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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India's top business leaders, including billionaires Gautam Adani and Sunil Bharti Mittal, on Monday endorsed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to reduce consumption of import-dependent commodities like fuel and gold to conserve precious foreign exchange as a protracted West Asia war fuels price rise.They also called for strengthening domestic investments, accelerating energy transition, and ensuring self-sufficiency in compute for artificial intelligence (AI) to help insulate the economy from future global shocks.The industry leaders were speaking at the Annual Business Summit 2026 of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).“We need to get away from this obsession of gold. We need to lower our energy cost.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In April, the Chinese government issued a notification—Decree 834, which imposed restrictions on multinational companies operating in the country. Mint examines what this decree is all about, its motivation, its implications for India, and what the Indian government should do to counter it.Decree 834 is China’s first comprehensive regulation on industrial and supply chain security. While not entirely new, it creates a unified national security-driven regulatory framework for supply chain oversight.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s unemployment debate is missing a crucial dimension: time. Time spent waiting is a loss at any age, but especially so in one’s youth. For both the individual and the country, it is a loss of prime productive years.Last year, 11.6 million Indians in their 20s were unemployed and about 6.8 million of them had been job hunting for over a year.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.More than a decade into Xi Jinping’s rule, China’s military has grown more formidable, its factories dominate global manufacturing and its technology pioneers are closing the gap with Silicon Valley.Yet big parts of its economy are a mess. A colossal property bust has destroyed trillions of dollars in wealth, consumer confidence has been gutted and the job market has grown bleak.The disconnect shows how Xi has made China’s security a priority over its economy.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.ON MARCH 11TH the 32 members of the International Energy Agency (IEA), a club of large oil-consuming countries, agreed to sell 400m barrels of crude from their emergency reserves. The release, equivalent to one-third of the group’s combined strategic stash, is the biggest ever co-ordinated by the IEA, which was founded in 1974 after the first Arab oil embargo. Its historical significance failed to impress oil markets, which have been shaken by the Middle Eastern crisis provoked by America and Israel’s war on Iran.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The University of California, Berkeley had almost 6,500 students on its wait list last year. It ended up admitting none of them.The only thing harder than getting into college, it seems, is getting off the wait list. At some schools, the wait list is far more selective than the college’s overall acceptance rate.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.WASHINGTON—As the heads of the world’s two superpowers meet in Beijing this week, President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will have another nation looming over their summit: Iran.The long anticipated meeting has already been delayed once due to the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran, which has led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Aerospace and defence major Rolls-Royce Plc is borrowing from the India playbook of British energy giant BP Plc as it pursues billions of dollars worth of opportunities across defence, civil aviation and nuclear energy in the country.To lead that push, Rolls-Royce has turned to Sashi Mukundan, the former head of BP’s India business, who spent 24 years building the energy company’s partnerships in the country across gas, fuel retail and mobility ventures.The man who recruited him: Rolls-Royce chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic, who himself spent two decades at BP, including five years leading its downstream business.“Tufan was also with BP before. He’s seen how BP built the relationship in India,” Mukundan, now executive vice president Transformation India at Rolls-Royce, told Mint.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.When 35-year-old Rooma Sinha listed her studio apartment in Goa’s Arpora village on Airbnb two years ago, she wasn’t sure about how things would play out. Renting the apartment out would assure her of a steady income, but the AirBnB listing had the potential to help her earn much more.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mumbai: Axis Bank is selectively chasing corporate loan growth in sectors with strong tailwinds, such as data centres, commercial real estate and renewables, while staying “watchful” in the weaker segments, said Vijay Mulbagal, group executive and head of wholesale bank coverage, corporate salary, sustainability and CSR.The private sector lender has also sidestepped the “bidding game” in some aggressively priced loans to state-run firms, as banks grapple with pressure on margins and companies remain cautious on large capital expenditure despite healthy profitability.India’s third-largest private lender reported a 38% growth in corporate loans during the March quarter of FY26, significantly outpacing its rivals. The growth of corporate lending—outstanding loans at ₹4.12 trillion as on 31 March—was also higher than the bank’s retail or small business segments.Mulbagal, who joined from HDFC Bank in 2024, took over the corporate vertical a year ago, told Mint in an interview that the bank has not been reckless and its underwriting standards have been strong, with corporate borrowers rated A- and above at 91% of the book.