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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Indians are holding on to their smartphones for a record period of nearly four years, data from three independent market researchers showed, as exchange offers and interest-free loans fail to offset soaring prices in a challenging economy.Brands have been nudging buyers towards the premium end, where the average smartphone now costs over ₹26,000, against ₹17,000 in 2021. The devices themselves have become sturdier and offer extended software upgrades, making phone purchases more discretionary and less urgent.“Our business used to thrive on enthusiasts and high net-worth individuals, who would previously upgrade their smartphones every year.

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.NEW DELHI: Apple on Monday named John Ternus, its vice-president of hardware engineering, as its next chief executive, succeeding Tim Cook. The transition was expected for later this year, but its timing—and Apple’s choice of a hardware leader—comes as artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping Big Tech.The move signals Apple’s bet that tightly integrated devices will remain central to its strategy, even as rivals push ahead in AI.

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.The unrest in Noida’s industrial belt, with workers demanding higher wages, could accelerate automation on India's shop floors. As Indian manufacturing sector eyes global markets, the crisis highlights a deeper tension, between low-cost labour, rising wages and the push towards automation and robots. For manufacturers, the challenge will be to strike a balance to remain competitive.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.For anyone scrolling through social media lately, Vietnam seems to have taken over the feed, with its cafés, coastlines and bustling streets firmly etched onto the global travel map. But the tourism buzz is only the surface of a deeper story.Emerging from the ashes of the war with the US and from being one of the world’s poorest economies in the 1980s, Vietnam is now seen as an economic miracle, delivering sustained high growth (8% in 2025) and reducing poverty to below 5% from nearly 80% in 1993.

Since US President Donald Trump started hiking tariffs last year, many commentators have called attention to Asian exporters’ resilience. But the narrowly concentrated gains in Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand have been driven primarily by electronics, obscuring the sharp divisions that a protectionist US and an export-reliant China are perpetuating across the region. Beyond electronics exports, other sectors are being undercut, leading several governments to announce targeted support measures for firms and consumers, even as headline growth has headed higher.

rare earth magnets critical for automobile, defence, electronics and wind energy sectors, among others.The scheme received the Union Cabinet's assent on 26 November last year, following which interested parties have begun consultations with the government. The scheme’s target is to create a magnet making capacity of 6,000 tonnes per annum in India."The government's benchmark is that ₹1,000 crore investment will be needed for 1,200 tonnes of magnet making capacity.

On 30 March, the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) published draft amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2021, which, if passed, will have far-reaching consequences for internet users in India. While each of the three primary amendment proposals does something different, together they will transform the internet from a rules-based regime into one governed by discretion.

Between US President Donald Trump’s war in west Asia and a chip shortage triggered by Nvidia’s focus on supplying artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips, India’s top three smartphone brands Vivo, Oppo and Samsung, as well as Realme, Xiaomi and Nothing have emerged as the first casualties in a once-thriving market—increasing smartphone prices by as much as 40% across their portfolios.The price hikes are significant: smartphones make for India’s single-largest electronics category, with sales of over $43 billion through 2025. Since the pandemic in 2021, India has struggled to revive its smartphone market due to a stagnation of new features and an increasingly saturated market.While companies so far managed single-digit revenue growth on the back of rising premium phone sales, the current market conditions come as a double whammy: consumers are putting phone purchases on the backburner due to rising prices of basic needs such as cooking gas even as the rise in prices does nothing to aid the ailing market.Vivo, Samsung and Oppo accounted for 47% of the 152 million smartphones sold in the country last year, according to data from market researcher International Data Corp.

₹4,900-5,200 crore, has traditionally been dominated by FMCG and consumer electronics players, making the entry of healthcare brands notable.“IPL has always reflected where India’s aspirations are headed and today, India wants to be healthier, not just entertained,” said Ripal Chopda, chief marketing officer at The Sleep Company, whose campaign features MS Dhoni linking sleep to overall health.The shift is playing out beyond traditional advertising slots and into team-level partnerships and product integrations. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has signed a three-year principal sponsorship and health partnership with Royal Challengers Bengaluru—the first such direct association between a major drugmaker and an IPL franchise.

The Indian government has tasked the country’s top management institute, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), to find out why its flagship scheme to promote domestic manufacturing in various sectors has not delivered as expected, and suggest remedial measures.According to two government officials aware of the development, the study—to be conducted under the aegis of federal think tank NITI Aayog—will examine 14 production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes that have attracted around ₹2.16 trillion in investments since they were launched during the covid-19 pandemic in 2020.PLI schemes offer companies incentives linked to incremental domestic production, rewarding them for increasing output over a base year, rather than providing upfront subsidies.Despite a large outlay, the schemes have seen limited traction—of the nearly ₹1.91 trillion allocated for incentives, only about ₹28,748 crore or 15% had been disbursed by December 2025, according to a 20 February commerce ministry statement.“The study will undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of the scheme and focus on their impact on production growth, export expansion, job creation, and their role in enhancing India’s position in global supply chains,” the first official cited above said, requesting anonymity, adding that the study will also help understand whether the schemes need expansion or restructuring.Early indicators already point to uneven performance across sectors.Jaijit Bhattacharya, president of the Centre for Domestic Economy Policy (CDEP) Research, said that industries such as mobile phone manufacturing and food processing have done relatively well, largely because they require lower investments and are easier to scale.

