FIVE Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Centre has approved a ₹5,659 crore Cotton Productivity Mission (Kapas Kanti) over five years to revive India’s cotton economy at a time when output has stagnated, imports are rising and textile exporters face intensifying global competition.The mission marks one of the most ambitious interventions in India’s cotton-textile value chain in recent years, linking farm productivity to manufacturing competitiveness and export growth.Mint explains how the scheme seeks to lift yields, improve fibre quality and strengthen India’s textile export competitiveness.The programme seeks to address multiple structural weaknesses at once—low farm productivity, inconsistent fibre quality, volatile raw material supply and rising import dependence.Unlike earlier schemes focused largely on cultivation, this mission adopts a value-chain approach, connecting farm-level reforms with textile manufacturing, exports and global sourcing competitiveness.Improving the availability of domestic raw cotton is critical. Textile manufacturers have increasingly struggled with supply shortages and quality inconsistencies.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Swarup Mohanty spent 15 years building what he thought was a solid retirement plan. Then he asked an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to stress-test it.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The key to being good at climbing and bouldering is having a strong core, grip and pulling strength. While these are not the only things necessary in this highly technical activity, they are almost imperative to be able to climb for longer and conquer more difficult levels.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Soon after I started using AI assistants, I had an alarming realization. I had started to enjoy listening to music with ChatGPT rather than with people. I neither felt compelled to share my music nor did I pass on any interesting information about songs and artists.AI is really fantastic at talking about music.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s health ministry has initiated comprehensive precautionary surveillance measures in response to reported cases of hantavirus infection occurring onboard the cruise ship MV Hondius, according to the two officials familiar with the matter.The ministry is monitoring the situation in close coordination with the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), and the World Health Organization (WHO).The officials cited above confirmed that two Indian nationals are currently onboard the MV Hondius. “Both individuals are presently asymptomatic and are under observation in accordance with established international health protocols,” one of the officials said.“The Union health ministry remains vigilant and is maintaining close coordination with WHO and other international partners,” the official said, adding that necessary public health measures are also being undertaken proactively to safeguard the health and wellbeing of Indian citizens.As per preliminary data shared via the WHO under the International Health Regulations (IHR) framework, health officials have identified a total of eight probable cases of hantavirus infection among those on the vessel.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.IndiGo and Air India have opposed proposed passenger charges by India’s newest airports, warning that higher tariffs would make flying more expensive and slow passenger traffic growth when domestic aviation demand is weakening.Adani-owned Navi Mumbai International Airport Ltd (NMIAL), which started operations in December, currently levies a user development fee (UDF) of ₹620 on domestic departures and ₹270 on arrivals. It has proposed increasing this by 20% in FY28 and 10% annually until FY31 for a net increase of 45% over five years.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.It was 2-3 hours into my bus journey from Tokyo to Takayama when I opened my eyes and looked out of the window. The landscape had changed. The tall buildings of the city were nowhere to be seen and instead the bus was slowly driving past hills packed with alpine cedar, the trees covered in fresh snow.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: Next week, the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant will start hearing arguments for and against India’s first-ever data privacy law. After five separate public interest litigation petitions filed in February challenged the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, these hearings starting 13 May could determine the future of what companies and government bodies can do with the personal data of 1.4 billion people.Both the Centre and the litigators have deployed batteries of top lawyers.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The day before the MV Hondius’s latest sailing, the crew of the merchant vessel gathered for dinner in Ushuaia, the Argentine resort town known as the gateway to Antarctica.“One Table, Nine Nations, One Epic Journey,” chef Khabir Moraes posted on Instagram on March 31.The Oceanwide Expeditions cruise is now enmeshed in a deadly hantavirus outbreak. Three people have died and at least five more have been infected. Health authorities and airlines are racing to control further spread of the virus.Infections are a risk on cruises given the close quarters.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.It seems like the script of a horror film. Three confirmed cases of hantavirus and five suspected ones among 150 people aboard a cruise ship that left Argentina last month have sent global health authorities into a tizzy. Three of the eight are dead, as reported, and efforts are on to identify possible carriers among other passengers and those with whom the infected may have come in contact before showing symptoms.