Information Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A trader couldn’t hope for better timing.Moments before President Trump postponed strikes on Tehran’s energy infrastructure in a morning social-media post on March 23, a spasm of trades hit the market during off-hours. More than $800 million worth of U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Forensic audits have gained significance in today’s world of business as they serve as a useful tool for commercial lenders to investigate fraud by borrowers and/or identify other deep-seated financial irregularities. Forensic auditors are also employed by resolution professionals to report on preferential, undervalued, fraudulent and extortionate (‘PUFE’) transactions for adjudication under India’s Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). While there is no single universal definition, several globally recognized organizations have provided widely accepted definitions (and norms) of forensic auditing.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The monthly mutual fund factsheet, primarily a standardized disclosure and compliance document, is evolving into a more carefully crafted communication tool for fund houses in an era where investors are more digital and informed.The shift reflects changing investor behaviour. Direct plans—where investors buy units directly from asset management companies without distributors—accounted for 49% of industry average assets under management in April 2026, up from 45% two years earlier, according to AMFI data.That rise suggests more investors are evaluating and comparing funds independently, increasing the importance of how fund houses present disclosures, portfolio positioning and performance context.Fund houses are now moving well beyond minimum disclosure requirements.Edelweiss Mutual Fund introduced a new factsheet format in 2026 called Fundverse, which includes rolling return analysis, portfolio overweight and underweight positions versus benchmarks, key return contributors, and SIP and SWP contribution breakdowns.Rolling return analysis, unlike trailing returns, measures performance across every possible holding period instead of one fixed start date, giving investors a broader view of consistency across market cycles.For instance, if an investor had invested in the Edelweiss Mid Cap Fund on 30 April 2021 and stayed invested till 30 April 2026, the fund would have delivered a 5-year trailing CAGR return of about 21.02%, turning ₹10,000 into nearly ₹25,968.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has put out a draft amendment to its earlier directions on prudential norms for the capital adequacy of commercial banks. It deals with Pillar 3 (disclosure requirements) of the Basel III framework, adopted by RBI in 2013.The rationale, according to the central bank, is to ensure greater consistency with that framework, as prescribed by the Bank for International Settlements, the global collective of central banks.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Brokerage firms facing scrutiny over a potential compliance violation have long been able to help their cause by engaging with regulators throughout the process. Now Finra, the brokerage industry’s self-regulatory organization, is piloting a new self-reporting initiative that could bring Finra’s inquiries to an end sooner and potentially avoid penalties.Leaders of Finra’s enforcement division described reforms to the organization’s processes at a recent conference in Washington, stressing the importance of volunteering information that could help regulators understand more about the firm’s operations, what might have gone wrong from a compliance perspective, and what the firm is doing to address the issue.At the outset of an investigation, Finra is inviting firms, along with their outside counsel, to sit for an introductory meeting.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: India’s largest banks are stepping up cyber defences, hiring, and insurance coverage as concerns grow that advanced AI systems could make cyberattacks faster and harder to contain, exposing gaps in preparedness and protection.The pressure has risen after a finance ministry meeting with top banking executives on 23 April focused on banks’ preparedness for AI-linked cyber threats. The meeting came weeks after Anthropic unveiled Claude Mythos, a frontier AI model the company said could identify vulnerabilities and conduct cyberattacks at unprecedented speed.Concerns around AI-enabled attacks have grown since September last year, when a cloud storage server exposed personal banking data of nearly 300,000 individuals, including loan account details linked to several large banks and non-banking finance companies.India’s largest private lender, HDFC Bank, told Mint it reviews cyber insurance annually and is now widening coverage as risks evolve.“The bank is continuously strengthening its cyber security posture, including hiring highly-skilled talent across security engineering, developer security operations, red-teaming or simulation of cyber attacks, and AI security,” said Ramesh Lakshminarayanan, group head of information technology and chief information officer at HDFC Bank.At Axis Bank, teams participate in programmes such as adversarial AI and ‘red teaming’ to simulate attacks.