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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India is ramping up its efforts to break China's dominance in the solar supply chain with a $1 billion capital subsidy plan that’s aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing of wafers and ingots—critical components in solar panel production. While the country has made significant progress in solar module and cell manufacturing, wafer and ingot production remains a weak link, with only 2gigawatts (GW)of capacity compared to 71 GW in modules and 11 GW in cells.

ICC Champions Trophy 2025 against New Zealand on Sunday, India's stalwart batter Virat Kohli shared his thoughts on the title win and said that he is happy as the team was able to play as a unit. In the final, it was Rohit Sharma who led the way. In the semi-final, it was Virat Kohli with the bat and Mohammed Shami with the ball, among others. India won five straight games to claim the Champions Trophy 2025, and in each of those contests, a handful of their star players shone brightly. Those contributions led to another title-yielding run in a major ICC event.

This will make Ajit Pawar the Finance Minister to present the highest number of budgets (11) after Sheshrao Wankhede, who presented the budget 13 times. Ajit Pawar will hold the second-highest record with 11 times, followed by Jayant Patil (10 times) and Sushilkumar Shinde (9 times), the press release further mentioned. Notably, this will be the first budget for the newly-formed Mahayuti government and Pawar's 11th Budget as Finance Minister.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) introduced curbs on options trading with the aim of cooling down market frenzy on expiry day. However, instead of merely slowing down trading excesses, these measures have triggered fresh rivalry between the NSE and the BSE.

Nirmala Sitharaman, said Romal Shetty, CEO of Deloitte South Asia. «Our domestic consumption-driven economy, which makes up 62% of our GDP, shields us from external fluctuations. And our favourable geopolitical alignment opens doors where others see barriers,» Shetty said at the ET Awards for Corporate Excellence in Mumbai on Saturday.

Mumbai: India's housing finance market could more than double in value to '81 lakh crore in the next five years, according to a report by CareEdge Ratings. The ratings firm said the growth will be driven by robust structural elements and favourable government incentives, making housing finance an attractive asset class for lenders. India's housing finance market is valued at '33 lakh crore. CareEdge Ratings said the country's residential properties market remains buoyant, a key driver of the housing finance industry, having seen absolute growth of 74% since 2019 to 460,000 units in 2024.

dry spell that parched the land, then a spark, followed by some wind. Suddenly, swaths of South Carolina were consumed by voracious flames.

Odisha government on Sunday issued an advisory to all collectors given the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) forecast on the rise in the daytime temperature. In a weather bulletin, the IMD said that the daytime temperature would rise by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius during the next four to five days in the state. The maximum temperature is expected to increase to about 40 degrees C and above over isolated places of Sundergarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Sonepur, Boudh and Bolangir districts during the next five days, it said. Given this forecast, the office of the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC), Odisha, advised the collectors to circulate the hot weather warning message among the public.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Mid-market hotel operator BWH Hotels, which manages brands like Best Western Hotels & Resorts and SureStay Hotels, is expanding its footprint in India with a pipeline of 21 new hotels in the next two years. Larry Cuculic, the company’s global president and CEO, who was in India for the recently concluded hospitality conference HOPE 2025, said in an exclusive interview with Mint that all its upcoming properties will be new constructions—a strategic shift to enhance brand reputation and guest experience.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The fires went on for three relentless days in the summer of 2021, scorching over 13,000 hectares of western Sardinia. Residents “saw their whole world go up in flames around them," says Carlo Poddi, a forestry expert on the island.

Five workers entered a water tank to clean it but passed out inside while doing the job, said a fire official. Others at the construction site alerted the fire brigade, which rescued the five men and rushed them to the state-run JJ hospital. However, doctors declared them dead, said an official.

Bollywood classic, five decades after its theatrical release. The Hrishikesh Mukherjee directorial, which starred Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna in lead roles, quickly became a box-office phenomenon as well as a milestone in Bachchan Sr’s career. 49, years after its release, an old interview of Bachchan is currently going viral. In a 1990 interview with Star Dust, the ‘Agneepath’ star stated that working with Rajesh Khanna played a big part in his rise to stardom. He revealed that after he did the movie, many people came up to him to ask after Rajesh Khanna, who was the reigning superstar at that time. “When Hrishida asked me to work with Rajesh Khanna in Anand, it was a dream come true for me. The hysteria that be evoked was witnessed for the first time in the history of Hindi films. I got famous purely because I was working with Rajesh Khanna. People came and asked me questions like ‘How does he look?’, ‘What does he do?’ So I became very important, thanks to him. I have always had the greatest respect for Kaka," he said.

