International Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.It has been an eventful week – once again dominated by developments around the US-Israel-Iran war.Iran said on Friday (17 April) that the Strait of Hormuz is open. The announcement came almost simultaneously from US President Donald Trump (via Truth Social) and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (on X).“In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire, on the coordinated route as already announced by Ports and Maritime Organisation of the Islamic Rep.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Bosch Ltd’s shares have been on a roll this month. The auto component company’s stock is up almost 30% so far in April from the 2026-year-to-date low of ₹28,745 apiece on 30 March.The stock had fallen 21% last month after the West Asia war began and the disruption in natural gas supplies forced one of its suppliers to declare force majeure.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Only a few years ago, AI seemed like merely a nice toy: a chatbot that simulated intelligence by assembling complete sentences in response to users’ prompts but that ultimately wasn’t much more sophisticated than an advanced search engine. Yet now, it has proven to be an incredible tool that can perform tasks I never thought would be possible in my lifetime. For example, I have used AI to locate online datasets, manipulate them, carry out statistical tests and produce polished tables and charts, complete with sensible commentary on what the results mean, how they relate to academic literature and the strengths and weaknesses of the analysis.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Explorers have dreamed of harvesting deep-sea metals since the 1870s, when the British scientific ship HMS Challenger pulled up mineral-laden rocks on its round-the-world voyage.The first commercial effort to exploit these riches failed a century later. In 1970, a U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: JioHotstar is doubling down on premium global content in India with the launch of an HBO Max hub, deepening its partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery and bringing some of Hollywood’s biggest franchises under one roof on the streaming platform.The hub will host titles from HBO, Max Originals, Warner Bros.