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Shares of Polycab India jumped over 7% on Thursday, also hitting a 52-week high of ₹8,991.50 despite 160 basis points year-on-year drop in its March quarter (Q4FY26) Ebitda margin to 13.1%.While a sharp increase in input prices and higher logistics costs hurt margin, price hikes taken last quarter helped Polycab beat analysts’ estimates. Plus, the company’s market share improved by four percentage points in FY26 to about 30-31%, which should benefit Polycab as demand stabilizes.Despite the near-term disruption, the domestic demand outlook remains strong, primarily led by the power sector.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.It says something about the memory business when skyrocketing profits can actually be a cause for worry.Profits have never been a sure thing in the volatile industry. Memory chip makers Micron Technology and Sandisk, as well as hard-drive makers Seagate and Western Digital, have all produced annual operating losses at least once in just the last three years.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mahindra & Mahindra’s March quarter (Q4FY26) shows why it’s one of the most consistent growth stories in India’s auto sector. It beat Street expectations on revenue and profit. Better-than-expected realizations in SUVs – its primary segment, and a sharp rise in other income were the key drivers.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Recently, I attended a lecture on ‘Long-term missions in a short-term world’ by S. Gurumurthy. To me, the biggest example has been China.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: Xiaomi once sold one in every four smartphones in India. By 2025, it had fallen out of the country’s top five brands.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mumbai: Emcure Pharmaceuticals plans to expand its biosimilars pipeline to ride a slew of patent expiries as well as favourable tailwinds on global demand, the company’s top executive told Mint in an interview.“We have identified biosimilars as a growth driver. In the next three to five years, a lot of our R&D spend as well as portfolio contribution would be skewed towards biosimilars as well as some of the larger peptides and the ADC (antibody drug conjugates) program,” managing director and chief executive Satish Mehta said.Pune-headquartered Emcure is largely a generics drug manufacturer, but is ramping up focus on specialty products like complex injectables, biologics and antibody drug conjugates.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd's group chief executive, Anish Shah, is shifting his focus to deploying artificial intelligence, as the conglomerate closed its fifth year under his leadership with double-digit profit growth.The Mumbai-based company has crafted a strategy to increase revenue, which surged 26% year-on-year to ₹1.98 trillion in 2025-26, by using AI to enhance the service experience, improve marketing efficiency, and shorten the time-to-market for new products.Revenue surge was powered by a 20% on-year jump in sports utility vehicle (SUV) volumes to over 660,000 units, dethroning rival Hyundai Motor India from the second position, while net profit rose 32% on-year to ₹18,621 crore, further supported by growth across its business segments and a reduction in loss-making assets overseas.Its real estate and logistics business, Mahindra Lifespaces and Mahindra Logistics, reported a 50% rise in profit after tax, while its automobile segment—the largest contributor—posted 33% profit growth. Tech Mahindra Ltd, India's fifth-largest IT services company, ended the fiscal year with a 7% rise in net profit.Now, M&M wants to improve efficiencies to further boost revenue while reducing costs and turnaround time.“Over the past few months, I have spent an hour a day on AI, one hour every day.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In December 2024, a number of scientists from around the world signed a four-page paper in Science that urged their own community to ensure that an entire class of organisms is never created. Their efforts managed to halt progress in a field that many of them had themselves been pursuing. This marked a rare moment in science when an entire field voluntarily abandoned the path it had been on because of the risks scientists saw ahead of them.The science in question was mirror-life, and the fact that such a moratorium was achieved raises the question of why similar outcomes were not achieved in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp has become the third largest Indian heritage IT services firm — after Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and HCL Technologies Ltd — to dial back shareholder payouts as it redirects capital towards acquisitions and AI capability building.Nasdaq-listed Cognizant, which follows a January–December financial calendar as against Indian IT’s April–March year, returned $1.99 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases last year.This year, the company is set to return less.“This year again, $2.5 billion (in free cash flow), we have committed $1.6 billion to be returned to the shareholder, $1 billion by share buyback and $600 million odd in dividends, of which we have now used about $600 million from the remaining $1 billion for Astreya,” said Jatin Dalal, chief financial officer of Cognizant, during the company’s post-earnings analyst call on 29 April.Cognizant ended last year with $21.1 billion in revenue, up 7% year-on-year.“Our long-term capital allocation framework is to deploy ~50% of our annual free cash flow towards M&A aligned with our strategic priorities and ~50% towards dividends and share repurchases, targeting a consistent dividend payout ratio and repurchases to offset dilution.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Stock market recap: Indian equity benchmarks ended the session higher on Monday 4 May, with the Nifty 50 rising 121.75 points (0.51%) to close at 24,119.30. The Sensex gained 355.90 points (0.46%) to finish at 77,269.40.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The theme in Monday’s election results of three of the four major states that went to the latest hustings was the same—anti-incumbency. Incumbents were sent packing in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) holding ground in Assam and likely Puducherry.When the euphoria peters out, the hard part will be in governing for all four major states.