Aware Financial News

Indian banks are losing ground among working-age savers, even as retirees return in growing numbers to park money in fixed deposits and savings accounts.Recent data from the Reserve Bank of India shows the share of deposits held by working Indians aged 25 to less than 60 has steadily declined over the past two years, highlighting how younger savers are no longer reliant on banks to grow their money.The working population held 55.46% of retail deposits in December 2025, down from 57.41% in March 2023, the earliest comparable data. That is a change of 195 basis points (bps).By contrast, the share of depositors aged 60 and above rose sharply to 40.6%, from 38.25% as of March 2023, up 235 bps.

Mumbai: India’s lightly regulated market for pre-IPO shares is back in focus after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) launched a probe into the alleged sale of unlisted National Stock Exchange shares, a case that is renewing calls for tighter oversight of the fast-growing segment.Last week, ED conducted searches at eight locations in Mumbai and Chennai as part of a money laundering investigation linked to the sale of shares of NSE, which is set to hit the public markets soon. The action targeted entities, including Atum Capital Pvt.

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.

While most Indian households meticulously track their primary loans and repayment schedules to avoid the fallout of a default, a different category of spending often goes unnoticed. These are the ‘silent EMIs’ — recurring monthly payments that are individually small and scattered. Because they lack the immediate weight of a major loan, they are easy to overlook, yet their cumulative impact on a household's financial health is immensely powerful.Silent EMIs are the monthly payments we commit to without much thought about their impact on our household income.

Mint's queries.The launch of Mounjaro by Eli Lilly in March 2025, followed by Wegovy and Ozempic from Novo Nordisk, has pushed India’s GLP-1 drug market past ₹1,000 crore within a year, according to pharma intelligence platform Pharmarack. Yet, awareness among the broader population remains limited.

India is weighing a plan to prioritize natural gas supply to critical sectors after LNG (liquefied natural gas) shipments from Qatar were disrupted following an attack on QatarEnergy’s Ras Laffan liquefaction complex on Monday, three people aware of the matter said.The move assumes significance as India imports about 55% of its natural gas requirement. Further, of the $14.9 billion worth of natural gas imports in FY25, Qatar’s share was about 50%, according to data from Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC).“The government is looking at multiple options to ensure uninterrupted supply of natural gas,” one of the three people mentioned above said on condition of anonymity.

NEW DELHI: The heavy industries ministry has begun assessing proposals from state governments and state-run oil marketing companies to install charging infrastructure for electric vehicles (EV) under the ₹10,900 crore PM E-Drive scheme, with the aim of disbursing about ₹80 crore by the end of FY26, according to two people aware of the development.The government has allocated ₹2,000 crore of the scheme’s overall outlay towards supporting the installation of over 72,000 EV chargers. It will cover 70-100% of the upstream costs of setting up charging stations in state-owned premises in cities and on highways, including bringing adequate grid power to the site, and 70% of the cost of actual chargers.The government roughly halved the benchmark costs of setting up public EV charging stations in 2025 from the 2022 estimates to ₹1.6 lakh for a 12-kW charger, ₹3.4 lakh for a 60-kW charger, ₹5 lakh for a 120-kW charger, ₹8 lakh for a 240-kW charger, and ₹12.5 lakh for a 360-kW charger.

₹590 crore siphoned from Haryana government accounts through the bank’s Chandigarh branch, allegedly by employees colluding with outsiders—is dismaying but not surprising. Bank frauds of this kind have happened before and will happen again. That alone is not what is driving the fury on social media.What is driving it is something else entirely.Most of the funds were restored or secured within about a day.

New Delhi: How much chicory is in your coffee? If you’re not sure or don’t care, you will get to know starting in July, when the percentage of chicory will be displayed quite prominently on coffee powder packs.India’s apex food regulator wants to ensure that customers are aware of the volume of chicory in their preferred brew, according to two government officials and a document reviewed by Mint.In a major overhaul for beverage labelling, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has finalized a new mandate requiring ‘prominent declarations’ on the front of the pack so that blended coffee is not mistaken for 100% pure coffee. Also, the font sizes of these declarations must be proportionate to the logo dimensions, with a 1 July enforcement date.Chicory is a popular additive that provides a darker colour and an earthy taste to the beverage.