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.The Trump administration is expected to start accepting claims next week for refunds from the tariffs President Trump collected illegally.In an order Tuesday, Judge Richard Eaton of the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade said the government confirmed in a closed conference earlier in the day that it is on track to begin processing claims for refunds with interest on April 20 for some importers.The refund claims that the government said it can start accepting amount to about $127 billion of the $166 billion the government collected in tariffs that were invalidated by the Supreme Court in February, Eaton said.U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been working to build a system to handle refunds after Eaton directed it to immediately begin the repayment process on March 4, but he ultimately gave the Trump administration more time after it said its current system wasn’t capable of reimbursing for more than 53 million imports that were affected by Trump’s tariffs.More than 3,000 lawsuits have been filed at the trade court by companies seeking a refund.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Indian international racer Jehan Daruvala is switching tracks. The fourth-generation scion of the Sterling and Wilson Group has hung up his racing suit to join the family business.The 27-year-old now competes to secure new business contracts and races against deadlines to complete projects. The career move comes as a renewable energy and data centre boom has turned around the prospects of the Sterling and Wilson Group, which specializes in constructing solar power plants and data centres.“I think this is also a fast track.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Shares of health and nutrition products maker Zydus Wellness have climbed more than 25% in the last one months even as the company's profits show the strain of new launches and overseas acquisitions but its CEO's focus is elsewhere: stay ahead of consumer expectations, not lag them.“As long as you are focused on evolving with the brand or ahead of the consumer's expectations, you will stay in touch. If you are only following, you will lose relevance pretty quickly,” Tarun Arora told Mint in an interview.The strategy appears to be resonating with investors, at least in the near term.Shares of the company have risen 25.7% over the past month, significantly outperforming the NIFTY 500’s 3.7% gain.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: The government sees limited impact of the West Asia war on India’s FY26 growth, but a prolonged disruption could force some pass-through of elevated global oil prices into retail fuel, according to two officials aware of an internal assessment.The conflict, which began on 28 February, has heightened concerns around energy supply disruptions, particularly through the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit route for global oil trade. While the government has so far absorbed the shock through tax cuts and limited price increases, that cushion may narrow if high crude prices persist.In FY26, India’s economy is projected to have grown 7.6%, according to the second advance estimates released in February.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.There is angst in the air about the US dollar’s once and future global role. For insight into the greenback’s prospects, pundits have looked to the British pound sterling, the dollar’s predecessor as the dominant international currency, and asked how economic stagnation, heavy debts and failed geopolitical adventures, like that in Suez in 1956, conspired to rob it of its global role.But informed observers can draw on a much longer history of international currencies—units used in cross-border transactions—stretching from the Dutch guilder of the 17th and 18th centuries back to the Florentine florin of the 14th and 15th centuries and the silver denarius of ancient Rome.In fact, it can be argued that the Roman denarius was the first true international currency.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The government is revamping Ayurveda institutes, modernizing hospitals, upgrading research and globalizing traditional systems for medical tourism, as announced in Union Budget 2026.Morbidity codes for Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani systems have now been incorporated into the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Diseases, and an index for the International Classification of Health Interventions through traditional medicines has also been agreed upon.This could, in time, position India as a hub for Ayurvedic and traditional medicine treatments.But can treatments at AYUSH centres be claimed in a cashless manner like allopathic procedures?The answer lies in how insurers currently interpret such treatments.Health insurance policies state that “inpatient treatments under Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy are covered.”For cashless claims, treatments must be taken at network hospitals. Reimbursement claims — where patients pay first and submit bills later — can be more complicated.Given the early stage of such claims, insurers and third-party administrators (TPAs) are balancing two competing pressures: honouring AYUSH claims as mandated by the government and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai), while protecting portfolios from treatments that are not medically mandatory but taken for rest, restoration or wellness — where billing limits may not be clearly defined.The ecosystem for cashless claims is still evolving.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Domestic travel stocks are in the limelight amid uncertainty around international travel routes and fuel supply disruptions. Strong summer travel demand, rising disposable incomes, and robust tourism activity are enhancing growth prospects for Indian hotels and online travel companies.Here are three travel stocks to watch: Thomas Cook (India) is a leading omnichannel travel company offering foreign exchange, leisure and corporate travel, and visa services.Founded in 1881, it operates across 28 countries and manages brands like SOTC and Sterling Holidays, providing end-to-end travel solutions with a strong global presence.The company reported revenues of ₹2145 crore vs ₹2061 crore YoY.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.WHEN AMERICA and Israel began their war on February 28th, it was widely expected that Iran would choke off shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Few would have predicted that, less than two months later, Donald Trump would impose a blockade of his own, targeting traffic to and from Iranian ports and coastal areas. It went into effect on April 13th.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.For anyone scrolling through social media lately, Vietnam seems to have taken over the feed, with its cafés, coastlines and bustling streets firmly etched onto the global travel map. But the tourism buzz is only the surface of a deeper story.Emerging from the ashes of the war with the US and from being one of the world’s poorest economies in the 1980s, Vietnam is now seen as an economic miracle, delivering sustained high growth (8% in 2025) and reducing poverty to below 5% from nearly 80% in 1993.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Saurabh Mukherjea is not the kind of fund manager who hedges his bets with careful language. The founder of Marcellus Investment Managers, one of India’s more closely watched boutique fund houses, has made a career of saying out loud what others whisper.His latest vehicle for that is a book—Breakpoint: The Crisis of the Middle Class and the Future of Work, published by Juggernaut in March 2026 and co-written with economist Nandita Rajhansa and human resources professional Sapana Bhavsar.“I have argued in my book that India is not creating enough jobs for the middle and lower income segments,” he said. “This would mean that the opportunity to invest in Indian businesses will come down over the next several years.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: Policy think tank Niti Aayog has indefinitely postponed a global summit aimed at reinvigorating the nation's electric vehicle sector, as the war in West Asia disrupts international travel.The Global Electric Mobility Summit, planned for 21-22 April in New Delhi, was designed to be an event to court major investments for the world’s third-largest auto market. However, government correspondence reviewed by Mint shows that the regional war has forced a strategic retreat until travel conditions normalize.The delay comes at a critical time for New Delhi.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.For salaried employees in the new tax regime, the list of meaningful tax-saving components has shrunk. Popular elements such as house rent allowance (HRA) and leave travel allowance (LTA) have lost relevance for those who have shifted to the simplified structure.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi must act urgently to gather a coalition of like-minded and like-affected countries to conduct diplomacy with the warring parties in West Asia. The goal is not so much to get them to stop fighting but to prevent their war from throwing the Indian and world economy into a severe crisis. US President Donald Trump’s announcement that the US will blockade the Strait of Hormuz for ships headed for or leaving Iran’s ports threatens to impose pain and suffering on hundreds of millions of innocents.

new point of economic leverage through its control of the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. and Israel have long been focused on preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Thwarting Iran’s nuclear ambitions was one of Washington’s top reasons for going to war.U.S.

shipbuilding and expand India's maritime capabilities, strengthen national security, and boost domestic industry.“To operationalise the Shipbuilding Cell's mandate effectively, there is an urgent requirement for 15 naval architects with specialized expertise in shipbuilding, technical assessment, strategic planning, digital infrastructure, and investment facilitation. These naval architects will serve as the technical backbone of the Shipbuilding Cell, providing hands-on expertise in policy development, yard assessment, market analysis, project development, and implementation support,” an official at the ministry of ports, shipping and waterways said, requesting anonymity.“This engagement is structured to attract two distinct categories of naval architects based on experience levels, ensuring a balanced team composition with both senior strategic guidance and intermediate technical execution capability,” the official added.The second person said that the Directorate General of Shipping is transitioning into the Directorate General of Maritime Administration (DGMA) under the new Merchant Shipping Act with the expanded mandate to include digital administration, green energy, and enhanced maritime security.The DGMA is expected to house the dedicated Shipbuilding Cell to develop India's shipbuilding and ship repair capacity, attract domestic and international investment, facilitate policy implementation, and support strategic maritime sector growth.