Country Financial News
02.04 / 01:09
markets
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country
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testing
Updates
International
Standard Chartered Bank holds the line as global turmoil tests deal flow
Mint reported on 25 March that about ₹18,000 crore of planned fundraising was at risk.“There is a direct impact on the supply chain, but there is a second-order impact too, which is what we try to understand and work with our clients,” said Singh. “Based on the impact on currency, commodity and their own input pricing changes, we also do a real-time risk assessment as much as we can and make sure that the client is also aware of that.”Singh said Standard Chartered is involved in a large number of loan syndications in the country.
02.04 / 01:09
markets
COST
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Updates
The rupee’s depreciation is neither unusual nor indicative of great stress
₹50 in India and $1 in the US, with an exchange rate of ₹100 per dollar. The real exchange rate is then 0.5, meaning an Indian X is half as expensive as an American X when expressed in a common currency.Now, imagine that domestic prices rise by 10%, so X now costs ₹55 in India, and the exchange rate moves to ₹110 per dollar. The nominal exchange rate has depreciated, but the real exchange rate remains 0.5.
01.04 / 14:47
markets
economy
wellness
country
electronic
Updates
International
Circulate Capital to back rare earth, textile recycling plays in India
Mint. “There's been strong extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations in place for over a decade and that has now evolved into mandatory recycled content regulations as well.”The firm announced a first close of $220 million for its second fund, which has a targeted corpus of $300 million.
01.04 / 09:11
Citi
FIVE
Platform
wellness
country
stars
reports
D-Mart makes a bold move: Reaches 500 stores in record expansion, bets big on physical retail
MUMBAI: With just hours to spare on Tuesday evening, Avenue Supermarts Ltd, the parent company of value retailer D-Mart, announced a flurry of store openings across the country, ending the financial year with 500 stores.On Tuesday alone, the company added 12 stores across its stronghold of Maharashtra and Gujarat, and in newer regions where it is trying to build a stronger presence, including Tamil Nadu and Odisha. D-Mart opened 47 stores in March, a sharp increase from the 40-50 stores it typically has added annually over the past five years, according to its investor presentation.The company opened 85 stores in FY26, the highest number added in a financial year.
01.04 / 06:33
Target
Southern
wellness
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country
Updates
Urban households mostly use LPG, while rural households rely on firewood, too
Having risen steadily over time, the share of Indian households who use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as their primary source of fuel for cooking is now at 60% as of 2024. Another 33% of households still used firewood.This data comes from India's Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys, a series of large, nationally representative household surveys conducted by the National Statistical Office, which ask the head of the household what the primary source of energy used by the household in the 30 days preceding the survey was.
01.04 / 00:59
Citi
Aware
Mobile
Election
War
country
Updates
India accelerates e-bus drive amid fuel risks, new 3k unit tender by June
New Delhi: India plans to float a fresh tender for over 3,000 electric buses by June, according to people aware of the development. This is set to be launched just six months after closing of the country's largest e-bus tender for over 10,000 units.The move aims to sharpen the country's push to electrify public transport and reduce fuel dependence, as oil supply risks from the West Asia war continue to weigh on costs.According to two executives in the know, the tender will be rolled out under the PM e-bus seva scheme, which aims to subsidize purchase of 10,000 e-buses across the country.
01.04 / 00:59
Analysis
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Are India’s vehicles ready for E20 fuel?
Mint analysis of vehicle registration data from the transport ministry’s Vahan dashboard shows that fewer than 30% of petrol passenger vehicles and two-wheelers registered in 2025 were ethanol-compliant. About 0.9 million passenger vehicles were ethanol-compliant, against a total 3.36 million registered in 2025.
31.03 / 12:51
COST
Manufacturing
Mobile
Sustainability
War
country
reports
Nokia flags rising telecom gear costs in India amid supply chain pressures
New Delhi: Telecom gear maker Nokia said that supply chain pressures due to the West Asia war, with component shortages such as memory chips, are increasing costs for devices, including wireless access equipment and network infrastructure.“We started seeing the cost creeps happening. As soon as the supply shortage starts, the first thing is the cost changes, and that is what is happening right now,” Vibha Mehra, country manager - designate for India at Nokia, told reporters on Tuesday.Mehra, who will take charge as Nokia’s country manager in India on 1 April, said discussions about the cost increases have also begun with telecom operators.To be sure, memory chip prices had already been increasing before the war, as manufacturing capacity shifted from consumer electronics toward high-margin memory solutions for AI.
