Cycling Financial News

Climate Change and You is a fortnightly newsletter written by Bibek Bhattacharya and Sayantan Bera. Subscribe to the newsletter to get it directly in your inbox.Dear reader,Recently, while working on a story on farmer-owned companies, I came across an ancient variety of rice. The heirloom rice variety, known as Kala Namak, comes from eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Mint.This marks a shift from its first fund, when the firm largely stayed away from the sector due to concerns around balance sheets and asset quality. With credit cycles stabilizing after the post-pandemic stress, it now sees renewed opportunity across lending, wealth management and technology-led financial services.“We want to also now spend a lot more time on banking and financial services.

India Inc.’s earnings recovery will take longer than expected as higher energy prices amid the West Asia conflict could squeeze margins, according to the investment head of Standard Chartered Securities (India).“The consensus about a month back was building around 14-15% kind of (earnings) growth, which might come to low double-digits because of these changes in the input cost,” said Gaurav Dua, chief investment officer at the broking firm.For a year and a half, India Inc has been in an earnings downgrade cycle that was expected to bottom out, Dua said. But the rising energy prices could prolong the recovery, he said.

Bengaluru: A sharp rise in crude oil-linked raw material prices is unsettling India’s plastic packaging industry, but a bigger disruption is being caused by companies securing and stockpiling their supplies, tightening availability and pushing up prices.This is directly impacting packaged food and beverage companies that are preparing for peak summer demand. Most plastics are derived from crude oil and natural gas liquids that are refined to make the raw material for plastic.Prices of key inputs such as PET resin (used for plastic bottles) and polyolefins (used for bottle caps, labels and pouches) have surged by 40% to 80% in weeks, driven by the West Asia conflict that started on 28 February and subsequent global crude oil volatility.

carbon credit is roughly equivalent to the emissions caused from burning about 430 litres of petrol or a round-trip flight between Delhi and Singapore. It can sometimes take more than a year for a carbon credit to be issued.

about 20% of all engineers, or about 300,000 of them, graduating in India have core IT skills to get employment each year. With recruitment in IT firms slowing, the rise of data-driven engineering jobs across data centres could plug some of this gap.Analysts largely concur with this assessment.“India’s data centres are significantly adding value-added cloud services, which is the core area for them to generate additional revenue.

mutual funds (MFs) up to ₹1.25 lakh in a financial year without paying tax. Capital losses can also be used to offset gains and reduce tax liability.

Mint, even during the Russia-Ukraine crisis, crude prices initially surged but eventually moderated as markets adjusted.He added that apart from geopolitical tensions, key risks for Indian markets include global liquidity conditions, movements in crude oil prices, and the availability of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and oil, as rising household energy costs could disrupt consumption momentum. Edited excerpts:Markets typically react first to headlines and then gradually reassess fundamentals.

shaped by AI, by new workflows and by entirely new forms of expression. Adobe has never waited for the future to arrive. We’ve anticipated it.

Mint in an earlier interaction. LG Electronics, the largest consumer electronics brand in India, makes around 28% of its annual revenues in the January-March quarter.Awry predictions, then, can lead to a production-demand mismatch.

Multi-asset allocation funds have emerged as the new favourite among mutual fund investors. Multi-asset funds received the highest inflows of ₹8,476 crore in February, per Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) data.In an interview with Mint, Deepak Shenoy, chief executive officer (CEO) of Capitalmind AMC, explains how these funds work, who they are suitable for and whether investors risk chasing yet another market fad. Edited excerptsMulti-asset funds were created for a certain type of investor.

Now that Kevin Warsh has been nominated as the next chair of the US Federal Reserve Board, it is worth asking how different a Warsh Fed would be from the current one. President Donald Trump had made it clear that he wants a Fed chair who will push for lower policy rates to juice the US economy and support his broader agenda.

The Nifty 50 is facing its most significant period of volatility in over a year. As of 9 March, the index has entered correction territory, down more than 10% from its January peak of 26,373.Whether the Nifty 50 recovers from here or drops further to 22,000 depends heavily on the duration of the current geopolitical crisis and the resulting oil shock.Here is a breakdown of the current investing landscape.The main driver of the market’s fall is the escalating conflict in the Middle East.Yes, if the war drags on and crude oil remains at elevated levels.

