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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.KYIV—Ukraine’s military has wrestled Russia’s much-larger army almost to a halt in recent months, having gained a tactical and technological edge.This summer will test whether it can turn that slender advantage into a strategic turning point.Fast-improving Ukrainian drone capabilities are hurting the invaders’ logistics behind the battlefield, and pounding oil infrastructure and military targets deeper inside Russia.“We are not only holding the line, but we are also increasing pressure,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in April. Russia’s monthly casualties now exceed its army recruitment, he said.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Beneath the one-time profit hit from the ₹590 crore Chandigarh fraud, IDFC FIRST Bank’s March-quarter (Q4FY26) earnings revealed a deeper concern: deposit growth slowed sharply after the incident dented depositor confidence.The private sector lender’s customer deposits rose just 1% sequentially during Q4 to ₹2.84 trillion, even as Indian banking sector deposits rose 13.5% year-on-year (y-o-y) to ₹262.3 trillion during the per, up from 10.3% growth a year earlier, according to Reserve Bank of India data.“We saw an increase in total deposits by about 16.8% on a YoY basis…The growth was modest at 1% during the quarter…There was also an impact of the one-off fraud incident, which occurred during the quarter,” chief financial officer Sudhanshu Jain had said during the bank’s post-earnings analyst call on 25 April.On 23 February, the lender disclosed a ₹590 crore fraud at its Chandigarh branch, where employees carried out unauthorized transactions in accounts linked to the Haryana government, creating a deposit balance discrepancy. The bank has since paid the state government ₹590 crore, suspended the employees involved and filed police complaints against them.During earnings call, the bank said it had fully expensed the impacted amount in Q4FY26 and was “reasonably certain” no further material financial adjustments would be required beyond those already recognized.While IDFC FIRST Bank was not accused of direct wrongdoing, the incident triggered reputational concerns and weighed on deposit flows during the quarter.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.As the West Asian crisis broke out late February, Sunil JhunJhunWala, managing director and co-founder of Tiruppur-based Techno Sportswear Pvt. Ltd, an active wear brand, moved fast.The disruption to the movement of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, he rightly surmised, would affect the supply of polyester filament yarn (PFY)–a raw material derived from crude oil—which he imports from China.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The world is making a run on U.S. energy, setting American motorists and foreign buyers on a collision course.President Trump and his administration have successfully talked down and taken measures to contain American energy prices. That, combined with the fact that the country has a huge surplus, has prompted overseas buyers to buy huge volumes of U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A quiet shift is underway in how India spends, as salaries fail to keep pace with the rising cost of living.An April 2026 white paper titled The New Indian Household Balance Sheet by wealth manager Client Associates found that net financial savings have fallen sharply to about 5.2% of gross domestic product in 2023-24, down from nearly 7.7% in the pre-pandemic years, as rising borrowings eat into household surpluses and household financial liabilities have climbed to 6.2% of GDP, a decade high, driven by rapid growth in home loans, personal credit, and credit card spending.And somewhere in between wanting something and not being able to afford it, a new habit has taken hold: buy now and pay later (BNPL).BNPL is a type of short-term loan that lets you pay for goods or services immediately and pay them back at a later date, usually in instalments or with a single interest-free deferred payment. Unlike conventional loans, it is largely interest-free as long as the customer pays on time.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.BENGALURU: A month after Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) completed its largest retrenchment exercise, laying off about 2% of its workforce, the company asked managers during its latest appraisal cycle to place about 5% of its 584,519 employees in Band D, the lowest performance category, according to an internal email reviewed by Mint and independently confirmed by an executive.“Please review critically and share the list of associates who can be considered for Band D, thereby meeting the agreed 5% distribution,” said an email from a TCS HR executive to one of the business unit heads of the company in April.Business unit heads classified about 3% of employees, about 17,500 people, as underperformers, according to three other executives.The ratings have stoked fresh concerns among employees across India’s largest software services firm, especially after many of the 12,200 employees laid off in the recent retrenchment exercise were similarly rated.Top performers, meanwhile, received hikes of about 6%, according to annual salary increase letters sent to employees on Sunday.An email sent to TCS on 12 May seeking comment went unanswered till press time.While TCS, like peers Infosys Ltd and HCL Technologies Ltd, has long classified some employees as underperformers, executives said the explicit 5% Band D distribution has heightened concerns.