Extreme Financial News

Michel Siffre undertook a radical self-experiment: to live in complete isolation inside a glacier cave in the Scarasson mountain in the Ligurian Alps—130 meters below the surface—for over two months. Inspired by the space race and the psychological challenges astronauts might face, Siffre aimed to understand how the human body perceives time in the absence of natural cues like sunlight or clocks. “This idea came to me—this idea that became the idea of my life,” Siffre later told Cabinet Magazine. “I decided to live like an animal, without a watch, in the dark, without knowing the time.”

Kotak Mahindra AMC Markets have taken a sharp downturn, sparking fear and uncertainty among investors. The sentiment has shifted from euphoria to caution, with many questioning whether to stay invested or wait for further declines. Historically, such corrections have been moments of panic for some—but golden opportunities for those who remain disciplined.

«It has become a concerning issue for us, our fishermen and all the Indians. It is a matter related to security. The PM should raise this issue firmly. Even an inch of Indian land belongs to us. I support that it (Kachchatheevu Island) should be under the protection of India...It is ours,» Tiwari told ANI. This came after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday regarding the retrieval of Katchatheevu Island. The Tamil Nadu assembly passed a resolution on April 2 regarding the retrieval of Katchatheevu island to protect the traditional fishing rights of Indian fishermen in the Palk Bay area. The letter dated April 3, reads, «I am writing this letter to bring to your immediate attention to the Resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on 02.04.2025 regarding the retrieval of Katchatheevu island, to protect the traditional fishing rights of the Indian fishermen in the Palk Bay area. I would like to point out that the origin of the problem is the Indo-Sri Lankan Treaty (Katchatheevu Agreement) made between the two Countries in the year 1974.»

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Climate Change & You’ is a fortnightly newsletter by Bibek Bhattacharya and Sayantan Bera. Subscribe to Mint's newsletters to get them directly in your email inbox. Dear Reader, Even a few years ago, it would have seemed ridiculous to suggest that Delhi might hit a daytime high of 40 degrees Celsius in late March.

Lok Sabha adjourned sine die on Friday amid government-Opposition sparring, with Speaker Om Birla criticising Sonia Gandhi's statement that the Waqf Bill was «bulldozed through» even as the Congress leadership said it would petition the Supreme Court, questioning the constitutionality of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill passed by Parliament. The Congress floor leaders didn't attend the customary tea at the Speaker's chamber after the adjournment of the House. When the House commenced, the BJP benches protested against the statement Sonia Gandhi had made on Wednesday in her address to party MPs.

White House is being pushed back by one day. With a major anti-Trump rally expected to draw thousands to D.C. on Saturday, officials have postponed the garden tours that were scheduled for that day, citing safety and crowd concerns around the White House.

Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal said he was unhappy after exiting the ecommerce platform in 2018, as it was not planned. «I was extremely unhappy after exiting Flipkart because it wasn't planned. Vijay Shekhar Sharma (founder of Paytm) told me you're the most unhappy billionaire I've seen,» Bansal said, while speaking at the Startup Mahakumbh 2025 in Delhi. In 2018, Walmart acquired a majority stake in homegrown ecommerce company Flipkart. Bansal, along with his cofounder Binny Bansal, sold their stakes in Flipkart to the US retailer.

«The whole purpose of creating this chaos seems to be to deliberately weaken the dollar. Gold has been pricing this in for a while now, and it’s already extremely expensive—so don’t read too much into gold’s move yesterday,» says Maneesh Dangi, Macro Mosaic Investing. World moves in a pattern, which is that if there is problem of growth, then gold goes up. If there is problem of inflation, gold goes up. If there is a fear of recession, then equities go down. Last night, everything went down, gold, silver, Bitcoin. Why have we seen such a massive synchronised sell off last night at least in US markets? So, if uncertainty increases in general, the typical reflex you talked about does occur. However, we are in uncharted territory. It has never happened before that a country like the US is behaving the way it currently is. The whole purpose of creating this chaos seems to be to deliberately weaken the dollar. Gold has been pricing this in for a while now, and it’s already extremely expensive—so don’t read too much into gold’s move yesterday.

Trump claims to have fixed tariffs at half the level of those imposed by other countries. Hardly any country has only one tariff on everything. So, presumably, he — or his arithmetically-educated advisers — would have to calculate an average of country tariffs. A simple average would make no sense. Although the assumption that he distinguishes between sense and nonsense would be too strong. So, the average would have had to be weighted by the relative importance of the imported goods. We have no idea how the weights were calculated. USTR has given the formula used to calculate the tariff. But it has a symbol — ε (epsilon) — in it that makes all the difference. It has neither given the symbol’s value, nor how it was calculated. All that Trump has told us is that his closeness to the leader of the exporting country made no difference to the tariff. In other words, the rate of return on our PM’s conviviality has been zero. Should we worry about Trump’s abrupt, startling aggression? The US is our biggest customer among all countries. In 2023-24, it took 17.4% of our exports. Optimists may say that it’s wrong to take physical exports. Our biggest exports to the US have been intellectual services. But that only adds to America’s importance.

