International Financial News

How to access: vids.google.com (included in Google Workspace Business and Enterprise plans)• Turn documents into training videos: Start from a policy, manual, or brief and generate a video draft without beginning from scratch.• Scale communications without a crew: Create leadership updates, compliance briefings, or product walkthroughs using scripts, voiceover, and stock visuals.• Create without deep creative skills: Vids helps with the structure and production draft, while your team supplies the content and final review.A regional HR head at a manufacturing company is rolling out a revised safety protocol across 12 plant locations and 2,000 workers. Coordinating in-person sessions across sites would take weeks.

Bloomberg’s 1% estimate.Growth was broad-based across key geographies and segments, except BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) and CMT (communication, media and technology).Even so, investor sentiment remains fragile. Fears of AI-led deflation, the recent new product launch by Anthropic, and geopolitical tensions have weighed on IT stocks.

₹2,055 crore, or about $245 million, marking a more than 90% drop from Unacademy’s 2021 peak valuation. The management churn is notable as upGrad works through integration planning, regulatory clearances and a broader internal restructuring while also preparing for a public listing.upGrad Enterprise sells skilling and training programmes to companies, helping them address gaps in their workforce through courses tailored to business needs, according to a senior former upGrad employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss internal matters.

Sarovar Hotels & Resorts will go ahead with a selective expansion spree in India’s mid-market segment. While the chain crossed ₹2,000 crore in revenue last year and is keen on further growth, its leadership wants to be choosy about locations to hedge against rising land costs and project delays.The company, majority-owned by Europe’s Louvre Hotels Group, is increasingly prioritizing tier II and tier III cities where infrastructure-led growth is outpacing the entry of branded players.

Mint and a person familiar with the matter.The companies have sought a meeting with Siddaramaiah, warning that the move could affect air pollution goals, oil imports, energy security and the investment outlook for India’s EV industry.Mint reported on 31 March that Karnataka had reversed its earlier EV road tax waiver, a step that risks slowing adoption in one of India’s key EV markets. In 2025, the state accounted for 12% of the country’s electric car sales, with more than 21,000 units sold and passenger vehicle penetration of 6.4%, compared with 4% nationally.“The objective of this engagement is to share industry perspectives on the recent revisions in Road Tax applicable to electric passenger vehicles in the Karnataka State.

As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes global tech spending, India’s IT services majors are responding with a leadership reset. New chief AI roles, dedicated business units, and AI-linked revenue disclosures point to a structural shift in how the sector is gearing up for growth in the automation era.This shift is already visible in the pace of leadership changes.

. is looking to capitalise on that shift, betting on city hotels and experiential resorts.“Travel is shifting, with Asia, including India, likely to benefit as some European and West Asia-bound tourists who may divert their travels from elsewhere,” said William E. Heinecke, founder and chairperson of Minor International, which runs hotel brands like Avani and Anantara.It’s the right time to focus on India, he told Mint. "There’s tremendous potential for both domestic and international travel here,” said Heinecke, who is in India to attend the Hotelivate hospitality conference in Mumbai this week.The Thailand-based hotel company is signing an Anantara at the World Trade Centre in Kolkata this month.

domestic airlines within hours, limiting the hike to about 8.5% in New Delhi. The ministry of petroleum and natural gas said the partial increase was aimed at insulating carriers from a fuel price shock amid disruptions in global energy markets.The move is part of a broader effort to contain costs. The Centre has also capped domestic jet fuel price hikes by oil marketing companies at 25% starting April.

Advent-backed digital lender KreditBee has raised about $280 million in a Series E funding round, valuing the company at around $1.5 billion and marking its entry into the unicorn club.The round, which makes KreditBee the third unicorn of 2026 and the first in the new fiscal year, was led by Motilal Oswal Alternates, Hornbill Capital, and MUFG-backed Dragon Funds, with participation from WhiteOak Capital, A.P. Moller Holding, and existing investors including Premji Invest and Advent International.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd stock has fallen by about 10% to ₹1,376 since the West Asia conflict began on 27 February. The fall would have been steeper if not for the company’s business updates highlighting that it had clocked 11% year-on-year growth in cargo volumes to 46 million tonnes (MT) in March.