“A couple of things stand out this time around. Until last year, it was understood that many employees would be placed in Band D, as in other IT companies.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Shares of Tata Steel fell about 4% on Monday despite a robust March quarter performance, as concerns mounted over possible closure of its coke and gas plants (CGPs) in the Netherlands due to emission norm breaches.The stock reaction was driven by regulatory risks at Tata Steel Netherlands (TSN). In April, local agencies issued a letter to TSN expressing their intention to revoke permits for its 40–50-year-old CGPs, citing non-compliance with emission norms.While TSN could procure coke from the market if the units are shut, that would significantly dent profit margins and could render operations commercially unviable.The regulator’s move can impact the financial stability of TSN, “given the significance of the facilities to TSN’s operations,” the company said.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Rural-linked companies reported their strongest volume-led recovery in years in the March quarter (Q4FY26), driven by low inflation, healthy farm incomes and rising non-farm employment from infrastructure spending. Aggressive government welfare spending further boosted rural consumption across staples and discretionary categories.But experts warn the recovery may already be approaching its first major stress test.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: India’s petrol and diesel price hike, alongside a volatile crude oil outlook, is set to ripple across key sectors and is already feeding early market pressure, with analysts warning of further inflation if global oil prices climb.Oil marketing companies (OMCs) finally bit the bullet and raised prices of petrol and diesel by around ₹3 a litre on Friday amid elevated global prices. More hikes are expected going ahead as under-recoveries remain high.Higher fuel prices are expected to feed quickly into logistics and freight costs, with transport operators unlikely to absorb higher diesel expenses, triggering cost pass-through across supply chains and sectors dependent on transportation and energy-intensive inputs, potentially widening inflation pressures across the economy, according to experts.“We raise FY27 headline inflation to 5% versus 4.6% earlier assuming a ₹10 per litre hike in retail fuel prices, along with the impact of El Niño-led adverse monsoons,” said Madhavi Arora, chief economist at Emkay Global.The cost pressures come at a time when corporate earnings in consumption- and transport-linked sectors are already under strain from elevated input costs and uneven demand recovery.Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies are expected to face higher distribution and input costs, even as they continue to grapple with already elevated raw material inflation.Large FMCG players have already begun raising prices as fuel, packaging and food commodity costs continue to rise.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.SEATTLE—Not long ago, Amazon was seen as an also-ran in the great AI race.Microsoft, in particular—with its partnership with OpenAI and cloud business outpacing Amazon’s AWS—seemed to have reclaimed its place as the Puget Sound’s reigning tech giant.Things are looking much different for AWS today.That’s thanks to some savvy deals of its own with OpenAI and Anthropic, plans for $200 billion of infrastructure spending and Amazon’s long-term bet on custom chips. It’s also not involved in the ugly tech trial of the year sucking in the biggest names in AI, from Elon Musk and Sam Altman to Mira Murati and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.“People thought we were behind,” Matt Garman, head of Amazon’s cloud-computing business, AWS, told me in an interview here on the corporate campus.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Health insurance protects against sudden and unforeseen hospitalization costs. Pregnancy, being a planned medical event in most cases, has traditionally remained outside the scope of standard health insurance.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Through the dotcom bust, the 2008 crisis, demonetization, the Covid crash, the Ukraine war, and every oil shock in between, my answer in this column has been almost monotonously the same. Stay the course. Don’t react to the news.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Bubbles are only dangerous if improperly managed.Stocks, indexes, and call-option implied volatility are advancing to ever-higher highs, despite innumerable risks that are almost too trite to mention. And yes, some are even calling it a bubble.Once more, we are at the tumultuous intersection of greed and hope.We recently suggested hedging in anticipation of a stock decline, but some investors will prefer to harness the wild-eyed enthusiasm of investor sentiment.We know of some very smart Wall Street pros who recently took profits and regret selling as stocks move higher.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In the sleepy world of trust planning, the topsy-turvy stock market is creating big tax-savings opportunities.While irrevocable trusts are permanent structures, the assets within them are flexible and can be swapped at any time with different similarly valued assets—a strategy worth considering during times of extreme swings in market values.