31.03 / 11:11
markets
UPS
Manufacturing
economy
Trade
country
Updates
The Hormuz technology choke: Even the world’s most dynamic industry can’t escape this war’s fallout
Even though the Strait of Hormuz is just about 33km wide at its narrowest point, about 20 million barrels of crude oil and refinery products would pass through it every day before the war in West Asia. This was roughly a quarter of all seaborne oil trade. Since late February, tanker traffic through the strait has fallen sharply, driving up the price of Brent crude and triggering an oil shock.
31.03 / 09:55
markets
security
KPI
track
country
Updates
In a first, Adani Green turns to external contractors to meet expansion push
renewable energy capacity annually over the next four years to reach its goal of 50 GW by March 2030—nearly double the 3.4 GW it added on average over the past four years.Until now, the company handled most EPC work in-house or through Adani Infra (India) Ltd, a privately held entity of the Adani group. In FY25, Adani Infra was tasked with managing infrastructure projects across the group’s listed companies to retain margins that would otherwise go to external vendors.Sterling and Wilson, Bondada, and KPI confirmed their business with Adani Green Energy through press notes between November and January.“We are pleased to partner with Adani Green Energy for the Khavda renewable energy complex, one of the world’s largest clean energy developments.
31.03 / 09:55
markets
UPS
Research
War
country
Updates
UK's National Grid invest up to $400 million for an India GCC
National Grid UK Ltd has outlined plans to spend up to $400 million to establish a tech facility in India, joining several global companies setting up back-end centres in the country even as the war in West Asia threatens power supply.The energy company, among the 10 largest utilities in the UK, first floated a tender on 15 December last year, inviting bids to set up a global capability centre (GCC) in India, according to twopeople privy to the development and tender documents reviewed by Mint.The company is “looking for a supplier to establish, grow and deliver engineering services capability at pace during the Build & Operate phase”, read the tender.It aims to start work on the facility next year and finish it by 2032, with a possible extension up to 2035, according to the tender document. The people quoted earlier, who didn’t want to be identified, said the GCC will employ about 1,000 employees when fully operational.Queries emailed to National Grid went unanswered until press time.The UK's electricity transmission network operator will join global power and energy sector peers, including ABB, GE Vernova, Hitachi Energy, and ExxonMobil, which have their GCCs in Bengaluru.India currently hosts over 1,760 GCCs, with Bengaluru and Hyderabad hosting 875 and 355 centres, respectively, according to the IT industry lobby Nasscom.
31.03 / 07:25
Food
students
Universities
Diversity
country
Colleges
From firewood to food apps, how India’s top colleges are tackling the LPG crunch
The scarcity of LPG cylinders has hit India’s engineering, management and medical colleges hard. Institutes are adopting diverse workarounds to manage the crisis— shifting to online classes, using diesel burners, switching to induction cooktops, or simply letting students order their meals via food delivery platforms.The crisis is due to Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which nearly 90% of India's LPG imports pass. The country sources about 60% of its cooking gas from overseas.
31.03 / 07:25
markets
UPS
Target
Action
country
Updates
India’s new climate pledges under the Paris Agreement of 2015: Real progress or safe targets?
The successful negotiation of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change was made possible by a key compromise on country-wise commitments. These would no longer be determined in a top-down manner based on what would be needed to cap global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at safe levels (the Kyoto protocol approach), but instead through a bottom-up approach by countries themselves in accordance with their national development priorities—or nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
31.03 / 03:47
Citi
Waters
Gap
Metro
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country
reports
Why Indian cities are growing, but becoming unliveable
Shaping Urban India: By Design, Not By Default, by Janaagraha, a Bengaluru-based non-profit.India has urbanized at a fairly steady clip, broadly in line with its G20 peers. But fine feathers don’t always make fine birds.Estimates by the United Nations’ Degree of Urbanisation (DegUrba) show that about 84.1% of India’s population qualifies as urban.
