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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India's apex drugs regulator has directed state governments to enforce uniform medicine standards to eliminate regional variability in regulatory compliance.In its February directive, reviewed by Mint, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), chaired by the Drugs Controller General of India, Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi, wrote that concerns have been raised regarding inconsistencies in the enforcement of drug standards across the country, low conviction rates in cases of drug adulteration, and the need for stringent scrutiny of adulteration in imported pharmaceutical products."All states are advised to take proactive measures to effectively address the issues. You are also requested to strengthen the necessary infrastructure, including the provision of adequate manpower under the State Health Regulatory Excellence Index (SHRESTH),” the letter said.The development assumes significance for India’s $50 billion pharmaceutical market, which is facing a quality crisis after Indian-manufactured cough syrups were linked to over 140 deaths globally, including in Gambia, Uzbekistan, and Cameroon, due to ethylene glycol poisoning.Mint's emailed queries to the health ministry spokesperson and the DCGI office on 15 April remained unanswered.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.If you want proof that multilateralism is limping and hobbling, all you have to do is look at the latest ministerial of the World Trade Organization (WTO) held last month. The talks ended without any consensus over a global trade deal, adding yet another episode to years of paused global trade agreements.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In an unusual attempt to get President Trump’s ear, the grandson of Cuban leader Raúl Castro tapped a wealthy Havana entrepreneur to try to personally deliver a letter to the White House last week outside of regular diplomatic channels, said a U.S. official and former U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India will continue to buy crude oil and cooking gas (liquefied petroleum gas or LPG) from Russia, even after the US’s one-month waiver of sanctions on such imports has expired, according to two people aware of the development.In early March, the US briefly waived sanctions on Russian oil and petroleum products that were already in transit, amid concerns over global supply disruptions linked to the West Asia war. The waiver will not be extended, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday.The first person cited above said waiver on sanctions is the US’s prerogative, and India’s imports would not depend on it.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India is the one of fastest-growing markets in Asia for real-time analytics and artificial intelligence observability platform Clickhouse, according to a top executive at the firm.“On the revenue side, India would be one of the highest in Asia,” co-founder and chief technology officer Alexey Milovidov said in an interview with Mint. “While revenue would be behind the US and Europe, in southeast Asia and the APAC region, India wins just on scale.”The database startup launched in India just eight months ago with a product engineering team and a smaller go-to-market team, and has several large enterprises and new-age tech companies as clients.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.America’s divisive political culture and rising cost of living are fueling interest in retiring abroad. It can be a great way to cut your expenses and improve your quality of life—as long as you understand some key factors.The prospect of kicking back in a Tuscan villa or hacienda in Tulum certainly holds appeal. But many expats devote more time to imagining their lifestyle than investigating the less romantic considerations: financial management, tax planning, and healthcare.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India has three good reasons to engage with one of the biggest open questions in economics today: the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on jobs.First, the country has the world’s largest youth population. Second, its growth model has been dominated by software services, and AI tools like Anthropic’s Claude Opus are getting exceedingly good at writing code and finding bugs. But the third and possibly the most crucial point is this threat to entry-level positions comes amid an alarming oversupply of college graduates.The wage bump that graduates enjoy over school-leavers is shrinking and AI could further narrow the gap.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.ROME—As President Trump’s rift with Europe widens, he is casting even his political friends into the chasm.Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has spent the past year trying to act as a bridge while Trump tussled with other European leaders over tariffs, Ukraine and Greenland.Trump, who previously called Meloni a “great leader,” now says he is shocked by her refusal to send forces to help open the Strait of Hormuz amid the U.S.-Iran war. “I thought she had courage, but I was wrong,” he told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Tuesday.The abrupt breakdown of their political friendship shows how the middle ground is disappearing between a White House that is demanding loyalty from its allies and a Europe where voters and governments increasingly view the U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Iranian leaders have portrayed the current cease-fire as a victory against an overwhelming U.S. and Israeli onslaught.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Muted earnings, premium valuations, currency weakness, relatively attractive emerging market (EM) peers, and India’s limited participation in the global AI value chain have reduced the country's appeal for foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), says Arbind Maheswari, head of India equities at BofA Securities, in an interview with Mint. While global investors remain cautious, domestic flows will continue to support the country's market activity, he says. Edited excerpts of the interview:If we take a step back, in the post-covid recovery phase, India seemed like the only large emerging market that had a story to tell.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Over a small, private dinner of spinach soup, scallops and Diet Coke on Monday night, President Trump told the Dutch king and queen that he wants to bring the war in Iran to a swift end.The only way to get Tehran back to the negotiating table, Trump explained to his royal guests and Dutch officials at the White House dinner, was to increase the pressure, officials briefed on the dinner said.The Dutch government already had declined to help Trump with a blockade on Iranian ports, which it called “worrying” and an “escalation upon escalation.” Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten, who had seized on the monarchs’ visit to secure an invitation and speak to Trump, told the president that European allies would stand up an international coalition to help secure the Strait of Hormuz—but only after the fighting ended.“We agree to disagree,” Jetten told reporters afterward. The meal “was too short to convince each other, but long enough to get a better understanding of each other’s positions.”The dinner laid bare the conundrum before Trump as he tries to ratchet up economic pressure on Iran, even as he declared that the war is “very close to over.” While Trump said that he would be announcing “other countries” that will be involved with the blockade, none have stepped forward, and many have outright refused.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A working group constituted by the Indian market regulator is discussing measures to improve the country's stock lending and borrowing framework through greater custodian participation and digitization of the Securities Lending and Borrowing Scheme (SLBS) processes, three people aware of the development said.The move is part of a push by chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey to deepen cash markets and offer investors alternatives to the risky derivatives segment.The key part of the discussions is a plan to push custodians to actively pitch the scheme to investors whose shares they safeguard. Currently, the process is hampered by ‘prohibitive’ 125% margin requirements and a manual trading system that relies on phone calls rather than digital screens.The regulator aims to link cash and derivatives markets better to improve price discovery systems.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.With a parched monsoon forecast and a fertilizer supply chain disrupted by conflict in West Asia, Indian agriculture is caught between two raging storms. The India Meteorological Department has predicted a below-normal monsoon, while national fertilizer stocks sit at less than half of what’s required for the upcoming Kharif season.As El Niño threatens to dry up the fields and imported urea becomes harder to secure, the resilience of India's food production and the stability of rural demand are facing their toughest test in years.Mint explores whether these twin challenges will spark a spike in food prices or significantly dent farmers’ incomes.The four-month monsoon spanning June-September is critical for two reasons: India receives about 70% of its annual rainfall during these months, and nearly 45% of the country's farmland lacks irrigation, leaving it solely dependent on these rains.The India Meteorological Department has forecast the monsoon to be below normal at 92% of the long-period (50-year) average.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A downward revision in nominal gross domestic product (GDP) following the base-year revision and a sharp depreciation of the rupee have proved to be a setback for India's position in global ranking.The country has slipped to the sixth rank in 2025 (FY26) and 2026 (FY27), falling behind the UK after claiming the fifth position for three straight years, showed the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) latest data.At current prices, India’s GDP is estimated to be $3.92 trillion in 2025 (FY26) and $4.15 trillion in 2026 (FY27). The UK’s GDP is expected to be $4 trillion in 2025 and $4.26 trillion in 2026, respectively.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.THE WORLD stands on the brink of a nuclear-arms race. If one can be avoided, a big reason will be this: currently, the first country to start such a race risks paying a terrible price.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: The government sees limited impact of the West Asia war on India’s FY26 growth, but a prolonged disruption could force some pass-through of elevated global oil prices into retail fuel, according to two officials aware of an internal assessment.The conflict, which began on 28 February, has heightened concerns around energy supply disruptions, particularly through the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit route for global oil trade. While the government has so far absorbed the shock through tax cuts and limited price increases, that cushion may narrow if high crude prices persist.In FY26, India’s economy is projected to have grown 7.6%, according to the second advance estimates released in February.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) discussion paper, ‘Exploring Safeguards in Digital Payments to Curb Frauds,’ is part of its ongoing efforts to make digital payments safer and fraud-proof to the extent possible. Given the rapid growth of online transfers, it was but inevitable that frauds would also increase manifold.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.WHEN AMERICA and Israel began their war on February 28th, it was widely expected that Iran would choke off shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Few would have predicted that, less than two months later, Donald Trump would impose a blockade of his own, targeting traffic to and from Iranian ports and coastal areas. It went into effect on April 13th.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.President Trump is pitching a U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz as an opportunity for American oil-and-gas exporters. The squeeze on supplies is a bad omen for prices at the pump.The U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.For anyone scrolling through social media lately, Vietnam seems to have taken over the feed, with its cafés, coastlines and bustling streets firmly etched onto the global travel map. But the tourism buzz is only the surface of a deeper story.Emerging from the ashes of the war with the US and from being one of the world’s poorest economies in the 1980s, Vietnam is now seen as an economic miracle, delivering sustained high growth (8% in 2025) and reducing poverty to below 5% from nearly 80% in 1993.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The improvement in business ties between China and India has streamlined partnerships between companies in the two countries, providing a significant boost to JSW Group's automotive venture, according to Parth Jindal, director at JSW MG Motor India. JSW Group plans its debut car launch towards the end of the calendar year.The Indian government’s easing of investment rules for Chinese firms and the resumption of direct flights between the two countries have made it easier to collaborate with the group’s Chinese partners, Jindal told Mint.“While the relaxation of Press Note 3 has not directly benefited the auto sector, it has improved overall sentiment which, along with the resumption of flights, has made engagement with our partners more seamless,” he said.“India’s relationship with China has been improving steadily, and the relaxation of Press Note 3 has helped ease technology transfer processes between the two countries.