Digital Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India is planning a sweeping overhaul of its drug regulatory system by unifying central and state licensing, approvals, and compliance into a single digital platform, according to two government officials and documents reviewed by Mint.At the centre of the plan is a proposed interoperable Digital Drugs Regulatory System (DDRS) being developed by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). The regulator is preparing to invite proposals from IT services firms to build and run the platform, the documents show.The DDRS is designed to streamline complex processes—from registration and clinical trial approvals to import-export licensing and supply chain traceability—by bringing central and state regulators, laboratories, and allied agencies onto a unified, real-time digital architecture.States have been asked to review the proposed framework and provide feedback, the first person cited above said, requesting anonymity.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: Telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm is expected to post steady subscriber additions for the March quarter (Q4FY26), but the absence of tariff hikes and a shorter quarter are likely to cap growth, a trend analysts expect across the sector.Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of Jio Platforms, will report its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on 24 April alongside parent Reliance Industries Ltd.“Reliance Jio is expected to add 5 million subscribers q-o-q (quarter-on-quarter) to 520 million, with Arpu (average revenue per user) likely to grow by 1% q-o-q to ₹216/month, led by 5G FWA (fixed wireless access) addition,” brokerage house Centrum said in a note dated 5 April.Arpu, a key industry metric that tracks average revenue earned per user, is seen inching up modestly as operators lean on premiumization rather than price hikes.On a standalone basis, Centrum estimates Jio will report ₹33,529 crore revenue from operations, up 2.4% sequentially and 11.7% year-on-year. Net profit is projected to rise 2.8% quarter-on-quarter and 11% annually to ₹7,371 crore.Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom operator by market share, accounts for the bulk of Jio Platforms’ business.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A $10 million purse? Believe it. A Hermès handbag owned by the late fashion icon Jane Birkin sold for that eye-popping, record-setting sum last summer at Sotheby’s in Paris.Now, if you can afford a $10 million pocketbook, there’s no doubt you have plenty of dough.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday tightened and consolidated rules for e-mandates—automated instructions that allow recurring payments—aimed at improving transaction processing by payment system operators (PSOs) and reducing friction for users.Mint explains what has changed, why it matters, and what payment system operators will need to adjust.An e-mandate is a one-time authorization that allows a bank to automatically process recurring payments on a customer’s behalf. These are used for subscriptions such as OTT services, mutual fund investments, utility bills, insurance premiums, and loan instalments.Setting up an e-mandate requires a one-time registration and authentication using an additional factor of authentication (AFA), alongside the issuer’s standard process.Each mandate must specify a validity period, which customers can modify or withdraw at any time.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s video streaming platforms may still be grappling with monetization challenges, but 2025 has turned into a breakout year for revenues.Video streaming revenues surged 55% in 2025 compared to 2024, nearly tripling from 2023 levels, according to a recent Ficci EY report.The growth reflects a decisive shift in strategy—regional language programming, flexible pricing and hybrid revenue models are helping platforms move beyond the limitations of a subscription-only play in a price-sensitive market like India.Digital advertising grew 26% to reach ₹94,700 crore in 2025, as several advertiser categories shifted ad spends from traditional to digital media, led by FMCG, travel and pharma.Sports and entertainment OTT platforms saw ad revenues rise 34%, backed by higher connected TV rates and volumes, as connected TV grew from 30 million to 40 million weekly active connections, the report said.Video subscription revenues jumped 61% to ₹14,800 crore, with 143 million households paying for 216 million video OTT subscriptions.Streaming service executives and content creators attribute much of this growth to regional language content that has deepened penetration across markets.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In an effort to make health insurance pricing more transparent and claims processing more predictable, the Centre plans to build a public ‘Health Claims Index’ using data flowing through the National Health Claims Exchange (NHCX), according to two officials aware of the development and documents reviewed by Mint.Such an index would help consumers make more informed choices by offering visibility into how insurers handle claims. For insurers, it would create a common data framework to improve underwriting, reduce inefficiencies, and enable more consistent, risk-based pricing.The index will use aggregated data flowing through the NHCX—a digital platform for processing health insurance claims—to publish industry-wide benchmarks on claims processing timelines, approval rates and cost patterns across insurers.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: The electronics technology ministry is moving to tighten its grip on how social media giants disclose artificial intelligence-generated content, proposing a ‘continuous’ watermarking mandate to prevent platforms from avoiding transparency rules.The ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) issued a draft amendment on Tuesday that would require labels on AI-modified media to be clearly visible throughout the duration of a video or image. The proposal follows government frustration with current practices, where firms have allegedly used fleeting or obscured markers that satisfy the letter of the law while failing to inform the public.Tuesday’s amendment, a copy of which Mint has reviewed, targeted Rule 3(3)(a)(ii) of India’s Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, updating the previous proposal to social media companies for “prominent visibility” of AI labels.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.South Korean tech companies Krafton Inc. and Naver Corp.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s plan to use artificial intelligence to reduce a tide of spam is drawing the ire of the nation’s lenders and digital platforms, who warn the effort risks affecting the digital backbone of the economy. Banks and fintech giants claim the automated system could hinder essential customer alerts, from fraud warnings to one-time passwords (OTPs).The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is seeking to keep a crisis at bay, which saw spam complaints triple to 2.5 million last year from 2021, according to data tabled in the Lok Sabha in February by the Department of Telecommunications.