Enterprise Financial News

Brigade Group, a real estate developer, and Gruhas, the investment arm of Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath and Abhijeet Pai, have launched India’s first real estate tech and sustainability-focused investment fund—The Earth Fund. The Rs 300 crore fund, set up under Zoiros Projects Private Limited, includes a Rs 200 crore SEBI-registered Category II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) and a Rs 100 crore green-shoe option. The Earth Fund aims to support startups that address challenges in the built environment through innovation and sustainable solutions. The fund will target early-stage tech startups, specifically those in Pre-Series A and Series A stages, working on real estate, construction, and sustainability solutions.

Vedanta shares are expected to remain in focus on Tuesday, March 18, following positive commentary from Chairman Anil Agarwal on the company’s growth outlook and demerger plans. Agarwal's letter to stakeholders outlined Vedanta’s strategy to leverage India’s natural resources sector and enhance shareholder value through the proposed demerger. Agarwal highlighted that Vedanta contributes approximately 1.4% to India’s GDP, with the natural resources sector playing a crucial role in economic growth. He emphasized that India’s demand for aluminum, copper, and zinc is growing at double-digit rates, positioning Vedanta to capitalize on rising consumption.

inferencing hardware, said Abhijit Dubey, global CEO of the Japanese data centre giant NTT DATA. “I think it (impact) is far more fundamental. It demonstrated that the unit cost economics are significantly lower from a training and inferencing standpoint. Number two, it demonstrated that open source is viable. And number three, that there's a lot more value in inferencing than just pure training.” However, despite the Chinese disruption, NTT has not recalibrated capex plans for data centres and the industry is undergoing a boom cycle, he said. Globally, NTT has committed to invest 8 trillion Yen ($59 billion) between FY2023 to FY2027 in data centres and AI.

Religare Enterprises on Monday said its board is seeking a governance review of the company and its units, and has also approached the billionaire Burman family for funding support after they took control of the company last month. The Burman family, who founded and control consumer goods conglomerate Dabur India, acquired control of the financial services provider in February after a 17-month takeover battle. The objective is to review past operating practices, suggest improvements and to identify any potential instances of misconduct by certain current and/or former employees of Religare and its units, the company said in an exchange filing. Religare also said it observed a «cash-flow gap» over the next few months and has decided to approach the Burmans for immediate funding support to sustain the operations of the company. The company did not specify details regarding the extent of the funding.

A whole lot of chutzpah, leaps of faith, and a dash of putting yourself out there. You wouldn’t know from Manoj Pipersania’s demeanour that he’s painfully shy. Over a virtual call from Jaipur, the 46-year-old Founder and CEO of Softserv Solutions talks animatedly about everything from being visible for the sake of his employees (more on that later) to his penchant for shooting and getting a pilot’s licence. Softserv Solutions is more than a template IT firm specialising in business automation. Established as a private limited company in 2012, the company also offers tailored barcode solutions for use cases such as warehousing, clinical research, and RFID tagging for jewellery and other products. Its 20,000 sq ft headquarters in Jaipur belies the fact that Softserv is a micro enterprise employing just over 60 people. As Pipersania puts it, “We are the richest company in the world.” And scale has little to do with it. Pipersania started out in the early aughts as a CCNA (short for Cisco Certified Network Associate) IT specialist who configured ATMs for state-run Bank of Baroda before moving to Nepal to automate financial processes for a cooperative bank in the country. Running on just three hours of sleep a night, he’d write programmes and shop them to local businesses that needed to automate their processes. Thereon, he hopscotched from one job to another across countries — in India for Electronic Data Systems, now an HP subsidiary, then the US’ largest health insurer, UnitedHealth Group.

Last week, the jury selected the winners for the 22 categories of the ET MSME Awards 2024 following thorough evaluation, discussions, and a deep understanding of the shortlisted MSMEs. The distinguished jury comprised Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director and CEO (Auto and Farm Sector), Mahindra & Mahindra (Jury chair); Anil Bhardwaj, Secretary General, Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME); Hema Annamalai, Co-founder and Vice Chair, Green Collar Agritech Solutions; Jayashree Das Verma, National President, FICCI FLO; Ketan Gaikwad, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Receivables Exchange of India Ltd (RXIL); Mehul Mohanka, CEO and Managing Director, Tega Industries Limited; Ponnuswami M, Chairman and Managing Director, Pon Pure Chemicals Group; and R Narayan, Founder and CEO, Power2SME. The jury round was held on March 11, 2025, where the members were presented with the names of shortlisted MSMEs. This initial shortlisting was carried out by CareEdge Ratings, who is the evaluation partner for this year’s awards, and the ET Editorial team.

