Citi Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A COURT IN Hangzhou, AI capital of China, ruled in late April that companies cannot fire their staff and replace them with artificial intelligence. This may come as a relief to plenty of people in a metropolis that is home to Alibaba, one of Chinese tech’s mightiest titans, with a total payroll of 128,000 employees. It is also good for Hangzhou’s commercial landlords, who have little use for AI agents and are desperate for human desk jockeys.China’s dazzling skylines are worryingly lifeless.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Travel fintech startup Scapia has raised $63 million in a fresh funding round led by General Catalyst, with continued participation from existing investors Peak XV Partners and Z47."We're still very young and very small in terms of the largeness of India. There's a large opportunity to scale the business into a larger customer base," said Anil Goteti, founder and chief executive of Scapia in a conversation with Mint.

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.Indraprastha Gas Ltd’s (IGL) March quarter (Q4FY26) earnings underscored a familiar contradiction for city gas distributors (CGDs)—robust demand growth alongside rising concerns over profitability owing to cost pressures.Volumes rose 6% year-on-year to 9.7 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) in Q4, aided by 5% growth in CNG and 9% and 13% increases in industrial/commercial and domestic PNG volumes, respectively. Revenue grew 5.4% to ₹4,163 crore.The company has guided for FY27 exit volumes of 10.6 mmscmd.Tailwinds remain supportive.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Remember what fund managers were telling you in the last quarter of 2025—that you must have gold in your portfolio? It included even those who had been advising you just a year or two before to sell the ‘unproductive’ gold you had at home and put it all in equities. Indian equity markets did not do well and gold did, so the advice changed. Unfortunately, this change came far too late.Investments from Indian investors into gold funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) peaked in January, even exceeding equity flows.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Bengaluru: For Bengaluru-based techie Sumukh S, blood tests used to be a transactional matter. He would compare prices across apps, check availability and book whichever lab seemed cheapest or quickest that day. That changed about two years ago, after a friend recommended Orange Health Labs.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Electric mobility in India has moved from being an environmental statement to an economic necessity.An expected yet sudden ₹3-per-litre fuel hike, along with government austerity measures such as remote-work mandates to conserve foreign reserves, has intensified the pressure on internal combustion engines. Electric vehicles (EVs) are no longer futuristic alternatives — they are increasingly financial hedges against fuel volatility.But unlocking their full value requires new habits.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Rare earth metals are on the minds of all investors these days, and for good reason. Recent trade tensions have put China’s rare-earth monopoly into stark relief.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.KYIV—It was the middle of January when the cold and lack of electricity forced Olha Kosova and her baby to flee their Kyiv apartment to her parents’ place in the suburbs.Now, spring is here, the electricity is working and Kosova and 1-year-old Lisa are back home in their sun-drenched apartment.“I don’t even remember this winter,” Kosova said. “It fades from the memory so quickly as if it never happened.”Kyiv and its residents are bouncing back from the darkest winter of the war. Russia struck Ukraine’s energy infrastructure more than 1,400 times with missiles and drones dating to last July, according to an official Ukrainian tally.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.IT WAS A tale of two summits. Meeting in China for the first time since 2017, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping committed to stabilising relations and suggested that they had reached new agreements on trade and other areas.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.How do you become a vessel for the exiled? In an effort to take displaced bodies (back) to a land from which they have been banned, multimedia Palestinian artist Emily Jacir travelled to West Bank and Gaza between 2001 and 2003. Her American passport allowed her access to cities like Jerusalem, Haifa, Nazareth, Jericho, Ramallah, Bayt Lahia, the villages of Dayr Rafat and Dhinebeh, among other places.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.K Raheja Corp-backed hotel ownership company Chalet Hotels Limited is expanding its focus to deeper leisure markets such as Jaipur, Jodhpur and Pune, while evaluating opportunities in Hyderabad’s financial district as it builds a broader national pipeline.Speaking to Mint, managing director and CEO Shwetank Singh said the company is scaling steadily across city hotels, airport properties and leisure resorts as demand continues to outpace supply despite short-term disruptions.“We are going to go into deep leisure markets like Jaipur, Jodhpur, Pune and also evaluating Hyderabad financial district,” Singh said.