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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Many informal migrants who had returned to their villages during the covid lockdowns stayed back after the pandemic ended, which led to an increased share of India’s employed population working on farms. Disrupted supplies of affordable cooking gas in wake of the Iran conflict have restarted a slow but worrying reverse migration of informal workers to villages.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India is considering creating a financial buffer for petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) to manage supply disruptions and global price volatility, according to two people aware of the development.The buffer would be similar in concept to the price stabilization fund (PSF) that exists to help manage inflation in select critical agricultural commodities, which was set up in fiscal year 2015 (FY15).The plan for a dedicated price stabilization fund for energy—being explored by the Union ministries of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, and petroleum and natural gas—was mooted during a recent meeting of the empowered group of secretaries, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity, and follows the uncertainty over energy supply and price rise due to the West Asia war.“Drawing from the success of the PSF in containing inflation and cooling soaring prices of essential commodities such as pulses, onions, potatoes and tomatoes, the government is now looking to replicate a similar framework for key energy commodities like petrol, diesel and LPG,” said the first person, while adding that talks are in initial stages.The second person said discussions in the government are centred around how such a fund would be financed, the triggers for intervention, and the mechanism for deployment without distorting market signals.“The petroleum ministry is examining whether a dedicated buffer could provide a more predictable and transparent tool for price management,” the second person added.The fund would operate like the PSF for agri commodities, which allows the government to procure goods from farmers, farmer producer organisations and,

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Centre is building a digital system to track the sale of its urea, in an effort to curb diversion and hoarding of its most-utilized fertilizer at a time of broken supply chains and concerns of food security.The new system, spearheaded by the Department of Fertilizers, will require Aadhaar-based biometric authentication through a mobile app currently under development, two people familiar with the plan said. At a later stage, the system will also integrate farmers' land records, crop details, and fertilizer requirements based on landholding.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Last week, Anthropic announced that its latest artificial intelligence (AI) model, Claude Mythos, was too dangerous to release. In testing, the company discovered that the model could unearth thousands of hitherto unknown security vulnerabilities in many of the software applications, operating systems and web browsers that the world depends on.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The government is moving to close loopholes in its gold hallmarking system, introducing mandatory item-level tracking to end the fraudulent practice of reusing unique identification codes across multiple pieces of jewellery. By digitizing every ornament's physical profile, including photographs and weight, the government aims to formalize a massive, trust-based retail market where light enforcement has often left consumers holding less than they paid for.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: Struggled with illegible and poorly-placed labels for medicines? There may be help on way, as the apex drugs regulator is set to tighten scrutiny of how critical information, such as medicine names and expiry dates, is printed on the packaging, according to two government officials and documents reviewed by Mint.The move by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) aims to curb medication errors and improve patient safety in India's $50 billion pharmaceuticals market.According to the plan in the works, the CDSCO and state regulators will step up plant inspections and issue targeted instructions to drug inspectors with a focus on visibility, durability and placement of key information.Following complaints, the apex regulator had appointed a committee that identified a significant gap in the variability of medicine labelling implementation at the manufacturing level.Consumers' complaints ranged from the packaging information being illegible due to a host of reasons to the demand for the medicine name being printed across the package and for a universally-recognized symbol on generic medicines to distinguish them from branded ones.The CDSCO set up a sub-committee in July 2025, chaired by the drugs controller of Telangana, with drugs controllers of Kerala, Odisha and representatives of HLL Lifecare Ltd, the deputy drugs controller of Hyderabad zone and Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association (IDMA) officials as members.In its report, this panel said the CDSCO and state licensing authorities "may issue suitable advisories or internal instructions to GMP inspectors to ensure focused scrutiny of labelling practices, including visibility, durability and placement of

NEW DELHI: India is moving to position its QR (Quick Response) code-based payment system on the global stage. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has introduced fresh norms covering biometric authentication, QR code-based payments and digital currency security to reduce fraud risks and enhance interoperability according to two people aware of the development.The move is intended to strengthen safeguards in India’s rapidly expanding digital financial ecosystem and build confidence among developed economies, where QR code payments are still a novelty, the people said.The rapid expansion of digital payments, biometric-based authentication systems and QR code transactions in India has raised concerns over fraud, identity theft, data misuse and vulnerabilities in the digital payment infrastructure.