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A quiet shift is underway in how India spends, as salaries fail to keep pace with the rising cost of living.An April 2026 white paper titled The New Indian Household Balance Sheet by wealth manager Client Associates found that net financial savings have fallen sharply to about 5.2% of gross domestic product in 2023-24, down from nearly 7.7% in the pre-pandemic years, as rising borrowings eat into household surpluses and household financial liabilities have climbed to 6.2% of GDP, a decade high, driven by rapid growth in home loans, personal credit, and credit card spending.And somewhere in between wanting something and not being able to afford it, a new habit has taken hold: buy now and pay later (BNPL).BNPL is a type of short-term loan that lets you pay for goods or services immediately and pay them back at a later date, usually in instalments or with a single interest-free deferred payment. Unlike conventional loans, it is largely interest-free as long as the customer pays on time.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.My phone and I, usually joined at the hip, were recently separated on a forest safari where mobile phones were not permitted. Sans a camera, I had to experience Satpura Tiger Reserve without capturing it through a lens. Freed from digital distractions, I gradually found my attention sharpening.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The AI tool we unlocked today is: ChatGPT Memory Sources.Here is a frustration that builds quietly over months of AI use: ChatGPT starts sounding oddly familiar—it remembers your name, your tone preferences, a project you mentioned in passing.Most of the time, that is useful.But occasionally it says something that feels off—a recommendation shaped by a context you no longer care about, a preference it picked up from a conversation six months ago that no longer applies.Until now, you had no way to trace where that came from.Memory Sources fixes this.When ChatGPT uses your past chats or saved memories to shape a response, it now shows you what it referenced—and lets you delete or update that information on the spot.You are no longer managing a black box. You can see the inputs.How to access: https://chatgpt.comAudit the context: see which past conversations or saved details shaped any given response, before acting on it.Fix stale assumptions: delete or update outdated preferences the moment they surface in a reply—not buried in settings later.Trust the personalization: when you can see why ChatGPT responded the way it did, you can rely on it more—or correct it faster.A marketing lead uses ChatGPT regularly for campaign briefs.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: Telecom operator Reliance Jio has opened its low-cost 4G feature phone recharge plans to rival devices after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) flagged device-specific tariffs as “discriminatory”, according to people aware of the matter and changes seen on the company’s website.The move, analysts said, could widen Jio’s reach among feature phone users but dilute one of its key customer lock-in advantages.The change means users of 4G feature phones with physical keypads from brands such as Nokia, Lava and itel can now access Jio’s low-cost recharge plans that were earlier restricted to its own JioBharat and JioPhone devices.The move follows Trai’s March directive asking Jio to stop certain tariff practices that the regulator said violated transparency norms and disadvantaged consumers. “(D)evice-specific tariffs are treated as discriminatory and disadvantageous to the consumers as the offered tariff plans can be accessed only upon purchase of particular make/technology device,” Trai said.Jio communicated compliance with Trai’s March 24 directions to the regulator a few weeks ago, according to two people aware of the matter.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mid-cap information technology (IT) services companies believe they are less vulnerable to AI-led disruption than their larger peers. This optimism is underscored by their growth as companies earning between $1-2 billion grew faster than the big six last year.Executives from these companies attribute their resilience to nimble organizational structures, domain expertise and the ability to adapt faster to AI technologies due to fewer organizational layers.Over the last two months, bosses of mid-cap IT services firms have taken a more optimistic view of new software rollouts by AI companies.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A man’s body, hands bound and covered by a blue tarp, lies by the side of the road where it had been dumped minutes earlier. A blood-soaked sign says he was a “Chapito,” a member of one of two criminal factions fighting for control of this city, the cradle of Mexico’s transnational narcotics industry.Such macabre finds are common in Culiacán—a city of luxury car dealerships, fancy malls, and makeshift fentanyl labs—marking the shifting lines of nearly two years of relentless civil war between the two main clans of the pioneering Sinaloa cartel.It’s a war that the Chapitos, the heirs of Mexican drug boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, appear to be losing, casting doubt on the future of a dynasty that once ruled vast swaths of the criminal underworld on its way to becoming the world’s top producer and smuggler of fentanyl.The latest blow came last month with the U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s largest information technology (IT) services companies including Infosys Ltd and Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp are getting more work contracts based on fixed prices and outcomes as the use of AI-driven automation tools increases.This marks a shift from the traditional ‘time and material’ (T&M) billing model where IT services companies bill clients for the number of hours spent on work like coding, software development and maintenance. The change in pricing contracts follows the rise of automation tools that allow fewer people to handle IT projects.With fixed pricing, IT services companies and their clients determine prices for the work done regardless of the time spent or the outcome achieved.