The agency announced that it is «updating the USCIS Policy Manual to clarify that it only recognizes two biological sexes.» «President Trump promised the American people a revolution of common sense, and that includes making sure that the policy of the U.S. government agrees with simple biological reality,» Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs have landed, triggering measured responses from key trading partners who seem unwilling to ignite a full-blown trade war—at least for now. Branded as “reciprocal tariffs” and ranging from 10% to 49%, the new import taxes, according to Trump, are simply the U.S. giving back what it has endured for decades. “Taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years,” he declared, vowing that “it is not going to happen anymore.” Promising a resurgence of jobs and factories, Trump framed the move as more than just economics—he called it a national security necessity that threatens “our very way of life.” Here are the first reactions: China Beijing said it «firmly opposes» the new tariffs on its exports, and vowed «countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests».

Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, took a unique approach—he shared his ‘tax-free earnings’ for the year 2024-25. Unlike financial figures, his earnings were measured in kilometers and hours of fitness activities, leaving many inspired. Taking to social media, Dr. Sudhir Kumar revealed the statistics of his physical fitness journey. He shared that he ran a total of 1,548 kilometers and walked 1,166 kilometers over the year. Additionally, he dedicated 60 hours and 19 minutes to strength training. Breaking it down further, he maintained an impressive daily average of 7.4 kilometers of running and walking combined, while his strength training averaged 5 hours per month. Reflecting on his progress, Dr. Kumar noted that while he was satisfied with his overall fitness achievements, he aimed to improve his strength training routine in the new financial year.

Bewakoof, founder and CEO Prabhkiran Singh shared his journey from a modest office in a Mumbai slum to building a brand popular among urban youth. Singh posted on LinkedIn about the challenges he faced, including working in a small space without air conditioning under a tin shed, and the resilience that helped the company grow.

Infosys co-founder, Nandan Nilekani, highlighted that 50% of Indians' assets are land, much of it non-tradable—unable to be sold or used as loan collateral. This leaves landowners with dormant assets. He proposes “tokenisation of land”, digitising titles to make them tradable on a ledger, like stocks or bonds.

AQR Capital Management's multistrategy hedge fund beat the market with a 9% rally in the first quarter as Wall Street grappled with extreme volatility amid President Donald Trump's uncertain tariff policy.

Real estate, high-yield bonds, and cryptocurrency don’t always live up to their reputation as portfolio diversifiers

«We believe that in such kind of situations where you still have a lot of uncertainties, markets generally tend to give a lot more weightage to the near-term earnings,» says Shiv Chanani, Baroda BNP Paribas MF. This is the first day of the new financial year. In fact, we are coming out of a month of extremes. March was a month of extremes. We saw extreme lows and then a great recovery coming in, in the second half of the month. So, today, of course, what is playing out really is the threat from the reciprocal tariff from Trump. But generally, now, is there some bit of comfort as far as market valuations are concerned? Are you constructively more optimistic about the markets going ahead? Shiv Chanani: So, as you rightly said, that it is a bit of a contrast right now where we are seeing a bit of operating environment which is uncertain. I mean, of course, tomorrow being the so-called Liberation Day, we do not know really what is coming out of that.

biohacking has long been a mix of innovation and controversy, but a recent confrontation between Indian Hepatologist Dr. Cyriac Abby Philips, better known as «The Liver Doc,» and tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson has sent shockwaves through the wellness community. The Kerala-based doctor has publicly accused Johnson of fraud, claiming that his Blueprint longevity supplements are nothing more than overpriced “snake oil” with no real clinical backing. The feud erupted on social media when Dr. Philips compared Johnson to infamous fraudsters Elizabeth Holmes and Belle Gibson, both of whom were exposed for misleading health claims. “It’s terrifying that people don’t recognize Bryan Johnson as an advanced, well-marketed version of these fraudsters,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. His post ignited a fierce debate about the credibility of Johnson’s multi-million-dollar anti-ageing venture.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. We’re just stepping into April but several parts of India are already suffering heat waves and abnormally high temperatures. As a result, hydration has become a hot topic earlier than usual.

On a rolling twelve-month basis, gold has surged nearly 37% to just shy of Friday's fresh lifetime record of $3,100 per troy ounce. It is extremely rare for any asset, including the hottest of stocks, to hit successive lifetime highs every third trading session. Gold has achieved that astonishing feat in 2025, building on the 30% plus gains last calendar year, as central banks and capital-protection funds continue to buy into the yellow metal.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. If hard proof were needed of the digital dominance of Indian eyeballs, then the latest Ficci-EY report on media and entertainment supplied it. In 2024, it says, digital media finally displaced TV as the top revenue-generator of this industry, notching up ₹80,200 crore, almost a third of its overall pie.