International Financial News

Indian rupee slid to a record low of ₹92.33 against the US dollar.While oil-marketing companies and air carriers will bear a direct brunt of the higher energy prices, others will face an indirect impact as oil prices feed into their input expenses. The Indian economy could take a hit if the inflationary effect of the conflict dents consumer demand.“India Inc will likely see a partial impact in the March quarter earnings for companies still operating on existing inventories, while the full effect could become more visible in the first quarter of the next fiscal year,” said Pramod Gubbi, founder of Marcellus Investment Managers, a portfolio management firm.If the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the global oil trade passes, remains closed for 2-6 weeks, it can push the three-month average Brent prices to $80-90, as per analysts at Nomura.

New Delhi: The Centre has issued an order that updates norms for piston rings – a key component of internal combustion engines (ICE) – to help reduce carbon emissions, replacing standards that had been in place since 1977. The new standards came into effect on 10 February, said the order dated 12 February.Experts said the cost impact for most automakers was likely to be limited, as many already follow similar global specifications.

Two of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, a chemical manufacturer, and an auto giant have established internal artificial intelligence (AI) teams and opened centres to increase automation across their businesses, as the technology’s rapid pace continues to upend business operations worldwide.Over the last 18 months, Swiss life sciences major Novartis International AG and Texas-based chemical manufacturer Celanese Corporation started AI councils to identify segments that can be automated. Indiana-based Eli Lilly and Co.

₹10,485 crore—higher than what any equity category received in the same month.The asset-allocation and diversification argument underpinning multi-asset funds, strengthened by the inclusion of gold and silver as investable components, appears to be driving their rising popularity among investors.But just as investors were getting comfortable with the multi-asset pitch, fund houses have begun multiplying their offerings.Sebi’s 2025 directive on fund-of-funds (FoF) re-categorization appears to have triggered a fresh wave of multi-asset products. But do investors really need this variation of the multi-asset strategy, or does it simply amplify noise in an already crowded market and make choice harder?When Sebi first introduced fund categorization rules in 2018, FoFs were tucked into a residual “Other Schemes” bucket.

Over a decade ago, domestic projects had dominated L&T’s business, but the picture is different now. As on 31 December, 49% of its ₹7.33 trillion order book came from international markets, and India contributed the rest.

Greaves Cotton, known for engine manufacturing and engineering.“As an auto component company, in some ways, it's easier for us to do that. We are dealing in components; so, there's not a huge difference in the components when it comes between, let's say a CNG or a diesel or a petrol.

In international relations, manifestly illegal government action can sometimes be morally defensible. While historical examples of legitimacy trumping legality are few and far between, they do exist.

What problem does it solve? Every week, teams across marketing, L&D, and communications hit a similar invisible wall: they have great content, maybe a training video, a product launch reel, an internal town hall recording, but no budget, no time, and no expertise to give it a soundtrack that actually fits. So they either pay for stock music that sounds generic, spend weeks coordinating with a composer, or simply ship the content with no audio at all.None of these options is good enough. A mid-sized company produces dozens of internal videos, client-facing presentations, and social media assets every month.

XED, which provides education programs to top executives. The company plans to raise $12 million through a dollar-based offering in GIFT City this month.While the offering will test the IPO route at the offshore financial centre, the forthcoming framework is aimed at companies that want to list directly on the exchanges.If implemented, the proposal would allow Indian and global companies, whether already listed elsewhere or privately held, to list their shares on GIFT City exchanges without raising fresh capital.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lowered the repo rate by 125 basis points (bps) in this rate cut cycle and governor Sanjay Malhotra reiterated that rates will remain lower for longer. While banks have lowered both lending and deposit rates, these were not entirely in tandem.Amid all this, credit growth in the banking system continues to outpace deposit growth.

Exits from international subsidiaries and associate companies in Japan, Finland and Sri Lanka in the financial year 2026 have narrowed the list of loss-making foreign companies for Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, which is resetting its international business to back profitable businesses.The exits from international subsidiaries and joint ventures in the three countries have helped Mahindra and Mahindra shed companies with total annual losses of about ₹313 crore or 2.2% of its consolidated profit of ₹14,073 crore as of 31 March 2025.With these exits, the major loss-making foreign subsidiaries of the Mumbai-based company have narrowed down to companies in the US, Turkey, Mauritius and Germany, which together posted losses of ₹670 crore, or 4.7% of the company’s consolidated profits for FY25.Mahindra’s strategy to curb losses in its international businesses has come into focus after its exit from its Japanese subsidiary, Mitsubishi Mahindra Agricultural Machinery, on Monday, which it said will help reduce losses from a business it acquired in 2015.“On completion of the liquidation procedure, the promoter group would not have to incur the annual loss as well as fund these losses,” the company said in an exchange filing on Monday.The company’s renewed focus on exiting loss-making international businesses to double down on its high-growth areas and markets comes at a time when group chief executive Anish Shah is set to complete five years at the helm next month.Since taking over in 2021, Mahindra under Shah has exited several key international loss-making businesses as it seeks to increase profitability.

