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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Accor, the French hospitality giant, is betting big on the quiet shift in India's luxury hotel industry, where domestic travellers, not foreign tourists, are the primary engine of the high-end hospitality market.India’s luxury hotel boom still has room to run, according to the chairman of Accor India and group CEO, Ennismore, Gaurav Bhushan, who said the country is only ‘just getting started’ as affluent domestic travellers increasingly spend on high-end experiences and boutique hospitality.“The Indian luxury consumer is spending more on experiences than ever before,” Bhushan, recently appointed chairman for Accor in India, told Mint. “As long as you offer a real product and a real experience, people will spend.

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.India's maritime sector doesn't always make headlines, but it quietly powers the entire economy, moving over 90% of the country's trade by volume.Stretch that 7,500-km coastline across a map, add 12 major ports and 200+ smaller ones, and you start to appreciate just how much of India's growth story begins and ends at sea.The Maritime India Vision 2030 outlines over 150 initiatives with projected investments of ₹3–3.5 trillion, supported by a recent ₹69,725 crore package for shipbuilding, according to a PIB report.In FY24–25, major ports handled around 855 million (m) tonnes of cargo, reflecting strong growth in maritime trade and improved port efficiency.What’s interesting is the momentum building beneath the surface.Around 51 large ships are currently under construction in India, with a total value of nearly ₹90,000 crore, according to PIB report dated 3 December 2025.Since 2014, Indian shipyards have delivered more than 40 warships and submarines, and in the past year alone, a new vessel has been added roughly every 40 days. All of this is turning the maritime space into a buzzing investment theme.Here are five stocks from across the maritime space that are worth keeping on your radar.Established in 1907, Tata Steel is Asia’s first integrated private steel company and also played a key role in developing India’s first industrial city, Jamshedpur.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Jung Da-yun didn’t quite like what she saw in the mirror. Her ears weren’t big enough.She booked a visit to a South Korean clinic offering “elf ear” injections.For about $70, a plastic surgeon injected the ridged cartilage of her ears with a hyaluronic-acid filler that caused her ears to perk up.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Ever since coming to power more than a quarter-century ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin built a new state religion around May 9, the anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany and the holiest day in the Russian calendar.On Saturday, Putin will for the first time preside over a Victory Day parade held as his war on Ukraine has exceeded the length of the Soviet Union’s war on the Nazis.He has no victories to celebrate. Persistent Ukrainian drone strikes across Russia, including on the capital, have forced Putin to ask for a cease-fire for the duration of the festivities.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s merchandise trade deficit was about $333 billion in 2025-26, 17.5% wider than the previous year’s. Reducing import dependence is critical and gold stands out as a major item in this context. As the world’s second-largest gold consumer, the country imported nearly 803 tonnes in 2024-25 but produced just 1.6 tonnes (0.2% of demand); last year’s figures would be comparable.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Luxury home decor and furnishing brands are seeing a rise in demand in India as wealthy consumers splurge on larger homes, renovations and design-led interiors.From dinnerware costing several lakh rupees to collectable decor and contemporary furniture, affluent buyers are increasingly spending on their homes with luxury malls dedicating floors to what retailers describe as the "sleeper category".In New Delhi’s The Chanakya mall, an entire floor is now dedicated to luxury home and decor brands, including Jay Strongwater, Baccarat, Diptyque and Lladró, alongside Indian labels such as Janavi Home and Ravissant.The luxury home segment in India has seen a post-pandemic acceleration, with a fresh wave of global brand entries and expansions. Reliance Brands brought Pottery Barn to India in 2022, marking one of the early large-format bets on organised luxury home retail.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The global jet-fuel crunch is hitting Asia’s low-cost airlines harder than their full-service counterparts. Governments should prepare financial or operational support to avoid further flight cancellations during the busy summer travel season—as well as outright shutdowns like the collapse of America’s Spirit Airlines.Discount carriers like Malaysia’s AirAsia, Indonesia’s Lion Air and Cebu Air of the Philippines are already bearing the brunt of the energy shock. Policymakers must consider targeted measures in the form of loans, grants or fuel price relief.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.One of the more surprising stock stories of 2026 has to be Coca-Cola’s year-to-date outpacing of the S&P 500 index and its ancient foe, PepsiCo—with the latter point being as significant as the former to well-versed investors.Of course, this is the shortest of short time periods, the very opposite of what Coke’s biggest champion, Warren Buffett, the recently retired CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, would consider prudent. In fact, over the past nine years—basically the tenure of Coke’s former CEO James Quincey, who stepped down on March 31—Coke’s stock performance has been decidedly meh versus the market, though again, superior to Pepsi’s, for those keeping score at home.Why, then, does Berkshire continue to hold 400 million shares of Coke, a stake that Buffett built in the late 1980s and now worth some $31 billion, accounting for 9.3% of that company and 9.6% of Berkshire’s investment portfolio? (Note that new Berkshire CEO Greg Abel has called Coke one of Berkshire’s “core four” investments, along with Apple, Moody’s, and American Express.)A look at the current state of Coke—“by America’s side for 140 years of its 250 years”—provides some compelling clues.First, let’s acknowledge the brisk headwinds Coke faces.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The surging shares of US chipmakers such as Intel and Micron point to a deeper shift in artificial intelligence (AI). First, the narrative is moving from a speculative buzz around AI models to hard spending on the infrastructure that powers them. Second, big money is flowing into computing power and memory, the choke points of the AI economy.