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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Japan’s long-term government bond yields surged to multi-year highs Tuesday, spurred by fears that an upcoming election could lead to a consumption-tax rate cut that might worsen the country’s public finances. A key focus of the campaigning will be a potential cut to Japan’s consumption tax, as both ruling and opposition parties seek to win over voters with measures to alleviate the burden of rising living costs.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India’s fertilizer supply strategy is once again under strain. Despite years of policy focus on boosting domestic output and cutting import dependence, fertilizer imports have surged in the current financial year as rising farm demand outpaces local production, with implications for subsidies, soil health and food security.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. 2026 is a very significant year for India’s economy. The Union Budget will matter, of course, but the Eighth Pay Commission and the Sixteenth Finance Commission are the most consequential milestones to watch.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: The Centre is considering a significant expansion of its flagship food processing schemes, with a proposed allocation of around ₹28,000 crore over the next five years in the upcoming Union budget to boost value addition, reduce post-harvest losses and improve farmers’ incomes through better market linkages, according to two government officials aware of the matter.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. From India’s IT majors reporting mixed quarterly results to retail inflation climbing back after narrowing food deflation, the US tariff threats casting uncertainty over India’s Chabahar Port investments, and 2025 ranking among the three warmest years on record—here's a compilation of this week's news in numbers. India’s top IT services companies delivered mixed performance in the third quarter of FY26, with revenue growth outpacing net profits as the sector grappled with the impact of new labour codes.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. BENGALURU: When a startup walks into Shark Tank India, the cheque is often the smallest part of the prize. What founders say they are really buying is national visibility, one that can compress years of brand-building into a single broadcast.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. With food prices falling less, headline inflation has shown a modest uptick in December. Government data released on Monday put India’s consumer price index-based year-on-year rate of inflation at 1.33%, up from just 0.71% in November.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Margins stole the limelight at Avenue Supermarts Ltd on Saturday, when the retailer announced its earnings for the December quarter (Q3FY26). The company that owns and operates the DMart supermarket chain saw a 47 basis points (bps) year-on-year increase in its Q3 standalone Ebitda margin to 8.4%—a multi-quarter high.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. BENGALURU : Swiggy’s private-label brand, Noice, which debuted on its quick-commerce platform Instamart, has expanded rapidly by adding contract manufacturers across various categories, including bakery, snacks, confectionery, dairy, eggs, and other perishable foods.

food sector, aggressive local pricing, and evolving consumer preferences appear to be weighing on footfalls across the category.While the merger does little to directly revive demand, it meaningfully improves operational efficiency. Post-transaction, Devyani will become the sole operator of KFC and Pizza Hut in India, in addition to acquiring Sapphire’s Sri Lanka operations.

As gig workers’ unions organized a strike on New Year’s Eve demanding better working conditions, several people took to X and other social media platforms to debate the value of gig work in India’s economy.Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal and InfoEdge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani (also a Zomato investor) argued that gig work was valuable, pointing out that the strike had clearly failed. Others including Aam Aadmi Party leader Raghav Chadha met gig workers on strike in Delhi, supporting their demands for better working conditions.Zomato's food delivery partners workforce grew 18% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) from FY22 to FY25.

₹37 trillion. Also, only 66 of the 291 operational central PSUs were listed on India's stock exchanges.The listed companies had a market capitalization of ₹38.57 trillion as of 31 March 2025, according to the department of public sector enterprises.Panda said that the 22-member parliamentary panel plans to review close to two dozen public sector enterprises by the end of its current term, compared to four in the last year of the previous Lok Sabha. COPU, comprising 15 Lok Sabha members and seven Rajya Sabha members, is reconstituted every year.The current 18th Lok Sabha has a five-year tenure that began in June 2024.Panda said that the committee, in its first year—August 2024 to April 2025—under his chairmanship in the current Lok Sabha delivered 12 reports, a three-fold increase from the reports presented in the panel's last year in the previous Lok Sabha.

pulses was 926 kg per hectare as against a global average of 1,015 kg in FY25, the country’s cotton yield was 440 kg per hectare compared with a global average of around 820 kg during the period. India produced 25.6 million tonnes of pulses and 29.7 million bales of cotton in FY25, way below the country's domestic demand.As per the agriculture ministry's annual report for FY25, pulses were cultivated over 27.52 million acres, while cotton covered 13 million hectares across the country.“These new seed varieties will strengthen our pest and disease management systems, and expand field trials to speed up adoption at the farm level.

diabetes burden of 100 million after China, and another 136 million in the pre-diabetes stage. A high sugar intake is associated with type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and other metabolic health risks.Until the covid-19 pandemic, sugar consumption grew at an annual rate of about 4.1%, said Prakash P.