Mint explains.In the past couple of years, many deeptechs founded in the mid- and late-2010s have turned commercially viable and revenue-generating. In manufacturing, aerospace and defence, many companies are preparing for launch, witnessing an influx of customers, or have gone public.Precision manufacturer Aequs went public last year, while deeptech manufacturer Sedemac’s initial public offering was approved by the markets regulator.

India is preparing to merge its diverging tax and financial reporting frameworks into a unified system, two people aware of discussions said, in a move aimed at dismantling one of the most cumbersome hurdles for corporate India.The overhaul seeks to harmonize the Indian Accounting Standards (IndAS)—used for shareholder reporting—with the Income Computation and Disclosure Standards (ICDS) mandated by tax authorities. If successful, this would represent the most significant structural shift in the nation’s accounting landscape since IndAS was first adopted in 2016.The move is significant because tax accounting standards, called the ICDS, issued by the Income Tax department and the Indian Accounting Standards or IndAS, notified by the ministry of corporate affairs follow different accounting principles.IndAS aims to capture the economic position of a company at a given point in time using fair valuation of assets and liabilities, an approach useful for investors.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: With the growing number of complaints against the government’s automated testing stations (ATS) that assess vehicle fitness, the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) is auditing the 178 ATS to check data bleeding and manipulation to reduce the number of unfit and end-of-life vehicles on Indian roads, according to two people aware of the development. “About 25% of all vehicle testing is now happening at ATS, and the next step is to ensure that the data is protected and not tampered with.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India’s banking regulator has asked digital payments facilitator the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to look into rising complaints of erroneous UPI Autopay debits, three people aware of the matter told Mint. Users of the Unified Payments Interface—a real-time instant payment system developed by the NPCI—began reporting involuntary autopay mandates and an inability to cancel such recurring payments towards the end of 2025.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. As the government allocated funds to develop talent in the animation, visual effects, gaming, and comics (AVGC) ecosystem in the country, experts say the sector faces serious disruption from artificial intelligence, which may shrink job opportunities in some of these categories. In the organized sector, including feature films and OTT series, the impact will be incremental but irreversible as AI will increasingly be embedded into pipelines to reduce turnaround time, manage costs, and optimize post-production, particularly in VFX-heavy projects, according to experts.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI : Despite global attention, India’s artificial intelligence (AI) startups and policymakers do not expect a “DeepSeek moment" to emerge from New Delhi’s weeklong AI gala beginning tomorrow.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. MUMBAI : State-run lenders, including Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of Maharashtra and Bank of India, are preparing to tap the debt market through infrastructure bonds in early March, but are holding off the issuances as they wait for borrowing costs to ease, three debt merchant bankers aware of the discussions told Mint.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: India is working on a playbook to operate the Chabahar port in Iran after the US waiver on sanctions against Tehran ends in March, said two people aware of New Delhi’s stance to balance its ties with its longtime Persian Gulf trade partner and the world’s largest economy. As the geopolitical situation eases and if sanctions on infrastructure are lifted, India would look at ways to remain engaged and operate the terminal given its strategic significance, said the first person quoted earlier, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. It is not often that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor’s statement on monetary policy includes an announcement that directly touches the lives of Indians at large. Repo rate changes and liquidity measures—the stuff that such statements are usually made of—are one stage removed, as their impact plays out through the banking system.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Bengaluru/Mumbai: India’s HPV vaccine market is seeing a clear revival after years of low uptake, with digital health platforms and private healthcare providers reporting a sharp rise in demand amid growing awareness of cervical cancer prevention. On PharmEasy, a digital-first diagnostics and pharmacy company backed by Prosus and Temasek, HPV vaccines now account for nearly 25% of total vaccine sales, making it one of the fastest-growing segments within its preventive healthcare portfolio.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. MUMBAI : French concessions and construction company Vinci SA is nearing a $2 billion deal for Indian road assets owned by Australian asset manager Macquarie Group, paving the way for its return to the country after 11 years, two people aware of the matter told Mint. Macquarie launched the sale of its highway assets housed under Safeway Concessions Pvt.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Centre has stepped in to resolve the green power quagmire of surplus production and insufficient transmission, following sweeping production cuts at solar and wind farms. The curtailment offers a temporary fix and keeps the grid stable, but results in steep losses for the developers, and threatens to derail India's ambitious green energy trajectory.