“The underlying demand supply story is strong— demand is growing faster than supply. We sustained a strong pricing-led growth, driving healthy RevPAR (revenue per available room) expansion growth across key markets.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged higher adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and reduced fossil fuel use amid the ongoing West Asia war, the ministry of heavy industries approved ₹503.86 crore to set up 4,874 public EV chargers.The approval falls under the Centre’s ₹10,900 crore PM E-Drive electric mobility scheme. It marks the first sanction for charging infrastructure under the scheme, which has earmarked ₹2,000 crore for EV chargers and targets 72,300 units nationwide.The move comes as EV penetration rises — about 60% of three-wheelers, 4.8% of cars and 6% of two-wheelers sold in India are now electric — but charging gaps persist.Mint explains the subsidy mechanism and why public charging is critical to India’s electric mobility transition.The PM E-Drive scheme allocates ₹2,000 crore specifically to support EV charging infrastructure.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Over the last few days, market intermediaries have launched regulated versions of digital gold that also allow individuals to take physical deliveries. On paper, these products promise the best of both worlds: access to high-purity gold at transparent prices without the hassle of storage.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Now that everyone has said their piece about the absence of galouti kebab, Awadhi biryani and nihari from the Uttar Pradesh government’s new One District One Cuisine (ODOC) list, let me tell you what is truly missing: purpose and context.Any cuisine is defined by a region’s geographical and cultural makeup, its terroir, local produce, cooking methods and consumption patterns, and not a quick list of street foods. And for a state as diverse as Uttar Pradesh, spanning Himalayan foothills, rich Terai forest, the Gangetic plain and the Vindhya hills and plateau, the range of cuisines is wide.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A man’s body, hands bound and covered by a blue tarp, lies by the side of the road where it had been dumped minutes earlier. A blood-soaked sign says he was a “Chapito,” a member of one of two criminal factions fighting for control of this city, the cradle of Mexico’s transnational narcotics industry.Such macabre finds are common in Culiacán—a city of luxury car dealerships, fancy malls, and makeshift fentanyl labs—marking the shifting lines of nearly two years of relentless civil war between the two main clans of the pioneering Sinaloa cartel.It’s a war that the Chapitos, the heirs of Mexican drug boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, appear to be losing, casting doubt on the future of a dynasty that once ruled vast swaths of the criminal underworld on its way to becoming the world’s top producer and smuggler of fentanyl.The latest blow came last month with the U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Big-ticket Hollywood franchises have long drawn audiences across metros and tier-two and tier-three cities, aided by Hindi, Tamil and Telugu dubs. But after a prolonged post-pandemic lull, smaller, niche titles — often with limited or no dubbed versions — are also regaining theatrical traction.Recent successes underline the shift.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.It’s the best of times. It’s the worst of times. Charles Dickens wasn’t an economist, not by far, but his immortal lines in A Tale of Two Cities perfectly captures India’s macroeconomic dilemma today.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: Relief may be in sight for those weary of steep doctor fees and billing discrepancies at private hospitals. India is looking to regulate fees for consultation and common medical procedures at private healthcare facilities with range-bound limits, said two government officials in the know.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Ten years ago, only two or three students from a class of 30 would pass the class 10 board exam at this government school. Today, only two or three from a class of 60 do not.The class has grown because the school changed. As the class 10 board results were transformed, parents began moving their children here from other schools—mostly private ones.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Ventive Hospitality is positioning itself at the centre of India's luxury travel boom with a ₹2,000 crore expansion pipeline spread over five years, which includes a new Soho House in Delhi’s Qutub area and the potential addition of The Ritz-Carlton Bangalore to its portfolio.Backed by American investment management company Blackstone and Pune-based Panchshil Realty, the hospitality platform is betting that demand for luxury travel will continue to outpace supply across India and foreign leisure markets such as the Maldives and Sri Lanka.The company, which also owns global membership platform Soho House, plans to develop 2,000 rooms, both through greenfield expansion and acquisitions, over five years. “We have made 2,000 rooms in the last five years.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mumbai: For Mumbai-based tech professional Ketan Madhav, weekends are reserved for a subject he pursues with almost religious zeal—food. Every Saturday, he and his friends pick a newly opened restaurant and work their way through a smorgasbord of options, ranging from coastal Indian fare to exotic cuisines from faraway lands.