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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. In the run-up to the upcoming Union Budget, Mint conducted an online poll from 28 November and 30 December inviting its print and digital readers to share their views on how the government should approach the annual exercise. Should the Budget be populist? Is it time to relax income tax slabs? Should women and farmers get extra attention in the Budget? Those were among the questions we posed to our readers.

Prashant Pitti, co-founder of EaseMyTrip, recently shared a significant milestone on LinkedIn: his 'Founder's Office' job listing for his fintech startup, Optimo, has received an overwhelming 4,344 applications. In his post, Pitti expressed his surprise, writing, «Overwhelming to see 4344 folks have applied so far to work directly with me to change India's MSME lending landscape.» While Pitti is widely known for his role in the travel industry with EaseMyTrip, this job listing is for his latest venture, Optimo, a fintech startup focused on reshaping small and medium enterprise (SME) lending. Unlike his travel company, this startup is centered around providing innovative digital solutions for MSMEs, especially through its digital property-loan product. Pitti, along with investors Blume Ventures and Omnivore VC, is committed to developing the company’s growth. The listing for Optimo’s 'Founder’s Office' positions is for their office based in HSR Bangalore, where they are actively seeking ambitious individuals with a knack for deep thinking and multiple-project management. «You will get to see & learn on how large-scale companies are built directly, while working on multiple projects at the same time,» Pitti wrote in the job description. Optimo is aiming to build an industry-changing platform, with plans to expand rapidly across India.

Business correspondents (BCs)-who process thousands of crores of rupees daily in domestic remittances-have urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to relax the restrictions it had imposed on monthly and daily transfers 14 years ago, according to people aware of the development. They have written to the RBI, requesting it to double the monthly transfer limit to ₹50,000 and reduce the requirement of a two-factor authentication (2FA) to once a month from it being needed for every transaction now, the people cited earlier told ET. This comes after the BCs complained to the regulator about the misuse of its latest domestic money transfer rules that mandate KYC (know-your-customer) checks of every remitter.

India, too, has its share of quirky regulations. Until recently, kite-flying required a permit under the Indian Aircraft Act of 1934, as kites were classified as 'aircraft'. Delhi barbers are still legally obliged to maintain a register of every haircut performed. These outdated laws, often harmless on the surface, highlight a deeper problem: absence of an institutionalised system for regulatory review. Without mechanisms to periodically evaluate and repeal redundant laws, governance becomes riddled with inefficiencies, eroding public trust and creating unnecessary friction.

However, 2025 brings promising news for four zodiac signs—Aries, Libra, Virgo, and Pisces. Media report predicts life will get significantly easier for them this year. After navigating a year of challenges, these signs can expect emotional and spiritual growth, improved relationships, and a renewed sense of purpose, as mentioned in a report by Your Tango.

Constitution, the central government has chosen Mahakumbh in Prayagraj to take the celebration to millions of visitors over one and a half month, starting from Monday. The Union social justice ministry has termed the Mahakumbh as a grand confluence of equality, empowerment and justice. The ministry has set up a pavilion with a «grand, divine, and digital» theme, highlighting the Indian Constitution. As the debate continues over the Constitution from the Parliament to the common masses, the ministry is using this opportunity to educate people on the Indian Constitution and the leaders who were involved in Constitution making. An e-copy of the Indian Constitution will also be kept at the pavilion. There will also be a digital flip book which the visitors to the pavilion can flip through to know about the important sections, amendments and leaders.

Income Tax (I-T) department has set the ground to tap Interpol for information on the current whereabouts, identity, and hidden assets of tax dodgers. A standard operating procedure has been circulated for initiating requests to Interpol, the world's largest international police organisation with 194 member countries, sources told ET. While tax evasion is a criminal offence and may attract penalty and even imprisonment, the I-T department does not seek the help of Interpol in going after tax fraud offenders. However, learning from past experiences, the tax office believes that accessing the latest information on such fugitives-their locations, front entities, and details of newly acquired assets-would help to freeze bank accounts and other assets faster.

