Bill Financial News

Caracas will determine the fate of India's multi-billion dollar investments and hefty dividends.Indian investments in Venezuela have been stuck, said an official with an official with a state-run firm with major stakes in the country. "Volatility brings in concern, but we will have to watch out for the way forward. An opening-up of the market may allow more supplies," the official said on the condition of anonymity.ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corp.

Mint explains why this winter surge matters, after a year in which power consumption remained weaker than expected due to a prolonged monsoon.Power demand typically rises during December and January as colder temperatures increase the use of heating appliances. This year, a sharp cold wave across Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh pushed up electricity consumption, with temperatures dropping to as low as 4 degrees Celsius in some areas.

Russian crude suppliers are now offering Indian refiners a higher discount of up to $8 a barrel, doubling since October after sanctions were announced on Rosneft and Lukoil, according to three people aware of the development. That could increase oil shipments from the non-sanctioned oil suppliers from the Eurasian nation, experts said.The discounts on Urals crude hovered around $2-4 a barrel after the 23 October US decision to impose sanctions on the two largest Russian crude suppliers, according to data from Finnish think tank Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

Kevins for Fed Chair. Nope. Not going to happen. Meaning I see neither Kevin Hassett nor Kevin Warsh becoming chairman of the Federal Reserve in May.

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] DELHI: India’s energy transition has come a long way, with 50% of the country’s electricity generation capacity already coming from non-fossil sources led by solar and wind.

The year 2025 emerged as a pivotal year for household finances—marked by significant changes like a reduction in mandatory annuitization in the National Pension System (NPS), lower income tax rates, GST slab rationalization, and the introduction of new labour codes—laying the groundwork for how Indians will plan, save, and invest in 2026.For instance, the new tax regime has emerged as the obvious choice for most taxpayers following the increase in the rebate limit to ₹12 lakh. To make the old regime work, taxpayers would now need to claim deductions of over ₹8 lakh a year—a tough target given the ₹1.5 lakh cap under Section 80C and no change in the ₹50,000 standard deduction for years.

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] a year of testing the waters, India’s top law firms are heading into 2026 facing a decisive question: can artificial intelligence (AI) move from a promising pilot to everyday legal infrastructure? What began as cautious experimentation in 2025 is now shifting toward deeper, workflow-level integration, even as firms remain measured about governance, client confidentiality and the impact on pricing.

the bill is probably necessary. Opening up the sector to greater foreign participation could bring capital, expertise, and competitive pressure.Reducing bureaucratic hurdles for share transfers and expanding the definition of intermediaries are sensible updates.

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] a year marked by punishing US tariffs, climate-linked disruptions, and global uncertainty, India may finally be approaching a payoff phase.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. 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]. The year 2025 marked a shift in how small taxpayers approach investments and tax planning.

₹10,000 becomes ₹20,000. As per media reports, the 8th CPC may recommend the fitment factor of 1.92-2.86, largely in line with 1.86 recommended by the 6th CPC and 2.57 by the 7th CPC.While the pay increases add to the government's employee costs, recent trends show they have become less cumbersome.The central government spent ₹2.75 trillion on the pay and allowances of its regular civilian employees in FY23, accounting for 6.6% of the total budgetary expenditure.

Last week, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the Securities Markets Code Bill of 2025 in Parliament, aimed at building a new legislative scaffolding for India’s securities markets.The Bill, which has been sent to the parliamentary panel on finance for comments and inputs, proposes to merge and replace three laws: the Securities and Contracts (Regulation) Act of 1956 and those related to the market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), and depositories. This was necessary to address multiple overlaps among those legacy acts of legislation.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: The proposed overhaul of India’s Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) is a game-changer that will cut the time taken to rehabilitate struggling corporations by half and dramatically step up recoveries, according to Baijayant Panda, chairperson of the Lok Sabha select committee that reviewed the IBC (Amendments) Bill 2025.

India’s merchandise exports rose to $38 billion in November, posting year-on-year growth of 19.36%—the strongest since June 2022. Notably, the US shifted from being a drag in recent months to a key contributor, with shipments rebounding after two consecutive months of decline despite higher tariffs remaining in place. Exports to the US grew 22.6% during the month.

Earlier this week, the government proposed major changes to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) through the introduction of a new bill in the Lok Sabha. The Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025, proposes to increase the employment guarantee under the rural employment guarantee scheme. In 2025-26, the central government allocated ₹86,000 crore to MGNREGS, one of the biggest expenditure items in its budget.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI : Obtaining informed consent, usage-based billing, and the public display of charges are among the Centre’s latest guidelines to regulate the use of high-cost ventilators in private hospitals.

By adopting the Sustainable Harnessing of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (Shanti) Act of 2025, which subsumes and replaces both the Atomic Energy Act of 1962 and Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act of 2010, India is set to align its legal framework for nuclear power generation with standard global practices. Since this move could give atomic reactors a role in our transition to clean energy, it is welcome.

On Thursday the Union government passed the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill 2025 in the Lok Sabha, proposing a sweeping overhaul of India’s two-decade-old rural job guarantee programme. It has now been sent to the Rajya Sabha for discussion.The new bill seeks to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005 and the scheme named after it, MGNREGS, which has 260 million registered workers and covers 26,9000 gram panchayats across India.According to the government, the bill seeks to transform the nature of the scheme by bringing states in as partners, and resolve a longstanding problem in the rural job market—of MGNREGA jobs competing with regular ones when their wages are close to or higher than what local farmers or small contractors pay.Critics, however, say the bill significantly increases the financial and administrative burden on local governments as it passes on some of the wage costs – currently borne entirely by the Centre – to states.Mint takes a closer look at proposed changes, their implications, and the critisisms against them.In a statement on the new bill, the government said rural India has undergone a transformation over the past two decades.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. America needs foreign investors, and foreign investors need America. Yet clauses buried in the Republican budget bill in Congress are a threat to this crucial symbiosis.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. More than a decade ago, this was a small, largely overlooked retail chain with a limited footprint. Its stores were concentrated in smaller towns, markets where a large share of India's population lives and spends, but organized retail penetration remained low.

The Reserve Bank of India’s deputy governor T. Rabi Sankar recently responded to a question at a Mint conference on whether stablecoins have a role in the financial system by saying they serve no purpose that fiat money cannot serve. We respectfully disagree.