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories."Our first kartavya (duty) is to accelerate and sustain economic growth by enhancing productivity and competitiveness.” This statement by India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in this year’s budget speech set a clear imperative: that productivity and competitiveness are not incidental to India’s growth story, but necessary conditions for its long-term economic development. Its significance has grown clearer since.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The waitstaff in restaurants should be aware: Patrons are less generous with tips over the weekend.That is the finding of a recent study that analyzed 68 million credit-card transactions at 47 restaurant chains operating in 41 states. Patrons, the study found, tipped their servers up to about 1% less on Saturdays and Sundays.The average tip for weekdays alone was 21.30%, with the highest tips on Tuesdays (21.45%) and Thursdays (21.47%).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Iran’s rulers have a problem as they attempt to negotiate an end to the war: Their new supreme leader is noticeably MIA and silent on the talks.U.S. and Iranian officials say Mojtaba Khamenei was severely injured in a February airstrike, which killed his wife, son and father, former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Swarup Mohanty spent 15 years building what he thought was a solid retirement plan. Then he asked an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to stress-test it.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The joint military strikes by the US and Israel on Iran in late February triggered a shockwave far beyond the energy markets, severely disrupting global commodity markets, especially fertilizers. India depends on imports for 25% of its urea, 90% of its phosphate, and its entire supply of potash.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Across Europe, voters are fed up and taking it out on their leaders.This week, Britain’s ruling Labour Party had its worst result ever in local elections as voters angry about a persistently weak economy and high immigration punished Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is backed by just 20% of voters.Last month, Europe’s longest-serving leader, Hungary’s Viktor Orban, was swept out of office by a wave of discontent over the sluggish economy and a government that many saw as corrupt.Elsewhere in Europe, the picture is similarly bleak for those now in power. In Germany, a left-right government that is breaking public spending records is also plumbing uncharted popularity lows.The diminished incumbents can do little to placate an angry electorate, as they contend with melting parliamentary majorities, internal divisions and empty public coffers.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Despite the craze for Korean literature in India, you’d be hard-pressed to find an Indian fan who knows of Don Mee Choi. She writes poetry, not fiction.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.About a decade ago, when I told one of my aunts about my first job at a news agency, she said, “You will become jhola-chappal wali now”. Jhola meant cloth bag, and chappal, Kolhapuris, the clichéd Indian journalist’s uniform. I did become that person, quite proudly.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Trump administration’s attempts to shrug off exchanges of fire with Iran this week deepened concerns among Arab Gulf states that any deal to end the war will expose them to future conflict with a vengeful Iran.Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, dismissed the attacks by Iran on ships in the Strait of Hormuz this week as “low harassing fire.” On Thursday, President Trump said Iran “trifled with us.”The efforts to play down the attacks came as the Trump administration tried to protect a fragile cease-fire and keep peace talks moving forward.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Economists like to preach prudence, but they do not always practise it. Ibrahim Oweiss was a young economist in Egypt’s Ministry of Industry when he offered some frank advice to his bosses. He warned against a suffocating overconcentration of industry in Cairo and Alexandria.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.From India and Vietnam upgrading their bilateral ties and setting a $25 billion trade target by 2030, to four states declaring assembly election verdicts amid a mixed economic backdrop, direct tax collections falling short of revised estimates in FY26, manufacturing and services activity rebounding in April, and India’s domestic LPG consumption taking a hit due to West Asia war—here is a compilation of this week’s news in numbers.India and Vietnam have set a target of raising bilateral trade to $25 billion by 2030, following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vietnam President To Lam in New Delhi this week. The two countries also upgraded ties to an “Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”, signalling deeper cooperation in trade, defence and technology.Trade has steadily expanded over the past decade, crossing $18 billion in FY26.