Mint.Agricultural experts said that the move could help ramp up foodgrain production, including pulses and other crops, by improving seed quality and farm-level productivity.“Increasing productivity is critical if India has to meet future food demand without relying heavily on imports. Better seeds backed by strong research can help raise yields of pulses and other crops, stabilize supplies, and protect farmers from climate and market shocks,” said Bimal Kothari, chairman of the India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA).All the cotton varieties are still Bt-II hybrids, showing policy continuity without any new biotech traits, the order notified on Thursday said.

Bengaluru: The nationwide strike called by gig workers against food delivery platforms such as Swiggy and Zomato on New Year’s Eve was largely ineffective as riders didn’t want to lose the chance to earn additional income after companies offered financial incentives for a day.Zomato set peak-hour rates at around ₹120 to ₹150 per order during the early evening to midnight on New Year’s Eve, according to its letter to delivery partners reviewed by Mint. Depending on order volumes and availability, riders had the potential to earn around ₹3,000 throughout the day.

Ukraine but also in the rising number of civil wars (in Sudan and Ethiopia, to name only two) and cross-border conflicts elsewhere. So, from the perspective of the end of 2025, it looks as if this decade will be remembered for a global pandemic, the first war waged by a great power in Europe since WWII, Middle East carnage, a deepening climate crisis, and disorder.But recall that in 1941—when the rise of fascism had plunged the world into even more widespread war and despair—something unexpected happened.

Mint. They argue that the Centre’s recent record of meeting deficit targets provides enough credibility and momentum to navigate the next phase of consolidation.“The discipline built over the past few years gives us room to navigate the current volatility without losing sight of the medium-term path,” said one of the persons mentioned above, who spoke under the condition of anonymity.According to this official, the Centre expects to end FY26 with a fiscal deficit of about 4.3% of GDP, slightly better than the 4.4% target, lifted by stronger dividends from state-run financial institutions and banks, a hefty transfer from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and buoyant non-tax revenues.The second official acknowledged near-term turbulence but maintained it does not derail the trajectory.“If revenues remain broadly stable and we keep our capital spending disciplined and purposeful, the medium-term trajectory stays intact,” the official above said.Recent reports indicate the Centre will likely limit fiscal deficit to 4.1-4.2% in FY27, keeping it aligned with the glide path to the FY31 debt goal.The central government’s debt stood at 57.1% of nominal GDP in FY25, according to FY26 union budget documents, which proposed a shift to debt-to-GDP targeting.

Dear reader, as 2025, a year of global tumult and volatility, rolls by, Mint's reporters and columnists look around the corner on what is coming in 2026—to help you know what to expect and prepare for it. Tell us what you think at [email protected] goods companies are heading into 2026 expecting a pickup in volume-led growth, supported by stable commodity costs, easing inflation and revised goods and services tax (GST) rates, even as a weakening rupee continues to pose risks to margin guidance.Senior executives across fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and consumer durables companies said demand conditions are improving after a prolonged period of sluggish growth, aided by easing food inflation, GST changes and a more supportive macroeconomic environment.“If I had to look ahead to 2026, a large part of growth is likely to be volume-led.

clean-fuel vehicles. The latest amendment dilutes that requirement, allowing the induction of BS-VI compliant petrol two-wheelers into fleets for another year.The norms apply to a wide range of companies with delivery fleets, including food delivery, e-commerce and ride-hailing firms such as Zomato, Swiggy and Rapido, among others.“A number of representations have also been received from various aggregators, delivery service providers and e-commerce entities, as well as gig workers, highlighting their difficulties with a request to allow them to continue induction of petrol-run two-wheelers in the existing fleet,” the 23 December amendment said.Email queries sent to the environment ministry and CAQM on December 30 remained unanswered till press time.

₹7,900 crore and growing at about 6.5% annually. Meanwhile, the opalware market—featuring lightweight, heat-resistant tempered glass with a porcelain-like finish—is estimated at roughly ₹2,000 crore, expanding at around 10%.By comparison, the cookware market, including steel, non-stick, and cast iron products, is pegged at over ₹8,100 crore and growing at nearly 8.5%, underscoring the continued dominance of non-glass categories.For the 64-year-old Borosil, which operates across all three categories, this push has resulted in revenues of ₹573.05 crore during the first half of 2025-26, representing a 14.7% year-on-year increase.During the period, Borosil’s consumer glassware segment, which includes storage containers, serving ware, tumblers and lunchboxes, grew 27.4% on-year, making it the fastest-growing category in its portfolio.