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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi must act urgently to gather a coalition of like-minded and like-affected countries to conduct diplomacy with the warring parties in West Asia. The goal is not so much to get them to stop fighting but to prevent their war from throwing the Indian and world economy into a severe crisis. US President Donald Trump’s announcement that the US will blockade the Strait of Hormuz for ships headed for or leaving Iran’s ports threatens to impose pain and suffering on hundreds of millions of innocents.

Democracy is inherently fraught. At its core lies the difficulty of translating individual preferences into a coherent social choice, a problem famously captured by Nobel laureate economist Kenneth Arrow’s impossibility theorem and later developed by another Nobel laureate Amartya Sen in his 1970 book Collective Choice and Social Welfare.

Mint, Irani said pockets of the market continue to offer value despite headline premiums. Even though smallcaps are quoting at a slight premium to largecaps, on a price-to-earnings-growth (PEG) basis, the ratio is almost half that of largecaps.

Mumbai: The Nuvama Group’s private equity arm has invested ₹200 crore for a minority stake in Val-Met Engineering, betting on a specialized supplier of aerospace and defence materials as global manufacturers move more of their high-end production to India.“Over the last couple of years, there has been a rising focus in India and globally to become more self-reliant. Sensitive sectors like aerospace, defence, industrial and advanced/value added manufacturing have been the biggest beneficiaries of this shift in mindset,” Pranav Parikh, managing partner and head of private equity at Nuvama Asset Management, told Mint in an interview.According to Parikh, global conflicts and geopolitical uncertainties have made domestic self-sufficiency a critical priority.

GDP may be greater than on inflation, as the government will try to shield vulnerable consumers using policy tools, and in the worst case, growth may possibly be lower by 60-100 basis points,” added Shukla.The failure of talks could impact the stock market's fledgling recovery from its 52-week low, and unsettle the currency and energy markets."This is bad news and puts the recent recovery at risk," said Nirmal Jain, founder of IIFL Group, advising investors to wait rather than rush in to buy a likely dip.The bellwether Nifty had recovered 8.4% from its 52-week low of 22,182.55 on 2 April to Friday's closing of 24050.6. A further recovery toward the pre-war level of 25,178.65 on 27 February, which analysts had expected ahead of the peace talks, looks like a "tough ask," said Rohit Srivastava, founder of analytics firm IndiaCharts.While analysts including Srivastava do not believe the market will test its 52-week low again unless the fighting widens, options traders have baked in a 23,000-25,000 range for the Nifty in April.

Since US President Donald Trump started hiking tariffs last year, many commentators have called attention to Asian exporters’ resilience. But the narrowly concentrated gains in Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand have been driven primarily by electronics, obscuring the sharp divisions that a protectionist US and an export-reliant China are perpetuating across the region. Beyond electronics exports, other sectors are being undercut, leading several governments to announce targeted support measures for firms and consumers, even as headline growth has headed higher.

Strait of Hormuz.The nuclear question is the oldest and most fundamental source of Western suspicion. Iran insists it has never sought to build a bomb.

Mint spoke with, companies are increasingly hiring law firms and investigative agencies before closing deals to ensure that none of the parties involved, including subsidiaries, parents or suppliers, feature on sanctions lists.Clients are now required to sign sanctions standard operating procedures (SOPs) before finalising deals, which mandate disclosures such as ultimate beneficiaries, end-use certificates, and verification of licensed vendors.The purpose of such stringent due diligence is to ensure that companies do not deal with sanctioned entities, thus preventing frozen assets, blocked payments, or stalled deals amid geopolitical tensions.“With growing awareness, turbulent global environment and growing tariff and sanctions regime, sanction checks are carried out on large and key vendors at a pre-transaction stage. Further, post transactions, clients are asking us to implement third-party diligence programs in the acquired company and also have a real-time sanctions screening process,” said Tarun Bhatia, managing director and APAC co-head at financial risk and advisory firm Kroll.A sanctions control and ownership test determines whether an entity is “blocked” due to ownership by sanctioned individuals.

Bay Capital Partners plans to raise about ₹1,000-1,500 crore for a new fund targeting late-stage tech firms, joining investors chasing India’s rapidly maturing digital economy.The Mumbai-based firm’s India Digital Opportunities Fund will back 10 to 15 companies in both private and public markets. To lead the vehicle, Bay Capital has brought in former Delhivery executive Sandeep Barasia and ICICI Ventures veteran Tej Kapoor as co-founders and managing partners.“It's the first time we're doing a dedicated digital crossover fund.

An image on the 3 April cover of The Economist shows an angry US President Donald Trump shouting on one side, with China’s President Xi Jinping calmly smiling on the other. “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake,” says the headline.A revealing picture in the White House’s archives shows US National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai shaking hands in Beijing on 9 July 1971, when Kissinger made his secret dash for a détente with China. The press was told that Kissinger was unwell and resting in Pakistan.

NEW DELHI: India took a major step towards nuclear fuel self-reliance when its indigenously developed Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu attained criticality on 6 April. This is the stage when a nuclear chain reaction can sustain itself.This will enable India to leverage its vast reserves of thorium and reduce dependence on uranium imports.