InCred Alternatives has closed its maiden special opportunities credit fund with a corpus of ₹1,500 crore, joining a wave of investment firms entering India’s growing private credit market.“India’s private credit market is at an early but decisive stage of institutionalization and is very different from the private credit market in the West,” Saurabh Jhalaria, chief investment officer–private credit at InCred Alternatives, said in a company statement on Tuesday.“The supply gap is large and the risk-reward potential is compelling,” he added.The special opportunities credit fund has raised capital from domestic family offices, ultra-high-net-worth individuals and international investors. About 75% of the fund has already been deployed across sectors such as auto, power, oil & gas, and hospitality.

Mint independently could not ascertain when Wilson’s notice ends, or whether the Tata Group has found a successor to steer the airline. An email sent to Air India seeking comment went unanswered.The Tata Group had hired Wilson from Singapore Airlines’ low-cost unit Scoot in May 2022, less than four months after the conglomerate acquired the government-run airline for ₹18,000 crore.

NEW DELHI: Oil prices have been on the boil since the war between the US, Israel and Iran broke out on 28 February. To ease supply concerns and prices of over $100 per barrel, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies including Russia, together known as OPEC+, agreed to increase production in May.

The Indian rupee lost 10% against the US dollar in 2025-26, making it one of the worst performances in emerging markets. March alone saw a 4.24% drop, the steepest in any single month in six years, with the rupee briefly breaching the 95 level against the dollar. To defend the currency, the Reserve bank of India (RBI) sold dollars heavily from its reserves, which fell by $30.5 billion in March.

This year’s summer holidays are not a simple beach-versus-mountains or Eiffel Tower versus Burj Khalifa decision. Instead, the West Asia war is likely to shape where you travel and how much you spend.

The government is exploring ways to increase domestic production of induction cookers, petrochemicals, and other essential industrial inputs, as the West Asia war shows signs of continuing for some time, according to two people in the know.Officials from the department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT), the power ministry and the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) reviewed strategies to boost output in sectors that could face supply disruptions if the war continues for the next few months, said one of the people mentioned above.“Discussions centred on accelerating production of induction cookers and vessel heaters, strengthening the petrochemical value chain, and ensuring adequate availability of gunny (bori) bags—seen as critical for both industrial use and agricultural supply chains,” the other person said.The government has already taken pre-emptive steps by cutting import duties on several key petrochemical products to cushion against potential shortages and price spikes.Officials said the move is part of a broader contingency framework, with ministries preparing for multiple scenarios, including a prolonged conflict that could disrupt shipping routes, inflate logistics costs and tighten availability of critical inputs.The government on Thursday announced a temporary waiver on customs duties for select essential petrochemical imports, which will remain in force until 30 June.

This persistent stalemate stems from caps on overseas investments imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). Once these $8 billion aggregate ceilings were breached in 2022 and 2024, fresh allocations were halted. This effectively locked the market in favour of first-movers.

₹9,000 crore to become the country’s fourth-largest paint company, sees stronger growth potential in industrial coatings than in the decorative segment, Parth Jindal managing director of JSW Paints and chairman of JSW Dulux, the erstwhile AkzoNobel India, told Mint.“We have global R&D capabilities after we acquired Akzo Nobel and particularly in the absence of Birla Opus in the industrial paints space we see less competition,” Jindal said. He added that a potential shift towards electric vehicles (EVs), driven by the West Asia conflict, could further boost demand.The conflict has already started influencing the EV market.

Last week, the National Statistical Office (NSO) released its annual report of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for 2025. It differs from earlier PLFS reports in its coverage and sampling design.The PLFS has been in existence since 2017, yielding annual reports for rural and urban areas along with quarterly reports for only urban India. This survey was a departure from the erstwhile Employment and Unemployment Survey (EUS).

Mint reported on 25 March that about ₹18,000 crore of planned fundraising was at risk.“There is a direct impact on the supply chain, but there is a second-order impact too, which is what we try to understand and work with our clients,” said Singh. “Based on the impact on currency, commodity and their own input pricing changes, we also do a real-time risk assessment as much as we can and make sure that the client is also aware of that.”Singh said Standard Chartered is involved in a large number of loan syndications in the country.

₹200,000 per kilolitre, more than double the previous price of ₹96,638.14. The Union petroleum ministry stepped in quickly, capping the increase for domestic flights.Following the change, Indian Oil's jet fuel now costs ₹104,927 per kilolitre in Delhi, an 8.5% rise over March, while airlines would have to pay the new rate for international flights.