Stocks that rallied over 10% included, KPT Industries(13.00%), Lypsa Gems(12.85%), Anuroop Packaging(12.85%), Paramount Cosm(11.95%), Narendra Prop(11.86%), Reliable Data Services(11.71%), Ceeta Ind(11.00%), Mercantile Ventures(10.66%), Sika Interplant(10.62%) and Crane Infrastructure(10.62%).

Niraj Cement(up 20.00%), Frontline Corp(up 19.01%) and Yogi Infra Proj(up 17.24%) were among the stocks that surged over 15%.

Godrej Properties Ltd.(up 1.57 per cent), Sobha Ltd.(up 0.62 per cent) and Raymond Ltd.(up 0.52 per cent) were among the top gainers.

On the BSE, Shree Ajit Pulp(down 14.07 per cent), Malu Paper Mill(down 12.38 per cent), Purple Entertainment(down 11.11 per cent), Capital Trade Links(down 10.32 per cent) and Roni Households(down 10.00 per cent) were among the stocks that plunged over 5 per cent during the session.

Navi Mumbai International Airport. In December, the Adani Group-which is building the airport-had announced an April 17 inauguration, with domestic and international operations starting in May and June respectively. Meanwhile, the Noida International Airport in Jewar, Uttar Pradesh, is also delayed, running six months behind schedule. Zurich Airport International, tasked with building and operating the airport, now expects to inaugurate the facility in the June quarter. These two airports would be among the two largest greenfield airports to open in recent years in India.

vocational courses and provide training on artificial intelligence applications to help students find jobs as the world’s second biggest economy confronts a record number of graduates this year. Universities are required to help students become more employable by establishing vocational training centers and collaborating with enterprises to offer 1,000 micro majors and 1,000 vocational training courses, according to a notice from the Ministry of Education. The institutions should also solicit employment and education projects in the field of AI and carry out specialised training on AI applications, the ministry added.

US recession fears and tariff wars, unleashed by President Donald Trump. The top 10 laggards in the week gone by include BMW Industries, Triveni Turbine, Veranda Learning Solutions, Jai Corp, Orchid Pharma, Coffee Day Enterprises, Max Estates, EKI Energy Services, Gensol Engineering and K&R Rail Engineering which fell between 16% and 43%.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them. But the truly unfortunate are those who have greatness snatched away.

Infosys co-founder, Narayana Murthy, while speaking at the TiECon Mumbai on Wednesday commented on the rising hype around artificial intelligence (AI) in India, claiming that many systems marketed today as AI were simply traditional programming. “I think somehow it has become a fashion in India to talk of AI for everything. I have seen several normal, ordinary programs touted as AI,” Murthy commented during the annual entrepreneurial conference.

compressor shortage seems to have been well managed. The industry faced a shortage of high-value intermediaries, i.e., compressors and copper during 3QFY25 which came as a surprise to the manufacturers as BIS certifications for certain players were not extended and imports got impacted.

Prestige Estates Projects Ltd.(up 1.94 per cent) and Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd.(up 1.82 per cent) were among the top gainers.

JSW Energy will remain in focus on Thursday, March 13, after the company’s subsidiary JSW Neo Energy has entered into a share purchase agreement (SPA) for a 100% stake acquisition of Virya Infrapower Private Limited. Post this acquisition, Virya Infrapower will become a step-down subsidiary of the company.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has notified new norms for initial public offerings (IPOs) of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to protect investor interests. Mint takes a look at this excitable segment of the equity market: Sebi last week notified amendments to tighten rules for initial share sales by SMEs.

SIA-India) on Wednesday welcomed the strategic partnerships of Elon Musk-led SpaceX with Airtel and Reliance Jio. «These collaborations will accelerate broadband expansion and play a crucial role in enhancing connectivity across industries such as ports, rural enterprises, mining, oilfields, villages, and India's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZs), where satellite technology can deliver substantial value,» Anil Prakash, director general, SIA-india, said. He said by complementing existing terrestrial networks, these partnerships will drive socio-economic growth, foster digital inclusion, and unlock new business opportunities across sectors like education, healthcare, e-governance, and agriculture.

Ashwini Vaishnaw welcomed Elon Musk's Starlink on Wednesday, highlighting its potential to benefit railway projects in remote areas. «Starlink, welcome to India! Will be useful for remote area railway projects,» said Vaishnaw in a statement on X. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Jio Platforms has struck a deal with SpaceX, the aerospace company led by Musk, to bring Starlink's broadband internet services to India, a surprise move that follows months of bickering over how Musk's venture should be granted spectrum rights. The deal with Musk — considered the right-hand-man of US President Donald Trump — came a day after telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal's Bharti Airtel signed a similar partnership deal with SpaceX.