“Asset swapping often falls between the cracks,” says Ed Renn, of counsel on the private client and tax team at Withers. “Some people are knocking around with trust structures from years back and may not be proactive when it comes to managing assets in the trusts.”Swapping assets is often part of estate planning for wealthy taxpayers aiming to minimize exposure to the 50% estate tax rate.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The war in Iran has triggered the largest oil-supply disruption in modern history.The crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is forcing governments to redefine energy security for an age of geopolitical fragmentation—one in which resilience depends not only on how much oil the world produces, but where it flows, who can get it and which countries are able to absorb the shock when it is interrupted.Nearly 15% of global oil supply has been removed from the market. Crude prices remain elevated above $100 a barrel after initially spiking higher. They will very likely move sharply higher as inventories run dry.But while the oil market is global and rising costs are felt everywhere, the consequences are not evenly distributed.Asia has been hit first and hardest.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In the mid-1980s, when a personal computer in India cost as much as ₹80,000, a young Tamil entrepreneur walked into the stalled market and crashed prices by more than half.Chinnakannan Sivasankaran, known simply as Siva, had just bought Sterling Computers from Robert Amritraj, father of tennis star Vijay Amritraj. His opening move was to launch the Siva PC at ₹33,000 with the tagline “The Power of Siva.”The market responded immediately as rivals were forced to cut prices.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.After a week of mounting political drama, the stage is set in the U.K. for months of uncertainty over who will lead the world’s fifth-biggest economy, as unpopular Prime Minister Keir Starmer embarks on a long and messy fight for his job against the left-wing mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham.Burnham said late Thursday he planned to stand for election to parliament, opening the path for him to take on Starmer for the leadership of the ruling Labour Party.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: India’s latest fuel price increase is expected to raise cultivation and transportation costs across the farm sector ahead of the crucial kharif sowing season, potentially adding fresh pressure on food inflation in the coming months, according to farmers, economists and agriculture experts.Oil marketing companies on Friday raised petrol and diesel prices by ₹3 per litre as a surge in global crude oil prices was hurting their margins. Following the hike, diesel prices in New Delhi rose to ₹90.67 a litre, while rates in Kolkata and Chennai increased to ₹95.13 and ₹95.25, respectively.The development assumes significance as the agriculture sector accounts for nearly two-fifths of India’s annual diesel consumption of around 92 million tonnes.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The ₹3-per-litre rise in petrol and diesel prices is expected to increase supply chain costs across India, with logistics, quick commerce and consumer goods companies preparing for higher transport and delivery expenses amid weak demand and rising input costs.Several companies Mint spoke to, including MilkyMist, iD Fresh Food, BigBasket, Zippee, The Organic World, ColdStar and StoveKraft, warned that prolonged high fuel prices could force them to rethink pricing strategies.If fuel prices remain elevated for several quarters, companies across sectors may tighten free-delivery thresholds, reduce discounting, increase minimum order values, and limit ultra-fast deliveries in lower-density areas, experts and industry executives said.According to Vijay Kumar of the Express Industry Council of India (EICI), an industry body representing India's courier and express logistics sector, long-haul trucking will be among the first segments to feel the impact, followed by the broader road transport network as diesel remains a key component in freight movement. “There will be a cost that will come in because fuel is critical to our flying power,” he said.Several logistics companies operating in long-distance freight transportation have limited ability to offset costs immediately as they are heavily dependent on fossil fuels, he added.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: India’s consumer durables makers have begun the current fiscal with cautious optimism, betting on a stronger summer and early demand recovery after a bruising FY26 marked by erratic weather, raw material inflation, supply-chain disruptions and weak operating leverage.“We remain cautiously optimistic about the prospects for FY27,” Nikhil Sohoni, chief financial officer, Blue Star Ltd, said during the company’s Q4 earnings call, while cautioning that rising input costs and volatile exchange rates would make managing margins challenging.Expectations of a stronger summer have lifted sentiment, helped by a weak FY26 base and demand strength in March–May. March was one of Voltas’s highest-ever sales months, while April and May also saw strong dealer-level sales.The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast a harsher summer and below-normal monsoon amid emerging El Niño conditions.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Having DISCOVERED the costs of tariffs, President Donald Trump has now discovered the costs of war. On March 9th he declared that his campaign against Iran would be over “very soon”, sending oil prices, which had peaked at nearly $120 a barrel the day before, crashing to nearly $80 (before the war they had been $70).