Steel Authority of India and John Cockerill India will jointly invest around ₹6,000 crore on setting up a downstream plant for steel, which will be used for the production of cold-rolled grain-oriented and cold-rolled non-oriented types of electrical steel, sources aware of the development said. The hot-rolled coils (HRCs), a form of finished steel to be used as raw material for this plant, will be supplied from SAIL, while the downstream unit itself is likely to be set up at one of SAIL's existing plants, they said. While a final call on where the plant will be set up is yet to be made, the project is expected to come on-board between 2027 and 2029, they said. In November last year, SAIL had signed a memorandum of understanding with John Cockerill India for green steel technologies and innovation, with a focus on carbon steel, green steel and silicon steel.

Jio Star is aiming to generate ad revenue of up to ₹6,000 crore from both TV and digital platforms during the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy and Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, according to sources familiar with the matter. The broadcaster expects to secure ad revenue of up to ₹1,500 crore from the Champions Trophy and up to ₹4,500 crore from the IPL, the sources added. Rate cards for the ICC Champions Trophy have already been released, with a detailed ad rate card for IPL expected to follow shortly. Jio Star's ad sales team is actively negotiating with advertisers for both events, prioritising the sale of Champions Trophy inventory first. The tournament is set to run from February 19 to March 9. IPL 2025 will be played from March 23 to May 25. For the Champions Trophy on Star Sports, the broadcaster is seeking ₹55 crore for co-presenting sponsorship, ₹44 crore for associate sponsorship and ₹28 crore from partner sponsors. The TV spot rate for India matches is ₹28 lakh per 10-second spot. On digital platforms, Jio Star is seeking ₹55 crore from co-presenting sponsors, ₹45 crore from powered-by sponsors and ₹25 crore from associate sponsors. CPM rates for the full tournament are ₹250 per 10-second spot and ₹500 for India matches. For Connected TV (CTV), the spot rate is ₹7 lakh for the entire tournament and ₹15 lakh for India and play-off matches.

Adani Group will invest Rs 65,000 crore in energy and cement projects in Chhattisgarh, the conglomerate said Sunday. Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani met Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai on Sunday and announced an investment of Rs 60,000 crore to expand the group's power plants in Raipur, Korba and Raigarh in the state. The expansion will enhance Chhattisgarh's power generation capacity by 6,120 MW, a company statement said. Adani Power is India's top private thermal power producer. It is targeting to double its thermal power capacity to 30.67 GW by 2029-30 from 15 GW currently. The firm said last month it was exploring options of investing Rs 20,000 crore to set up a coal-fired ultra-supercritical thermal power plant in Bihar.

CII has backed further simplification of the regulatory framework, expansion of the ambit of the national single-window system (NSWS) portal and revamp of the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) system to minimise tax disputes, among steps to make it easier for doing business in India. «Simplifying regulatory frameworks, reducing compliance burdens and enhancing transparency should continue to remain our focus agenda for the next several years,» Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said in a press release on Saturday. The CII has pitched for centralised regulatory approval through NSWS, wherein all central, state- and local-level approvals are provided, bringing transparency and faster regulatory clearance for businesses. The industry body has suggested phase-wise onboarding of central ministries and states on the portal, incentivising the states to shift to the portal once the central ministries have been integrated into the portal.

Union home minister Amit Shah has set a deadline of March 2026 to wipe out Maoism from the country. Last year, 287 Naxalites were killed, 1,000 arrested and 837 Maoists surrendered in Chhattisgarh. Giving details about the operation, officials said, «The gunfight broke out in the morning at a forest in the Indravati National Park area when a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation,» said Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range, Sundarraj P.

Saturday Night Live, is set to premiere on Netflix US on January 25, 2025. This release is part of a pre-existing Pay-1 agreement between Netflix and Sony Pictures.