₹265.4 crore, Christian Dior's slipped slightly to ₹257 crore from ₹265.7 crore in FY24, and Louis Vuitton's eased to ₹802.47 crore from ₹816.24 crore in FY24.In contrast, the more upmarket Hermès India, which caters to ultra-rich buyers, continued to expand, with revenue rising to ₹427.9 crore from ₹322.2 crore and net profit increasing to ₹83.7 crore from ₹72.7 crore. Swiss watches also outperformed, with sales rising to about ₹3,500 crore from ₹3,244.6 crore in 2024, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH.The divergence could be a sign of a broader market dynamic at play, say experts.

New Delhi: India’s automakers could be heading toward another semiconductor supply squeeze—this time triggered by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. As chipmakers shift manufacturing capacity toward high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI data centres, supplies of conventional memory chips used in vehicles are tightening, driving up prices and raising supply risks for the industry.This could mark the third major supply disruption for the auto industry in recent years, after the rare earth magnet crunch triggered by China’s restrictions last year, and the global semiconductor shortage during the covid pandemic years of 2020-22.At least two industry executives said that if supply pressures persist, automakers may start facing shortages by the end of the next financial year (FY27).“Internal estimates suggest that the supply crunch will get serious towards the last two quarters of the next financial year, which is why there is a rush to prepare now,” one of the executives mentioned above said on the condition of anonymity.The issue was earlier flagged to analysts by Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M), which makes electric cars, and e-two-wheeler manufacturer Ather Energy Ltd.“Memory chips are something that is a supply chain risk/price sensitive thing because shortage obviously is driving premiums in memory chips,” M&M executive director Rajesh Jejurikar told analysts and investors on an 11 February earnings call.

As the dust settles on India’s recent AI summit—optimistic in tone, ambitious in scope—a harder question demands an honest answer. What does the next wave of artificial intelligence mean for a sector that has served as a key economic engine for three decades? Information technology (IT) services generate over $254 billion in annual exports, employ 5.4 million professionals and finance a merchandise trade deficit that has breached $300 billion. Software exports are a success story.

For many urban women, egg freezing is increasingly becoming part of long-term life planning, much like buying insurance or investing for retirement. But unlike most financial goals, this one comes with a biological deadline, and it isn’t cheap.The procedure typically costs ₹1.35- ₹3 lakh per cycle, with annual storage fees of ₹10,000–30,000 and potential IVF expenses later.

the BJP.There’s a big section in Bihar that feels Nitish’s third and fourth terms weren’t that great. Rumours are doing the rounds about his health. At this juncture Nitish’s decision to move to Rajya Sabha is a reflection of his political maturity.Anyone from the BJP or the JDU, who moves into 1, Ane Marg will take a very long time to match the stature of Nitish Kumar.

Arnya Real Estates Fund Advisors and developer Supreme Universal have raised ₹1,030 crore for Arnya Real Estate Fund—Equity, from domestic and offshore investors, including family offices and ultra-rich individuals, marking the first close for the equity platform.The capital raised also includes around ₹220 crore of equity committed by the two sponsors. Arnya Real Estates will manage the fund, while Mumbai-based Supreme Universal will develop the projects.Arnya Real Estates has raised the capital for the platform via a Sebi-registered category II alternative investment fund (AIF)—Arnya Real Estate Fund-Equity.The two partners had announced the launch of a residential real estate platform in November that will develop housing projects in Mumbai and Pune.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lowered the repo rate by 125 basis points (bps) in this rate cut cycle and governor Sanjay Malhotra reiterated that rates will remain lower for longer. While banks have lowered both lending and deposit rates, these were not entirely in tandem.Amid all this, credit growth in the banking system continues to outpace deposit growth.

The escalating US-Iran conflict has wreaked havoc on market sentiment, leaving investors anxious about spiking crude oil prices and the economic fallout of a prolonged confrontation. This instability carries significant implications for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies, particularly with the threat of supply disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint for global energy.Consequently, Indian firms with meaningful exposure to the Middle East are facing heightened near-term volatility.