Election Financial News

Assam, which has a 126-member assembly, votes on 9 April, with counting scheduled for 4 May along with other poll-bound states. In the 2021 election, the BJP won 60 seats with a 33.2% vote share, while the Congress won 29 seats and cornered a vote share of 29.2%.There is much at stake both for the ruling BJP and the main opposition Congress, and for the two state leaders leading these respective camps: CM Sarma and Gaurav Gogoi.With this election, the BJP will seek a third consecutive term in power.

Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are going to the polls this month. These three states are dissimilar in many ways. But they are similar in that they have had unique sociopolitical paths from the time of India’s independence.

New Delhi: India plans to float a fresh tender for over 3,000 electric buses by June, according to people aware of the development. This is set to be launched just six months after closing of the country's largest e-bus tender for over 10,000 units.The move aims to sharpen the country's push to electrify public transport and reduce fuel dependence, as oil supply risks from the West Asia war continue to weigh on costs.According to two executives in the know, the tender will be rolled out under the PM e-bus seva scheme, which aims to subsidize purchase of 10,000 e-buses across the country.

Mint.While the immediate impact of the ongoing conflict remains limited, non-bank lenders believe the real risk lies in a prolonged conflict, which could trigger second-order effects across inflation, demand and credit cycles.“...we have started becoming very cautious but the war situation is also evolving. It's unfair for us to also pull down and stop the supply but we have to be very cautious in terms of lending and leverage,” the head of a non-banking financial company said on the condition of anonymity.According to lenders, the first signs of stress are emerging in small businesses, especially those dependent on gas for production, exports and global trade routes for sales.

India’s government has signalled its intent to amend the Women’s Reservation Act of 2023, also known as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, to fast-track its 33% quota of seats for women in Parliament and state assemblies. The sooner it’s done, the better. It would mark a major step in a long march towards the political and economic emancipation of women in the country.Women constitute almost half the population, but various estimates suggest women contribute less than 20% to GDP—based on models that crunch data on labour force participation, earning gaps, etc, and only capture what’s on the record.

₹5,000 each to 13.1 million women under its Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai (women’s rights grant) scheme. It already pays ₹1,000 per month under the scheme introduced in 2023.Rival All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam (AIADMK) led by Edappadi Palaniswami has countered it with a promise to double the monthly grant and also pay up to ₹10,000 per family.

, born as Robert Prevost in Chicago and known for most of his life as “Bob,” has had a quiet start to his pontificate. But with the world facing crisis after crisis, the first-ever American pope is stepping up his efforts at moral suasion in defense of a fading international order that the American president, among other leaders, is rapidly dismantling.The papacy has always been political.

I am planning to undergo LASIK surgery to correct my eyesight. Will my health insurance policy cover this procedure? What are the rules and conditions I should be aware of?- Name withheld on requestLASIK surgery is a popular option to correct vision and reduce dependence on glasses or contact lenses.

₹74,795.57 crore in the month through 17 March, according to National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) data.That works out to an average daily sale of ₹6,799.59 crore over 11 sessions of the month. If the FPI selling for the remaining eight days continues with the same intensity, March would clock ₹1.29 trillion, higher than the record ₹1.14 trillion FPI outflows seen in October 2024.The average daily FPI outflow in October 2024 was ₹5,175 crore .The record selling that month was induced by rising US bond yields, over concerns of global tariff wars following a likely Republican victory in the US presidential elections.

"Khamenei Out.” That was the title of an event wager on the prediction market Kalshi. On the website of its rival, Polymarket, wagers were being made on “the timing of the Iran war” just before it began. Posts by Bubblemaps, a blockchain analytics tool, on X indicate that six accounts collectively pocketed $1.2 million in profit from Polymarket bets.

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.

This week the focus is on the widening war in West Asia, which matters to us as there are 9-10 million Indian expatriates in the region.It’s now day 7 of Operation Epic Fury, launched jointly by the US and Israel on 28 February. It’s what we were all warned about for years, perhaps even decades – a conflagration in West Asia. As it stood, Iran was at its weakest in decades and Israel perhaps saw it as too good an opportunity to pass up.

Slow capital expenditure by the government in Q3 amid elusive private capex, a high credit-deposit ratio, the rupee continuing to underperform among EM peers even as foreign portfolio investors have turned net buyers in equities, and manufacturing activity cooling, here are five signals from the economy this month.After maintaining a high level of capital expenditure in the first half of the current financial year, benefitting from a low base, the Centre fell short in the third quarter of the financial year.This, economists said, proved to be a drag on the Indian economy, which is expected to see a slower growth of 7.4% in Q3 compared to 8.2% in the previous quarter. The Centre’s capex declined 23.4% year-on-year in Q3 compared to a growth of 30.7% in the previous quarter.To be sure, the decline has come against the backdrop of high capex during the same quarter last year, following a delayed spending due to Lok Sabha elections.

At one level, the Supreme Court’s (SC) chastisement last week of political parties and elected governments announcing freebies and direct cash transfers to woo voters ahead of elections might smack of judicial over-reach.Under India’s Constitution, all three arms of the state—the legislature, executive and judiciary—are required and expected to maintain a delicate balance without stepping on each other’s turf. However, a closer look at the object lesson delivered by the apex court to our political class on the long-term cost of such fiscal irresponsibility offers no reason to level that charge.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Dozens of armed government agents swarmed the offices of shrimp producer Grupo Lamar, a family owned business that had emerged as one of Venezuela’s largest exporters after the collapse of the oil industry. The owners are terrorists, agents told petrified workers.

India is currently running two payment systems in parallel. On one side is its gleaming showcase, UPI, with 21.7 billion transactions in January 2026 worth ₹28.33 trillion in value. On the other side is the system of physical cash.

Mumbai finally got itself a new mayor, Ritu Tawde from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after a long hiatus. The city’s municipal corporation is the country’s richest local body and expectations from the incoming mayor were quite high.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. WASHINGTON—President Trump delivered what his advisers billed as a marquee speech about the economy on Thursday afternoon. But for much of the day, Trump had other matters on his mind.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." That quote is often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, though the Indian independence leader never said it. To the crypto industry, the apocryphal phrase is a popular mantra.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Bangladesh will have a new prime minister on Tuesday, with Tarique Rahman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) set to take the oath in Dhaka. Senior foreign representatives will attend the ceremony, including Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla from India.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. This week’s biggest headline is the elections in Bangladesh, which have brought the centre-right Bangladesh National Party (BNP) to power. The scale of the victory is striking: 212 seats out of the 300 contested directly in parliament, giving the party a clear two-thirds majority.