Aditi Tatkare said women listed under Namo Shetkari and direct benefits schemes will not be eligible for Ladki Bahin Yojana — the scheme which promised ₹2,100 as pension to all women above 18 years and helped the Mahayuti alliance to come back to power. Early estimates show that this will help the Maharashtra government prune the 2.63-crore beneficiary list by 20 lakh. On January 1, Himachal CM Sukhvinder Sukhu voluntarily surrendered the free electricity subsidy of 125 units in his name and urged all self-reliant individuals to follow suit. The appeal aims to benefit the state electricity board by ₹200 crore. The Congress government, which assumed power in December 2022, has been facing severe financial crunch and struggling to implement its election promises. In the process, it has started pruning the beneficiary list and tweaking freebies introduced by the previous BJP government. In October, in an exclusive interview to ET, Andhra CM N Chandrababu Naidu admitted he was struggling to implement super six promises made in the run-up to the assembly polls because of financial constraints.

Neville Noronha, the chief executive of Avenue Supermarts that operates DMart retail stores, said the foundational ethos and principles that have guided the company should remain unchanged, irrespective of leadership transitions. «We operate on straightforward, fundamental business principles, and these must stay intact. While strategies and operational details might evolve, the culture of the company should never be compromised,» he said in a chat with ET, a day after announcing his plan not to extend his contract as CEO. Noronha has spent more than two decades in the supermarket chain. On Saturday, Avenue Supermarts announced that Anshul Asawa will replace Noronha in February 2026, after the latter chose not to continue.

AIIMS to arrange hip replacement surgery for jailed British national Christian Michel James, the alleged middleman arrested in 2018 in a money laundering case connected to the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper case. Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal passed the order on an application filed by James who has claimed that his total hip replacement surgery could not be avoided, considering that he was suffering from «excruciating pain» in day-to-day activities. James, who was extradited in 2018, claimed that the doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) had advised the surgery. «The Director, AIIMS is requested to arrange for the total hip surgery, as advised by the doctors of AIIMS as per the medical prescription dated December 30, 2024, and to fix the surgery i.e. total hip replacement, as stated in the report, preferably, in the first/second week of February, 2025 as per the convenience of the operating surgeon,» the judge said in an order passed on January 9.

Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Sunday announced India batter Shreyas Iyer as their captain for the 2025 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise secured Iyer’s services at the IPL 2025 mega auction for a record-breaking Rs 26.75 crore. Punjab fended off stiff competition from Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Delhi Capitals (DC) in an intense bidding war to sign the star batter. While Iyer became the most expensive player in IPL auction history for a brief moment, he was later surpassed by Rishabh Pant, who fetched an even higher bid.

loan disbursal with several of them completely stopping acquisition of new-to-credit customers amid rising asset quality stress. The sector's asset quality may have also worsened as collection efficiency has faltered for several lenders. Heads of the microfinance lenders however expressed hope that the sector would bounce back but it may take a couple of quarters from now. It is now in the process of healing with guardrails being in place to protect it from further degeneration, they said. The sector contributes 2.03% to the country's GDP and supports 13 million jobs.

eco-sensitive zone of the Hoollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam's Jorhat district. The Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), chaired by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, approved the proposal by Vedanta Group's Cairn Oil & Gas during its meeting on December 21, according to the minutes of the meeting. Assam's principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) and chief wildlife warden had recommended clearance for the project in August last year, citing «national interest». The Forest Advisory Committee of the Union Environment Ministry had also granted in-principle approval during its meeting on August 27 last year.

Joe Biden will likely talk with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu soon, his national security adviser said on Sunday, as U.S. officials race to reach a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20. Jake Sullivan told CNN's «State of the Union» program that the parties were «very, very close» to reaching a deal to halt the fighting in the enclave and free the remaining 98 hostages held there, but still had to get it across the finish line. Biden was getting daily updates on the talks in Doha, where Israeli and Palestinian officials have said since Thursday that some progress has been made in the indirect talks between Israel and militant group Hamas, Sullivan said.