The escalating US-Iran conflict has wreaked havoc on market sentiment, leaving investors anxious about spiking crude oil prices and the economic fallout of a prolonged confrontation. This instability carries significant implications for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies, particularly with the threat of supply disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint for global energy.Consequently, Indian firms with meaningful exposure to the Middle East are facing heightened near-term volatility.

Mint shows the standards establish common definitions for cloud systems, introduce performance metrics for data centres, and embed ethical considerations within AI system design, formalizing the technical and governance backbone of India’s AI expansion.The standards have been notified under Sub-rule (1) of Rule 15 of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Rules, 2018. They are Indian Standards derived from international ISO/IEC frameworks.For now, they are not mandatory.

markets are closed on Tuesday for a public holiday.Brent crude, which hovered around $60 a barrel in early January, climbed to $72 by 25 February on expectations of military action against Iran. Since the conflict began, prices have surged to about $78.

The 16th Finance Commission (FC) report, covering 2026-31, arrives at a consequential moment for India’s fiscal federalism. It is wide-ranging, analytically rich and notable for making underlying data publicly available.

₹345.47 trillion ($3.93 trillion)—3.26% lower than the ₹357.14 trillion estimate published in January under the 2011-12 series.The downward revision stems from those earlier overestimations. In an interaction with Mint, the statistics ministry confirmed that proxy indicators used in the older series had led to overestimations, validating concerns raised by economists, policymakers and researchers for nearly a decade.But the shrinkage is only part of the story.

drive up natural gas prices and freight costs, industry officials and analysts said.Although the government makes a provisional estimate of the fertilizer subsidy at the start of the financial year—based on sowing patterns, irrigated area and historical demand—it carries an implicit obligation to enhance the allocation if unforeseen developments arise.Currently, the fertilizer subsidy is projected at ₹1.71 trillion for the next financial year, slightly lower compared to the revised estimate of ₹1.86 trillion for the ongoing 2025-26 fiscal (FY26)."If the crisis persists for long, the fertilizer prices are expected to go up which might require higher subsidies," said an industry official on the condition of anonymity. In the past, the government has been making special financial provisions for additional subsidies in case of a spike in global prices.Natural gas, the primary feedstock and energy source for urea production, accounts for a bulk of fertilizer manufacturing costs, making the sector highly sensitive to price spikes.Research firm Zero Carbon Analytics has said that of the top countries that import oil and gas via the Strait of Hormuz, Japan faces the most direct risk of disruption, due to its high share of oil and gas trade through the shipping route and its reliance on imported oil and gas.

Kevin Warsh’s nomination to succeed Jerome Powell as US Federal Reserve chair has triggered a predictable frenzy of speculation centred on a single, narrow question: How hard will he push for interest-rate cuts? While such conjecture may be entertaining, it misses the forest for the trees. To focus solely on rate cuts is to misunderstand the Fed’s situation and the scale of the challenge awaiting its next leader.Warsh inherits an institution that, by any historical measure, is deeply fractured internally and lacks credibility externally.

Climate litigation often feels like a distant Western concern, unfolding in American federal courts or European tribunals. Yet, the legal foundations that make such cases possible are now firmly in place in India. The shift has been gradual, almost quiet, but is unmistakable.

manufacturing expansion.The government has amended the BIS (Conformity Assessment) Regulations, 2018, restructuring the framework for Scheme-II and Scheme-VII by formalizing a Self-Declaration of Conformity (SDOC) model for eligible notified products.“Under this system, manufacturers can obtain a licence to use the Standard Mark through registration based on self-declaration, backed by accredited lab reports,” said one of the two officials cited above, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.Scheme-II refers to the registration-based certification framework under BIS, largely covering notified electronics and IT (information technology) products where conformity is established through third-party testing and documentation, rather than mandatory pre-licence factory inspection.Under the revised Scheme-II, the application fee and annual licence fee are fixed at ₹1,000 each, with a resource fee of ₹25,000 per application payable in advance. Applications involving multiple test reports will attract an additional ₹20,000 for each extra report, with the fee structure now formally codified under the Self-Declaration of Conformity framework.Queries sent on Friday to BIS and the ministries of consumer affairs and commerce remained unanswered till press time.However, easier access to BIS certification—needed to use the Standard Mark on notified products—is paired with stricter ongoing compliance.

₹500 crore for carriers.In a tweet on Saturday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said Indian airlines cancelled around 410 flights on 28 February and 440 on 1 March due to security concerns in parts of the Middle East airspace, impacting Gulf and long-haul routes beyond the region, including services to London Heathrow and Canada.West Asia accounts for 15-20% of IndiGo’s daily revenue, according to at least one sell-side analyst. “Flight cancellations due to the West Asia crisis will have an impact on airline revenues.