Ever found your mobile phone's signal to be patchy while waiting for a flight? That’s because telecom operators can’t provide stronger signals near airports, as these can interfere with a small cockpit tool—a radio altimeter.The electronic gauge, which measures the altitude of an airborne plane, feeds data to multiple automated systems on board. A wrong reading can be a safety risk, especially during poor visibility.

For the emerging megacities of Asia, the oil crisis that spread out from the Strait of Hormuz is like the acute phase of a chronic condition. The largest migration in human history is filling their streets and alleyways to bursting point.Urbanization and births will add a billion more people between now and 2050. Jakarta and Dhaka, with 42 million and 37 million people respectively, have overtaken Tokyo at 33 million as the world’s biggest metropolises.

Mint takes a look at the arguments made by the high-profile Adani counsels and the road ahead in the case.The SEC has alleged that billionaire businessman Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, among others, paid $250 million in bribes to unnamed government officials in India to secure favourable power-supply contracts for Adani Green Energy Ltd.The regulators further claimed that when raising capital from American investors, the Adanis did not tell them about the alleged bribes while stating the company’s anti-bribery policies, thus misleading investors and committing securities fraud.The Adani Group has denied any wrongdoing.The Adani lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the SEC case based on a lack of personal jurisdiction. The Adani kin are neither residents of the United States nor did they purposefully direct their activities towards the country, the counsels said in their motion.Gautam Adani did not personally authorize the issuance of the $750 million bonds under question or direct the sale of these bonds in the US, they said.

Every month, Mint’s Plain Facts section brings out an update on key global data to thread together the biggest developments in the world that are worth paying attention to. The accompanying analysis and charts explain how each story is creating ripples on the global stage, where it is headed in the coming weeks, and whether it can impact India.Major central banks are expected to remain cautious in the coming weeks as the war in West Asia has clouded the global economic outlook, with supply disruptions and higher oil prices stoking fears of stagflation.The Federal Reserve, Bank of England, and Bank of Japan are widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged in the near future, amid the war fog, trying a balancing act between a possible increase in inflation and a slowdown in growth.

Mint.The US-based semiconductor equipment major is “spending more energy” tracking opportunities in the country than before, as policy support and early-stage investments begin to translate into a stronger pipeline of startups, said Om Nalamasu, chief technology officer (CTO) of Applied Materials.“With initiatives like ISM 1.0 (India Semiconductor Mission 1.0), ANRF (Anusandhan National Research Foundation), and RDI (research, development, and innovation) funds, we expect a significant increase in both the number and quality of ideas emerging from India,” he said.Nalamasu added that the firm is also engaging with government-backed initiatives such as fund-of-funds structures aimed at boosting domestic innovation.Applied Ventures has joined the India Deep Tech Alliance (IDTA) as a corporate strategic partner, signalling a deeper engagement with the country’s semiconductor and deep-tech ecosystem.Globally, it has invested over $500 million across more than 100 companies, deploying about $100 million annually across 19 countries. It has seen more than 10 listing exits and multiple mergers and acquisitions.In India, however, its exposure remains limited so far.

NEW DELHI: A shortage of refrigerated containers (reefers) caused by the West Asia war is worrying Indian growers of mangoes ahead of the peak export season, according to five people aware of the development.With the war in its second month, key maritime routes, including the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, have been disrupted, leading to container shortages and higher freight costs. Many containers are stuck in transit due to congestion or are being re-routed, leading to longer shipment cycles.This poses a unique problem for India, which produces 20.68 million tonnes, or 44%, of the world's mangoes annually, the most by any country.

For at least a decade, developing countries across Asia and Africa have worried about growing dependent on the People’s Republic of China. They’re concerned about debt traps, coercive policies and hidden costs that might push their economies toward crisis.Crisis has come, and that logic has been turned on its head. After six weeks of the US and Israel’s war on Iran and its ensuing counter-attacks, it is the countries that bet on Chinese supply chains that are faring better than the ones that had trusted Pax Americana.

schemes.Integrated with states’ financial systems and the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) e-Kuber platform, it allows funds to be released only when payments are actually due. The system shifts fund flow from an advance-based model to a demand-driven one.It is used across more than 50 centrally sponsored schemes, where spending is shared between the Centre and states—usually in a 60:40 ratio (and 90:10 for special category states).Earlier, ministries released funds upfront to states and implementing agencies.

Shares of AWL Agri Business (formerly Adani Wilmar) are down 36% since 21 November after Adani group’s exit. The stock hit a 52-week low of ₹171.19 on 16 March, amid muted financials for the nine months ended December (9MFY26), which added to the pressure.But the worst may be over. Its March quarter (Q4FY26) business update reveals sales volumes grew by 13% year-on-year.

“We do blue-collar hiring, mainly in the manufacturing and supply chain sectors, and there, the costs of getting workforce in the metros has gone up by about 15-20% in a month,” said Neeti Sharma, chief executive officer of TeamLease Digital, part of the staffing firm TeamLease Group.Scarcity of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has forced construction and manufacturing sectors' blue-collared workers—scaffolders, plumbers, welders, etc.—back to their hometowns and villages.Radheshyam and four others together iron clothes in south Mumbai. These migrant workers from Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh, together typically use one LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cylinder for a little over a month.