₹28,292.1 crore in the financial year ended March 2026 (FY26) was lower than the previous year’s ₹32,184.2 crore, marking the third decline in total shareholder returns - comprising dividends and buybacks - over the past six years, and the fourth such fall since the company went public in 2004.This 12.1% fall in total payouts in FY26 follows a 3.87% decline in FY24. At least twice before—in 2021 and 2016—Tata Sons’ income from TCS dropped over the previous year.As India’s largest IT services company continues to explore acquisition opportunities, analysts are questioning whether Tata Sons can continue to rely on cash from its crown jewel, TCS, which accounted for 83% of Tata Sons’ ₹38,835 crore revenue in the year ended March 2025 (FY25).Shares of TCS closed 2.45% lower at ₹2,524.35 apiece on the BSE on Friday, a day after the company reported its first annual revenue decline in dollar terms since listing.TCS’s lower payouts to its parent come at a time when Tata Sons, under chairman N.

India’s first class action suit has hit an unexpected hurdle: Ankit Jain, the lead minority shareholder in the ₹2,500-crore siphoning case against Jindal Poly Films, is looking to walk away. Having sold his shares in the company, Jain, who previously represented a 4.99% minority stake alongside other petitioners, has now moved to exit the landmark legal battle.Jain’s legal team informed the Delhi principal bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Thursday that he had divested his entire shareholding and no longer had the legal standing to appear as a petitioner leading the class action.

₹45 lakh to the tax department. Until the last financial year, only property sales, not gifts that did not involve a sale, were reported.“Registrars will now submit a SFT (Statement of Financial Transaction) with details of such transactions and it will reflect in the taxpayer’s AIS (Annual Information Statement).

Srinivasan on 2 April. Notably, this was a day before Mistry sought a probe by the Maharashtra Charity Commissioner, highlighting the restrictive clauses. Mint has seen Sharma's letter to all 11 trustees of Tata Trusts where he sought to clarify his position.“I was also informed that Mr.

On 30 March, the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) published draft amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2021, which, if passed, will have far-reaching consequences for internet users in India. While each of the three primary amendment proposals does something different, together they will transform the internet from a rules-based regime into one governed by discretion.

IT sector, according to the data.There has also been a visible surge in companies explicitly branding themselves as AI-focused. At the beginning of FY26, 84 companies in every 10,000 new registrations mentioned ‘AI’ in their names.

small packs also represent one of the largest sources of plastic litter, as their size and multi-layered composition make them extremely difficult to collect and recycle.This comes against the backdrop of the government’s ban on single-use plastic and assumes significance as India generates around 3.5 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, according to the Central Pollution Control Board. Of this, around 40% of plastic waste is littered and remains uncollected.Sachets are used across many product categories including personal care items such as shampoo, conditioner, hair oil, face wash, body wash, pan masala, gutkha, instant coffee, spices, sauces, dairy whitener, detergent powder, dishwashing liquid and floor cleaners.Pan masala and gutkha are widely consumed across India and largely sold in small sachets (typically under 10 g).

India’s market regulator is working on a collaborative framework with corporates, academia and professional bodies to expand the pipeline and effectiveness of independent directors, even as recent boardroom tensions at HDFC Bank sharpen scrutiny on governance standards.“Sebi will seek to embark on a joint initiative for capacity building of independent directors at scale with a view to further improve corporate governance,” Sebi chief Tuhin Kanta Pandey said at the 19th Governance Summit hosted by the Confederation of Indian industries (CII) on Monday.“Boards are well constituted, but not always equally effective. Information is available but not always interrogated deeply.