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.President Trump’s threat to raise tariffs on European cars is a warning for investors and U.S. trading partners that the Iran war hasn’t dissuaded him from his trade agenda or his willingness to strong-arm allies through economic pressure.Trump said Friday that the U.S. would increase tariffs on European cars and trucks to 25% from the 15% level that was agreed to as part of a preliminary trade deal last summer.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: India is tapping alternate trade routes to facilitate movement of cargoes—exports as well as energy imports—moving shipping lines at some of the West Asian ports not affected by the Strait of Hormuz blockade amid the ongoing US-Iran war, said a government official on Wednesday.Speaking to reporters, Opesh Kumar Sharma, director in the ministry of ports, shipping and waterways, said India and West Asian countries are taking these options to ensure least interruption in trade between the Gulf region and India, including fuel shipments, at a time when the Strait of Hormuz, a key channel for 20% of global oil and gas trade, remains largely closed.Alternate shipping services have been operationalized in the backdrop of the West Asia crisis, he said, with shipping lines including CMA CGM (Compagnie Maritime d'Affrètement - Compagnie Générale Maritime), Unifeeder and AP Moller-Maersk connecting Indian ports such as Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority, Mundra and Hazira to Sohar (Oman), Fujairah (UAE), and Khorfakkan (UAE) in West Asia."So, there are many places which have been activated. The cargo is moving,” he said.The industry and the government have noted issues related to trade routes, and the reduction in congestion at the ports indicated “normalization”, Sharma said.West Asia and North Africa (Wana) is a key region for India for energy imports and non-oil exports.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Facebook founder Eduardo Saverin's venture capital firm B Capital is looking to increase its exposure in India by investing in deeptech, artificial intelligence and energy transition sectors, according to a top executive.“We want to try to deploy $50 million to $100 million in India on an annual basis,” Karan Mohla, general partner at Singapore-based B Capital, said in an interview with Mint. “We see India as our primary market after the US.”The 10-year-old firm invested in global enterprise tech in its initial five years and in consumer tech over the next two to three years.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Despite the increasing emphasis on renewable energy, coal continues to dominate as the primary source of power generation in India.With one of the lowest per capita electricity consumption levels globally, the country is expected to witness a surge in energy demand unmatched by any other nation over the next decade.This trend suggests that coal demand will likely remain robust. This editorial examines the outlook for Coal India's stock.This analysis is not a stock recommendation.Coal India holds a near-monopoly position in India’s coal mining and production sector.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The emphatic victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in elections to the West Bengal assembly focuses attention on an important aspect of India’s political economy: the role of politics and governance in economic development. The link is hard to quantify, especially in an era where economics is increasingly about mathematical models.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.It’s happening. California looks likely to put a ‘one-time’ tax of 5% on wealth above $1 billion on the ballot in November and polls suggest it could pass— despite opposition from some economists (not so surprising) and Democratic politicians (more so). Meanwhile, calls to tax the rich are resounding across the country, from New York’s proposed ‘pied-à-terre tax’ to Washington State’s first-ever income tax, imposed only on millionaires.As someone who has been arguing for more than a decade that these taxes are bad economics, I find all this disheartening.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Dennis Robertson was not only one of the finest economic minds of the 20th century, but also an elegant writer who was known for his witticisms. In an essay written in 1956, Robertson quipped: “High-brow opinion is like a hunted hare; if you stand in the same place, or nearly the same place, it can be relied upon to come round to you in a circle.” Those words resonate while reading a new report by the World Bank on industrial policy, or targeted government intervention to shape the economic structure of a country by promoting, protecting or developing specific industries deemed vital to economic growth, export competitiveness, import substitution or geopolitical strategy.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Private equity firm Recognize, which closed its second fund at $1.7 billion in June 2025, is scouting for bets in India that are niche-specific service providers for large-scale enterprises in the US, according to a top executive.“We're not only looking for these niche companies and seeking to scale them,” said Muthu Kumaran, partner and head of India operations at Recognize. “These companies can have a seat at the table with Fortune 500 companies because in cases, they have specialized offerings that are deeper than what traditional IT services providers would do.”The New York-based firm was founded by former Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp chief executive officer Francisco D'Souza alongside David Wesserman and Charles Philips.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The theme in Monday’s election results of three of the four major states that went to the latest hustings was the same—anti-incumbency. Incumbents were sent packing in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) holding ground in Assam and likely Puducherry.When the euphoria peters out, the hard part will be in governing for all four major states.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Crude oil, the undistilled kind right out of the ground, was known to the Mesopotamians, Persians and Babylonians. The Chinese were the first to dig shallow wells and transport flammable oil through bamboo pipelines. Canadian geologist Abraham Gesner was the pioneer who began to distil oil and coined the term ‘kerosene’ in the mid-1850s.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.On 29 April, the Centre issued guidelines requiring electric truck makers to localize components such as battery management systems and vehicle control units to qualify for incentives under the PM E-Drive scheme. E-truck makers must use domestically produced components from September 2026.The government had eased rules during the 2025 rare-earth magnet shortage by extending deadlines for importing related subassemblies without forfeiting incentives.