week's news in numbers.The Centre is likely to announce an outlay of over ₹1.3 trillion in FY27 on rail safety in the Union budget, about 12% higher than the current fiscal’s amount of ₹1.2 trillion, Mint reported. Funds would be used for rolling stock maintenance, track renewals, and expanding Kavach—India’s automatic train protection system.This marks a shift in the government’s focus towards railway safety: the outlay was up only 2% in FY26.

Dear reader, as 2025, a year of global tumult and volatility, rolls by, Mint's reporters and columnists look around the corner on what is coming in 2026—to help you know what to expect and prepare for it. Tell us what you think at [email protected] struggled to protect farmers as the country’s agrarian distress worsened in 2025.Severe monsoon rains caused devastating floods in Punjab, inundating almost 200,000 hectares of farmland, besides damaging crops in Haryana and Maharashtra, notably the Marathwada region.

several new records in both nominal and inflation-adjusted terms. Silver has also soared, sweeping up legions of amateur investors, ranging from newly committed collectors to Reddit-inspired speculators trading in and out of exchange-traded funds that offer exposure to silver without having to store it.Silver futures have climbed 145% this year to around $71 a troy ounce, blowing through a 45-year record in October and only picking up steam from there.

Mint, Honest Shelters has agreed to pay Interscape, a Mumbai-based architecture and interior decoration firm, ₹4.8 crore against total dues of ₹5.21 crore. The developer had already paid ₹1.05 crore prior to the settlement and committed to clearing the remaining amount in instalments by 31 December.The order records that Saloni Sulakhe of law firm Dhaval Vussonji & Associates, appearing for Honest Shelters, handed over cheques worth ₹3.75 crore to Interscape’s counsel in court.The settlement removes one more legal hurdle for a project that has been mired in delays since its inception over 15 years ago.

rabi crops. "The cold wave conditions in north and other parts of the country are currently conducive to rabi crops and we don't see any major impact," said Ratan Tiwari, director, Indian Council of Agricultural Resrach-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR), Karnal.India’s rabi crop sowing in 2025–26 has recorded a notable increase in coverage compared to the previous year, with total area sown rising by more than 8 lakh hectares, according to data released by the Union ministry of agriculture & farmers’ welfare on Monday.

By 2027, the world's electricity consumption is expected to rise by about 8300 TWh, with emerging economies making the largest contribution.India's 1700 TWh electricity demand is predicted to increase by more than 20% by 2027 due to industrialisation and the ambitions of the country's expanding middle class.India's power transmission market is expanding significantly due to the country's electrical grid modernisation and expansion, which support its growing industrial base and rising electricity demand resulting from urbanisation and economic growth.With growth rates much higher than the global average, the nation is one of the most vibrant and quickly expanding power transmission markets in the world.However, certain stocks in the power transmission sector have seen significant declines, dropping by as much as 55% from their 52-week highs.Let's discuss four of these stocks. Please note, this is neither a stock recommendation nor a fundamental analysis of these companies.Transformers and Rectifiers (India) has established itself as a top partner for high-voltage power transformers and reactors for customers worldwide, with three cutting-edge transformer manufacturing facilities.Its wide range of products includes power transformers up to 500 MVA and 1200 kV class, furnace transformers, rectifier and distribution transformers and speciality transformers for a variety of uses, including locomotive traction, series and shunt reactors, and mobile substations.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Justice Department released a second trove of files related to the late Jeffrey Epstein, including a fake video that purported to show the sex offender’s suicide. Roughly 11,000 documents were posted on the department’s website on Tuesday.