Wipro Ltd has bagged a contract worth $1 billion over eight years from Singapore-based food processing company Olam Group, ending a nearly six-year lull of mega deals for the country's fourth-largest information technology (IT) services firm.As part of a broader engagement, Wipro will also acquire Mindsprint, Olam’s IT arm, for $375 million in an all-cash deal, the company said in a release to the stock exchanges on Monday.Following the announcement, Wipro's shares opened 3.6% higher at ₹198.4 on the BSE in a largely weak market.The Bengaluru-based IT services company will manage the food processing company’s end‑to‑end IT transformation services. Olam has committed to spending at least $800 million over eight years in modernising its IT systems with an option to spend more than $1 billion in total.Mindsprint ended last year with $136 million in revenue and the acquisition is expected to close by June, subject to regulatory approvals.

Bengaluru/Mumbai: Former Tata Trusts trustee Mehli Mistry has filed an affidavit before the Maharashtra charity commissioner, seeking clarification on alleged irregularities at an affiliate of Tata Trusts.He has accused his former Tata Trustees colleagues—including chairman Noel Tata—of appointing two vice chairmen, Vijay Singh and Venu Srinivasan, who, being non-Parsis, he claims should not have served on a Trust run by a principal Tata Trust.Mistry, who resigned from Tata Trusts in October last year, has asked the regulatory body to probe the Bai Hirabai Jamsetji Tata Navsari Charitable Institution, one of the five trusts run by the Sir Ratan Tata Trust & Allied Trusts. Separately, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust & Allied Trusts run nine additional Trusts.Sir Dorabji Tata Trusts (SDTT) and Sir Ratan Tata Trusts (SRTT) own 27.98% and 23.56% of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group.

Mint found that 31 of these were deemed approved under Section 6(5) of the Competition Act, 2002, meaning they were automatically cleared as the CCI did not pass a final order within the stipulated period.According to data available on the CCI website for the period from 10 September 2024 to 26 March 2026, the regulator reviewed 199 cases, including 196 approvals, of which two were with modifications along with one exempt case (not requiring notification), one withdrawal, and one invalid notice.Queries emailed to the CCI and the ministry of corporate affairs seeking clarity remained unanswered till the time of publishing.The Competition (Amendment) Act 2023 reduced the outer limit for deal approvals from 210 days to 150 days, effective September 2024, aiming to speed up deal clearances and improve regulatory certainty.According to lawyers, faster approvals reduce uncertainty and risk, enable quicker deal closures and capital deployment, lower costs, and improve deal certainty, making transactions more efficient and investor-friendly.“Lenders and investors benefit from improved visibility on timelines, enabling better alignment of financing commitments with deal closures, reducing reliance on costly bridge financing, and lowering risk premiums,” said Neeha Nagpal, founding partner at NM Law Chambers. “It also shifts negotiation dynamics, with fewer aggressive clauses such as ‘hell or high water’ provisions or regulatory break fees, particularly in non-complex transactions.”Where timelines are unclear, parties tend to build in valuation adjustments or rely on contingent structures to manage approval risk, said Pranav Bhaskar, senior partner at SKV Law Offices.

Mint earlier reported that amid high oil prices and a supply squeeze due to the war in West Asia, OMCs halted supplies on credit to fuel retailers.On 26 March, the petroleum and natural gas ministry had said that efforts were underway to increase the supplies from one-day credit period to up to three days of supplies on credit.“In most cases, it is still advance payment. For large retailers there may be instances of a day's credit, but not all are getting that,” said Marri Amarender Reddy, general secretary of the UPDA.

On 12 March, when February inflation printed at 3.2%, the war in West Asia had been raging for 13 days. Oil company retail agencies, which sell cylinders of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) at an administered price to registered users, shuttered their doors, anticipating supply cuts. Consumers were forced to turn to the informal market, where the price had risen five-fold by 12 March, relative to the regulated price even without the Ujjwala price subsidy.

India’s capital markets have grown at a remarkable speed. Retail participation has surged, institutional capital has deepened and technology has transformed intermediation. Regulation has expanded alongside.