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: Relief may be in sight for those weary of steep doctor fees and billing discrepancies at private hospitals. India is looking to regulate fees for consultation and common medical procedures at private healthcare facilities with range-bound limits, said two government officials in the know.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Indian equities have spent the past year lurching from one shock to another. Just as investors adjust to one trigger, another upends sentiment—from tariff threats and geopolitical flare-ups to relentless foreign investor selling and slowing earnings growth.The latest blow has come from the war in West Asia, which has once again rattled markets already struggling to sustain momentum.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is rolling out an artificial-intelligence-powered system to predict the arrival of the southwest monsoon at the sub-district level, an upgrade from the national and state-level forecasting that has kept farmers unsure about when to plant their crops.Meanwhile, IMD will make the all-important announcement about the onset of the southwest monsoon on Thursday.IMD will provide block-level monsoon onset forecasts at least 10 days in advance, covering more than 3,000 sub-districts across 16 states, including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. The system draws on AI-based models, extended-range prediction tools, and statistical techniques to generate probabilistic forecasts and will disseminate alerts through mobile applications, SMS, and local agricultural extension networks."The AI-enabled monsoon advance forecasting system will provide probabilistic forecasts of monsoon progression," said Jitendra Singh, minister of Earth Sciences.Singh said the system combines AI-based forecasting models, extended-range prediction systems, and statistical techniques to provide operationally useful forecasts for agricultural planning and preparedness.IMD, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, and National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) have jointly developed the systems.IMD has already forecast a below-normal monsoon this year, about 92% of the long-period average, raising concerns for the farm sector, which remains mostly rain-dependent.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: The apex drug regulator has directed all licensed blood centres to enrol in a national digital portal, as part of a crackdown after cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infections in children due to contaminated transfusions across multiple states, according to two government officials and a document reviewed by Mint.The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation issued a directive ordering all 4,153 licensed blood banks to complete registration on the Online National Drug Licensing System portal by 13 May, a single-window platform that centralizes licensing, tracks donor histories, and provides hospitals and patients visibility into verified blood supplies.“In order to strengthen regulatory oversight, enhance transparency in blood services, and ensure easy public access to blood and its components across the country, it has been decided to generate a database of all Blood Centres on the Online National Drug Licensing System (ONDLS) portal www.Statedrugs.gov.in,” the CDSCO directive to all State Licensing Authorities (SLAs) said.CDSCO has categorized this mission as a ‘priority’.“...all State Licensing Authorities (SLAs) are requested to direct all Blood Centres within their respective jurisdictions to complete this registration latest by 13.05.2026. Action taken may be informed to this directorate for submitting to the MoHFW (ministry of health and family welfare),” the letter said.The e-RaktKosh digital backbone for blood services and National Informatics Centre (NIC) teams are involved in the information flow to manage the technical rollout.The move, authorized by drugs controller general Dr.

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.Quant Mutual Fund believes this year is about identifying undervalued and under-researched segments of the market while avoiding overcrowded trades.In the Mint Money Guru series, Quant Mutual Fund founder and chief investment officer Sandeep Tandon explains why he believes this is the biggest buying opportunity since the covid pandemic.It's largely a behaviour call coming from some analytics that we have built. The element of fear is very high. People are worried about crude prices, the rupee and the exit of foreign institutional investors (FIIs).

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.BENGALURU/MUMBAI: Blackstone-owned Mphasis Ltd has filed a lawsuit in a US court against rival Coforge Ltd, accusing the Noida-based IT services firm of hiring its employees in violation of contractual restrictions and gaining access to confidential client information.The Bengaluru-based company, which reported $1.8 billion in revenue last year, has also named its former vice president Brijesh Khergamker as a party in the case filed in a Colorado court.