Cycling Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Apart from some currency depreciation, the Indian economy has held up reasonably well, and growth numbers remain stable, said Sailesh Raj Bhan, president and chief investment officer (CIO) - Equity Investments, Nippon India Mutual Fund.“India today is also far less fragile than before,” he added.The broader belief is that elevated crude prices are not a permanent situation, as they would hurt the global economy as well. Once conditions normalize, flows are likely to return to India, said Bhan.Among the sectors, he likes all private-sector banks, consumer plays, and general insurance plays.Edited excerpts:Things will improve in India as investors begin to see opportunities emerge.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: India’s microfinance institutions (MFIs) are returning to growth mode after almost two years of sector-wide stress, but management commentary indicates the recovery will be measured and cautious as these lenders grapple with geopolitical uncertainty, inflation risks and a structurally altered lending environment.CreditAccess Grameen Ltd, Spandana Sphoorty Financial Ltd and Satin Creditcare Network Ltd suggested that collection efficiency and asset quality have improved materially, aided by stricter underwriting norms and guardrails introduced after the recent microfinance crisis.“The sector is healing,” H.P. Singh, chairman and managing director of Satin Creditcare, said during the company’s Q4 earnings call on 12 May.Portfolios at risk (PAR), a percentage measure of overdue loans by number of days, have declined in the sector.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Electric mobility in India has moved from being an environmental statement to an economic necessity.An expected yet sudden ₹3-per-litre fuel hike, along with government austerity measures such as remote-work mandates to conserve foreign reserves, has intensified the pressure on internal combustion engines. Electric vehicles (EVs) are no longer futuristic alternatives — they are increasingly financial hedges against fuel volatility.But unlocking their full value requires new habits.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Rural-linked companies reported their strongest volume-led recovery in years in the March quarter (Q4FY26), driven by low inflation, healthy farm incomes and rising non-farm employment from infrastructure spending. Aggressive government welfare spending further boosted rural consumption across staples and discretionary categories.But experts warn the recovery may already be approaching its first major stress test.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Chemical fertilizers in India are heavily subsidized and import-dependent. Their use, over the years, has led to significant deterioration in soil health. To promote soil testing, provide farmers with crop-specific nutrient recommendations, improve soil fertility and optimize fertilizer use, the government launched the Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme in 2015.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Investing in artificial intelligence involves a strong belief that it’s different this time, and memory-chip makers are a particularly extreme example.Micron Technology recorded its biggest-ever loss just three years ago, and is now forecast to become the sixth-most profitable U.S. stock. It will make just under $100 billion over the next 12 months, more than Meta or Berkshire Hathaway.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mumbai: India’s bond market is beginning to price in possible RBI rate hikes later this year after Friday’s fuel price increase renewed concerns over inflation, pushing government bond yields higher and reviving debate over whether the RBI may eventually need to raise rates.On Friday, the benchmark 10-year government bond yield climbed 4 basis points (bps) to 7.06% after state-run oil marketing companies raised petrol and diesel prices by about ₹3 per litre. The yield had already risen around 10 bps since last week to close at 7.02% on Thursday, according to Bloomberg data.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India is actively scouting for hardware and deeptech investments, with a sharp focus on semiconductors, robotics, and battery technology, according to a top executive at the firm.“It's definitely a new space for us, but it makes sense due to how geopolitics is playing out. In the past two years, companies have been looking to be more independent and move away from relying on China,” Ben Mathias, managing partner at the firm, told Mint in an interview.Vertex Ventures is the latest firm to build a deeptech investment thesis in India, joining a sector buoyed by the growing demand for "sovereign technology”.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.K Raheja Corp-backed hotel ownership company Chalet Hotels Limited is expanding its focus to deeper leisure markets such as Jaipur, Jodhpur and Pune, while evaluating opportunities in Hyderabad’s financial district as it builds a broader national pipeline.Speaking to Mint, managing director and CEO Shwetank Singh said the company is scaling steadily across city hotels, airport properties and leisure resorts as demand continues to outpace supply despite short-term disruptions.“We are going to go into deep leisure markets like Jaipur, Jodhpur, Pune and also evaluating Hyderabad financial district,” Singh said.“The underlying demand supply story is strong— demand is growing faster than supply. We sustained a strong pricing-led growth, driving healthy RevPAR (revenue per available room) expansion growth across key markets.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A few years ago, on a boat ride in Hong Kong, Nimesh Chandan, CIO of Bajaj Finserv AMC, was battling motion sickness. A friend told him: focus on the horizon.