31.03 / 03:47
COST
UPS
Manufacturing
Experts
country
reports
shock
Sulphur shock from West Asia risks slowing Bhel's boiler production
sulphur demand of about 4 million tonnes. More than three-quarters of this comes from West Asian countries such as the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Oman, according to latest available World Bank Data for 2023.sulphur is widely used to produce sulphuric acid for fertilizers, and is also a key input in chemicals, textiles manufacturing, and electric vehicle batteries.The state-run engineering company received orders worth ₹76,930 crore from thermal power plants in FY25, its latest annual report said.
31.03 / 00:43
markets
COST
UPS
security
economy
country
rights
Do your work and go home: Aditya Puri on leadership without frills
Mint India Investment Summit, Puri received the Lifetime Achievement Award and engaged in a candid fireside chat with editor-in-chief Ravi Krishnan. From why he moved to India in 1994 to artificial intelligence in banking and the work culture he batted for, this chat covered a wide range of subjects. Edited excerpts:I think India is still a very under-penetrated market as far as finance is concerned.
30.03 / 09:53
markets
economy
Sustainability
Healthcare
country
testing
Updates
India dealmaking sees long-term bets despite global volatility
Mumbai: India is expected to sustain strong M&A momentum, including cross-border deals, as investors take a long-term view despite macro headwinds, top executives said at the Mint India Investment Summit.“It’s interesting how the last three quarters over 2025 have shown the ability of investors to digest any volatility, price it in if required and proceed with M&As as they see sense in it over a 5–10-year horizon,” Devarajan Nambakam, co-head of India investment banking for Goldman Sachs Group, said at the summit last week.“This is probably going to be tested more this year than last, but the ability of investors to see through these volatilities has been the biggest mindset shift.”With India being a robust growth economy, there is demand for capital to accelerate this pace and for shareholders looking to monetize their stake among others, he added.“From a supply perspective, it’s safe to say that almost no pool of capital is unavailable in India be it strategic capital, private equity, private credit or hybrid capital. Today, the quantum of the capital that is available is higher than we’ve seen.
30.03 / 09:53
markets
UPS
Booking
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country
travelers
International
'West Asia conflict may hit summer travel, but India remains hospitality’s biggest long-term prize'
Dubai-based company runs the world’s largest hotel loyalty programme for independent hotels, bringing together over 50 brands and 950 hotels across 100 countries. Hartley said that while the war may weigh on short-term bookings, India’s outbound market remains largely untapped.Travel to West Asia is still disrupted and could shift flows in the near term, he said, but the broader trajectory of demand is unlikely to change. “The question now is really if it can be resolved in April.
30.03 / 06:45
Action
economy
Align
Sustainability
country
Updates
Climate: India’s NDCs for 2031-35 reveal a balanced approach that could be a model for other countries
In global climate politics, clarity is often elusive. Grand declarations outpace delivery and ambition is often divorced from reality. Against this backdrop, India’s newly-approved Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for 2031–2035 stand out as a picture of coherence.
30.03 / 01:17
markets
UPS
IPO
Gap
country
2020
Updates
India can build serious AI with less capital than frontier labs: Peak XV’s Ravishankar
Mint India Investment Summit, Ravishankar said India’s AI opportunity lies less in outspending global leaders and more in building useful products quickly and cost-effectively at scale, leveraging the country’s deep engineering talent.He outlined two broader areas where Indian startups can still create large businesses, even if the country is not yet at the cutting edge of global AI development.The first opportunity, he said, is that India will be a quick adopter of AI across large, everyday use cases. As AI tools improve, many familiar consumer and service categories could be reimagined from the ground up, he said.“India will be a fast follower and a quick consumer of AI in areas such as customer support, citizen services, travel and jobs, where new companies are beginning to rebuild internet products with AI at the centre,” Ravishankar said.The second opportunity lies in the layers around AI itself: infrastructure, software and tools that help other companies build and use AI products.Ravishankar said Indian teams are well-placed because of the country’s large developer base and growing technical talent pool.
30.03 / 01:17
markets
UPS
Citi
Manufacturing
country
Updates
IFC to up India investments 30% to $7 bn this fiscal, focus on local push, jobs
New Delhi: International Finance Corp. (IFC) aims to scale up its India investments by about 30% to $7 billion this fiscal year ending 30 June, said Sarvesh Suri, regional vice-president for Asia and the Pacific at World Bank Group’s private sector-focused development finance arm, in an interview to Mint.
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