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Traditional computers store information in bits. Quantum computers operate very differently. They use qubits, a whole new information architecture that leverages a quantum property called superposition, which allows them to occupy multiple states simultaneously.Quantum machines are no faster at ordinary tasks—the laptop on your desk will probably outperform them at writing documents or running spreadsheets.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: South Korean tech companies Krafton Inc. and Naver Corp.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.If you’ve ever hesitated before approving a UPI request or double-checked a QR code before scanning, you’re not alone. As UPI becomes central to everyday payments, concerns around fraud are rising alongside its growth.As per government data shared in Parliament, 10.64 lakh UPI fraud cases worth ₹805 crore were reported in FY26 (till November).The Reserve Bank of India’s proposal to introduce a one-hour cooling-off period for new or high-value UPI payments above ₹10,000 is the latest step aimed at curbing such frauds.At the same time, another digital payment option has quietly evolved in the background: the e-rupee, or India’s central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: Even as original video and audio content struggle for attention in a crowded digital ecosystem, a new threat is compounding the problem: a surge of low-cost, artificial intelligence (AI)-generated material that is reshaping discovery, monetization and trust across platforms.Often dubbed “AI slop”, this content is mass-produced, repetitive and generic, flooding feeds and pushing higher-quality work out of view. For creators, the immediate hit is visibility: strong content gets buried under volume, making consistent engagement and monetization harder to sustain in a market where revenue is already concentrated among a small fraction of players.One common manifestation of AI-generated content is the proliferation of cover versions of popular songs, often created and distributed at scale using AI tools.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.BENGALURU/MUMBAI: Digital insure-tech firm Acko has let go of about 60 employees, roughly 5% of its workforce, as it undergoes a structural realignment with a greater focus on integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into its operations, multiple people familiar with the matter said. Affected employees are expected to remain with the company until the end of June, the people added.The job cuts come alongside the departure of chief marketing officer Ashish Mishra, who spent nearly five-and-a-half years at Acko after joining in August 2020.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Writing on technology in the early 2000s, the creepy thought occurred to me that we would eventually have a generation of users who didn’t even recognize the concept of privacy in the digital world. It was when cookies and website tracking were going mainstream. They started out innocently, because if a website didn’t find a way to remember you, even a shopping cart wouldn’t work.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s food safety regulator has moved food recalls from paper trails to real-time digital tracking.The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has launched a dedicated “Food Recall” portal in March 2026, integrated into its FoSCoS licensing system, creating a centralized cloud-based hub to track recalled products.The shift comes after high-profile recall episodes — from Maggi noodles in 2015 to recent concerns over spices and protein supplements — exposed the delays and opacity in manual systems.The new framework aims to significantly reduce the time between identifying a food safety hazard and removing the product from the market.Mint explains.The “Food Recall” portal is a web-based facility integrated into FoSCoS. Each recall is assigned a unique identification number, allowing digital monitoring and public access to recall information.All new recalls initiated by enforcement authorities — including Designated Officers (DOs) and Central Licensing Authorities (CLAs) — must now be created directly in the FoSCoS system using official logins.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: Orkla India, the listed maker of MTR foods and Eastern spices, is gearing up for its next phase of growth with a cash-rich balance sheet to fund acquisitions, even as it pivots towards convenience foods and digital channels—moves that could stretch its traditional operating model.“We are a cash-generating company. We generate anything between ₹300-400 crore annually… money is not a constraint," Sanjay Sharma, managing director and chief executive officer at Orkla India, said in an interview with Mint.The debt-free company is evaluating partnerships and buyouts of regional brands as it looks to expand beyond its southern stronghold.The push comes as Orkla works to stabilize performance after its listing in November last year, part of its parent’s strategy to create independent portfolio companies and drive local value creation.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Every few years, a sector comes into focus and goes from nice to becoming a non-negotiable.Cybersecurity hit that inflection point a while ago, during the pandemic, but the surprising thing is, it’s not going back any time soon.In 2024 alone, we saw headline-grabbing incidents that rattled entire industries, from the CrowdStrike outage that disrupted airlines, hospitals, and businesses globally, causing estimated losses of over US$5 billion, to relentless ransomware campaigns targeting healthcare and government infrastructure.If anything, those events didn't slow down the investment in the sector, but they accelerated it.The numbers clearly back that up. Global cybersecurity spending is projected to hit $248 billion in 2026, a 12.5% jump, even as broader tech stocks face a rough ride this year.On top of this, worries around AI deepfakes continue to surge, following a 250% rise between 2024 and 2025.

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.Since its merger-led transition into a bank in 2024, Slice has been moving away from an almost fully unsecured lending portfolio to a large, secured loan book, the bank’s top executive told Mint. Managing director and chief executive Rajan Bajaj said secured lending, which currently accounts for about 22% of the company’s portfolio, is expected to become the dominant segment over the next decade.“For us, secured business is growing faster than unsecured and will continue this way.

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.