Soni Bisht faced an unimaginable loss when her husband, Sepoy Neeraj Singh Bhandari of the 18 Kumaon Regiment, tragically passed away in a January 2023 accident. Instead of succumbing to grief, Soni transformed her sorrow into strength, choosing to honour her late husband's dream by joining the Indian Army as an officer. On Saturday, at the Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Chennai, she marched proudly in the Passing Out Parade, now a warrior ready to serve the nation, reported TOI. “When I first heard about the Veer Nari entry from officers of the Kumaon Regiment, my father, a retired Subedar from the Brigade of Guards Battalion, encouraged me to take this path,” TOI quoted Soni as saying. “It wasn’t easy, but I overcame every challenge,” she added with a smile, as she was commissioned into the Army Ordnance Corps.

Gujarat's Dholera Special Investment Region which is emerging as a semiconductor hub in the state, according to a developer. Recent months have seen a rise in investor visits and land inquiries, fueled by Dholera's vision to become India's semiconductor hub with four of the five semiconductor plants in India being built in Dholera, Aaiji Group Founder and Managing Director Lalit Parihar said. Among fresh proposals, NextGen has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gujarat government at Gujarat SemiConnect Conference 2025 for setting up a Rs 10,000-crore compound semiconductor fab and optoelectronics facility at Dholera. A tripartite agreement was inked between Tata Electronics, Taiwanese firms PSMC and Himax Technologies for an upcoming semiconductor chip manufacturing facility of the Indian company at Dholera, he said.

Maha Kumbh was fit for bathing, based on statistical analysis. The report, dated February 28 and uploaded on the tribunal's website on March 7, highlights that variations in water sample data required a detailed statistical review to assess overall river water quality. The CPCB conducted water monitoring twice a week from January 12, including auspicious bathing days, at five locations on the Ganga and two on the Yamuna. The report noted significant fluctuations in key water quality parameters such as pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and fecal coliform (FC) levels across different dates and locations. An expert committee reviewed the data variations and concluded that factors such as human activities, river flow, sampling depth, and current mixing influenced the readings. «The data represents a snapshot of water quality at a specific location and time and may vary significantly,» the report stated.

PepsiCo aims to double its revenue in India over the next five years, viewing the country as a 'key anchor market' where it is making «aggressive» investments to expand its capacity, its India & South Asia CEO Jagrut Kotecha said. India will be the «engine of growth for PepsiCo» in driving its global revenue, as it ranks among the top three markets for the food, snack, and beverage multinational, where the company is experiencing double-digit growth, Kotecha shared in an exclusive interview with PTI. PepsiCo has invested in greenfield plants in Uttar Pradesh and Assam, focusing on staying ahead of the demand curve, Kotecha said, adding the company will not be «investment shy» in India and plans to open two more facilities, including one in the southern region. «We believe India will be the engine of growth for PepsiCo to drive the top line. Yes, it's not as big as North America because it is a lot more evolved category. Our per capita consumption in India is still very low, not only for us on beverage and food, but we would expect one of PepsiCo's fastest growing economies to do that,» Kotecha said.

secondary market. This slowdown in IPO activity is reflected in the numbers, as only five companies went public in January and four in February, compared to 16 listings in December 2024. Quality Power Electrical Equipment Ltd was the recent IPO which opened for three-day bidding on February 14. However, the trend of slower activity is evident as at least three companies — Advanced Sys-tek, SFC Environmental Technologies, and Viney Corporation — withdrew IPO plans by pulling their draft papers in January and February.

Many India-New Zealand clashes over the years have been decided by some massive factors: Be it a run chase masterclass from Virat Kohli, supporting acts from KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer etc, Kiwi pacers Matt Henry and Trent Boult running through Indian top order and making the scorecard look like a football scoreline or recently, the domination of both side's spinners.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. KFin Technology is a leading registrar and transfer agent (RTA) in India's mutual fund industry, operating in a duopoly market. Its business is cyclical as it depends on the capital market's performance.

NTN) along with terrestrial 5G has the potential to revolutionise the telecom industry by creating a seamless network, unlocking new revenue streams for telcos, according to experts. They added that the integration of NTN with terrestrial 5G could enable remote data services and maritime communications and will allow telecom service players to offer more reliable and high-quality services, ranging from ultra-low latency applications to high-bandwidth services. Unlike traditional mobile towers that beam signals to mobile phones, the 5G NTN standard leverages satellites in orbit to transmit connectivity, including data, to handsets on earth. NTN is now a part of 3GPP Release-19 specifications for 5G. 3GPP is a global body which specifies telecommunications standards that are followed by telcos, chipmakers and handset providers.

Ashwini Vaishnaw. India will emerge as one of the key players — not only in providing services but also a major technology creator in the age of artificial intelligence, he said at the 25th ET Awards for Corporate Excellence, where he was conferred the Reformer of the Year honour. “India will emerge very powerful, very strong (and) will come out with substantially better conditions,” he said. “The reason for that is the pragmatism with which we are approaching this entire thing.”