Mint. “There's been strong extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations in place for over a decade and that has now evolved into mandatory recycled content regulations as well.”The firm announced a first close of $220 million for its second fund, which has a targeted corpus of $300 million.

global AI boom. Interestingly, the company's share price is down just 10% from its 52-week high, even in a weak market. GNG operates in the global secondary-refurbished market under its brand, Electronics Bazaar.

₹24,000. They installed it in my flat the same day, and I have been using it regularly.”Since then, a friend bought the same gear on her recommendation and Dua has picked up other Lifelong products, including a duffel bag, a power bank and a pressure cooker.A few months before Dua’s purchase, Delhi-based advertising executive Kritika Sharda bought a ₹1,599 Lifelong power bank on quick commerce platform Blinkit on the eve of a trip to Manali. “I am very impulsive, both in travel and in buying,” said the 28-year-old.

New Delhi: India’s electronics manufacturing services (EMS) firms are in wait-and-watch mode as the West Asia war disrupts the tech component supply chain and pushes commodity prices upward. While Dixon Technologies and Syrma SGS aren’t factoring pricing and supply chain disruptions into account right away, top executives believe the next few quarters will be key for users, brands and shareholders alike.In an interview with Mint, Sunil Vachani, cofounder and executive chairman of Dixon, said that industry bodies are currently evaluating “at a broad industry level how long it will take for capacities of commodities and components, which are destroyed in the war, to come back up.”“The gas supply chain disruption wouldn’t be affecting us, but it will likely hit air conditioner manufacturers directly,” Vachani said.

graphics processing unit and memory costs is forcing a rethink of India’s flagship electronics incentive scheme, with the government now recalibrating Production-Linked Incentive scheme (PLI) 2.0 for IT hardware.The move signals a shift from volume-led assembly to value-linked manufacturing, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI) servers and advanced components, potentially reshaping the opportunity set for electronics manufacturing services (EMS) players. PLI 2.0, in its revised form, is expected to better account for the higher bill of materials in AI hardware, while continuing to reward incremental production, reduce import dependence and deepen domestic capabilities.Against this backdrop, a clutch of EMS companies with exposure to servers, displays and semiconductor packaging could be early beneficiaries, if policy design aligns with industry expectations.Here are three stocks to watch:Syrma is emerging as a niche player in high-end electronics, with a growing foothold in the server ecosystem.

war in West Asia intensifies, oil is climbing, risk appetite is wobbling, and governments are quietly stepping up defence spending. If past conflicts are any guide, prolonged uncertainty doesn’t just rattle markets, it accelerates military budgets.That shift tends to outlast the headlines.

plastic waste, here the responsibility shifts partly to companies that bring plastic.The registration module was launched in February, and the platform is expected to become fully operational within the next four months.The initiative comes amid growing concerns over the management of plastic waste, electronic waste, and used batteries, wherein enforcement gaps and fragmented systems have posed challenges to effective implementation."The existing system was not effective in managing the full EPR lifecycle or tracking compliance digitally, as it is more manually. The new portal will enable end-to-end management of obligations, including registration, target setting, monitoring and reporting,” one of the officials said.The portal will require all obligated entities as well as intermediaries such as recyclers and processors to register digitally.An email query sent to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Central Pollution Control Board remains unanswered."The portal will initially cover five to six waste streams, where EPR compliance is mandatory, including plastic waste, e-waste, battery waste, used oil, and waste tyres.

₹6,835 crore (about $735 million) from five foreign banks to fund its ₹91,000 crore semiconductor fabrication (fab) facility in Gujarat. The lenders have put conditions on ownership, branding and equity that reflect their reliance on the Tata Group’s credit profile and the tight financing terms shaping India’s chip manufacturing push, according to company filings and executives aware of the matter.The lenders have stipulated that the Tatas retain a 51% stake in TSML, the wholly owned subsidiary of the privately held Tata Electronics, and continue using the ‘Tata’ brand, according to documents filed with the ministry of corporate affairs.

₹16,550 crore during the period due to channel destocking in Q3, while Ebitda fell a sharper 28% to ₹1,470 crore, hit by elevated copper and aluminium prices and higher other expenses.A recovery is expected in FY27, supported by price hikes of 2-9% across products and stronger revenue growth. Centrum Broking estimates earnings per share (EPS) growth of 40% and 23% for FY27 and FY28, respectively, while JM Financial Institutional Securities pegs growth at 31% and 13%.Revenue growth is expected to be driven by portfolio expansion, premiumisation and exports.