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.“We are thinking of moving to Dubai. Know any good brokers?” That question used to pop up regularly in 2025 on cross-Arabian Sea phone calls to residents of the city-state from India.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Buying a home is the largest financial commitment most Indians will make. Choosing the right lender matters as much as choosing the right property. Today, that choice sits between banks and housing finance companies (HFCs), a specialised category of NBFC, and each serves a genuine purpose for different kinds of borrowers.As of May 2026, banks offer floating-rate home loans starting from 7% for eligible borrowers.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Indian equities have spent the past year lurching from one shock to another. Just as investors adjust to one trigger, another upends sentiment—from tariff threats and geopolitical flare-ups to relentless foreign investor selling and slowing earnings growth.The latest blow has come from the war in West Asia, which has once again rattled markets already struggling to sustain momentum.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Recent months have tested investor confidence. Indian equity markets have seen noticeable corrections amid global uncertainties, with broader indices declining sharply due to tightening liquidity, rising oil prices, and geopolitical tensions.Most indices declined by over 10% in March, while crude oil prices surged by more than 33% (before cooling off in April).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Earlier in May, the Lakshmi Mittal family and vaccine-maker Adar Poonawalla successfully bid for Indian Premier League team Rajasthan Royals at a valuation of $1.65 billion, or over ₹15,600 crore. In March, the Birla family, along with Blackstone PE, Bolt Ventures and The Times of India Group, acquired rival IPL team Royal Challengers Bengaluru for a $1.78 billion valuation, or more than ₹16,000 crore.At these valuations, cricket teams are selling for 30x their last reported annual revenue from operations.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A kilo of apples at Nature’s Basket, a retail chain associated with well-off shoppers, costs ₹499. At a modest local vendor, these would cost ₹200-250 per kg. Admittedly, their quality and source of origin may differ.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The AI hack we unlocked today is based on a capability- Gemini's File Generation.Here is a pain point most professionals quietly endure: you have a great session with AI, you've structured a report, drafted a proposal, built a budget breakdown and then spend 30 minutes doing the one thing AI was supposed to eliminate: copy, paste, reformat, fix spacing, redo headers. The AI gave you the content.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In recent months, a palpable sense of concern has begun to ripple through investors. Inflationary pressures—once dismissed as a transitory aftershock of global recovery—now risk becoming entrenched.The drivers form a difficult triad: destruction of energy infrastructure in West Asia leading to volatile oil and gas prices, persistent supply chain constraints, and a domestic agricultural squeeze triggered by a lower-than-anticipated monsoon and record-high fertilizer costs.The RBI’s decision to raise the inflation forecast for FY27 to 4.6%—up from an earlier target of 4%—signals that these fears are grounded in reality.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.For more than a decade, Android tablets have lived in a strange limbo. They were declared dead when phones grew larger, dismissed as pandemic‑era stopgaps, and overshadowed by Apple’s iPad.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Godrej Properties Ltd (GPL), India's best-selling residential developer, has set an ambitious sales target of ₹39,000 crore for 2026-27 even though home prices are likely to remain stable, executive chairperson Pirojsha Godrej told Mint in an interviewIn FY26, GPL's sales bookings rose 16% year-on-year to ₹34,171 crore. That was achieved through the sale of 17,513 units spanning 27 million sq ft, the highest ever by an Indian real estate firm.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Global investment firm Carlyle has acquired a majority stake in Knack RCM and EqualizeRCM, two US-based healthcare revenue cycle management (RCM) providers, the companies said in a statement on Monday, as it looks to build an artificial intelligence (AI)-led platform in the US healthcare RCM market.The transaction combines two complementary RCM operators to create what the companies described as an AI-native, multi-specialty platform serving physician groups, rural hospitals and durable medical equipment (DME) providers.Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.“The US healthcare revenue cycle market is growing rapidly, driven by margin compression, workforce shortages, and the shift to value-based care,” said Kapil Modi, Partner at Carlyle India Advisors. “We believe Knack and Equalize stand out as leaders with their AI-native, specialty‑focused, and outcomes‑driven approach, which aligns well with the growing needs and demand in healthcare RCM.”The combined entity is expected to expand scale and delivery footprint across the US, India and the Philippines, while deepening capabilities in automation and analytics, the company said.Carlyle said it intends to pursue additional acquisitions to build out the platform, underscoring a consolidation strategy in a sector that remains highly fragmented.“One of the core tenets of this investment is to build a scaled, strategically attractive physician and rural hospital RCM platform in a fragmented industry.