International Financial News

In every crisis lies an opportunity, it is said. At the very least, today’s hydrocarbon crisis should re-open India’s forlorn debate on pushing oil and gas into a closer market embrace as a sector. Ever since we ran into supply snarls that began with yet another war in West Asia, shock-absorbers have been in focus, along with our import dependence.To be sure, this is no ordinary shock.

Investors' rush to back electric commercial vehicle players has led to commitments worth $530 million in the last six months, backing new-age players at a time when the government's policy focus is shifting towards electrifying trucks and buses.Hero-backed Euler Motors became the latest to join the wave on Tuesday as it secured funding of $47 million from Lightrock, Hero MotoCorp and Blume Ventures, with additional debt funding of $27 million from BlackSoil, Trifecta, InnoVen and Alteria Capital.The latest funding round for the New Delhi-based electric light commercial vehicle maker brought the cumulative total of funding from investors for electric CV makers to $530 million since October, led by PMI Mobility, which secured a $310 million investment commitment from KKR.“The light commercial vehicle as a segment has continued to grow, because it makes fundamental sense,” Saurav Kumar, founder and chief executive at Euler Motors, told Mint. The superior long-term operational savings of electric commercial vehicles have made the sector's funding growth outpace all other transport categories, he added.Other fundraisers during this period include electric fleet operator Greencell Mobility’s $89 million, and electric bus and truck maker Eka Mobility’s $57 million fundraise.

Global private equity investor LeapFrog Investments, which has backed InsuranceDekho and Healthify, has shelved plans to explore continuation vehicles as an exit option and will instead focus on traditional routes such as block deals, mergers and acquisitions, and public listings, the firm’s top executive told Mint.The firm is pursuing exits from its second and third funds as it deploys capital from its fourth fund and a climate-focused investment vehicle. Last week, LeapFrog led investment rounds in Shubham Housing Finance and clean energy company ReNew Energy Global Plc.“It (continuation vehicle) is not a focus area as of now for us.

Mint.Ford Blue focuses on internal combustion vehicles, Ford Model e develops electric vehicles and Ford Pro builds commercial vehicle and fleet solutions.The EPEO organisation operates across roughly 32 locations globally, including in Chennai and Bengaluru, and supports technology systems across about 600 operational sites worldwide, including around 70 manufacturing plants.AI is being embedded across Ford’s technology stack—from engineering simulations to enterprise workflows and productivity tools.According to Walimbe, the company is pursuing AI across three broad areas: large strategic initiatives overseen by senior leadership, organisation-wide adoption of AI tools by employees, and targeted applications designed to improve specific business processes.Ford has already begun deploying AI in engineering workflows. Internal high-performance computing clusters powered by graphics processing units are dramatically accelerating simulations used in vehicle design.

financial health is keeping a close watch on your budget—especially in uncertain times. Start by separating essential expenses such as food, housing, transport and debt repayments from discretionary spending.Once this is clear, identify areas where you can cut back or delay non-essential expenses. Postponing big-ticket spends like a new car or an international holiday can significantly ease financial stress and improve peace of mind.

Kalyan Jewellers, Joyalukkas and Jos Alukkas, are not buying fresh inventory and are feeling the heat of the crisis, according to the same people.Titan and Kalyan Jewellers declined to comment to Mint's queries. Queries mailed to Joyalukkas and Jos Alukkas did not elicit a response until press time.This setback amid the escalating war between the US-Israel and Iran comes at a crucial juncture, as Titan's Gulf business is in a turnaround phase.In the company's post-acquisition call, chief financial officer Ashok Sonthalia had said 2025 would be a “restructuring year”, with the business expected to remain earnings-dilutive until 2027, and turn positive only from 2028, making any delay more consequential.According to Titan's December earnings call, it has completed acquisition of a 67% stake in Dubai-based Damas Jewellery, marking the closure of the $283 million deal and indicating that all required regulatory approvals have been secured.

Mumbai: India’s largest private sector lender HDFC Bank has appointed at least two law firms Wadia Ghandy & Co, and Trilegal to conduct a review of the circumstances leading to former chairman Atanu Chakraborty’s sudden exit last week, said two people aware of the matter.These law firms have been tasked with aiding the bank’s internal legal counsels to sift through pages of minutes of past board meetings to see if Chakraborty had made any serious observations, according to one of the two people cited above. The bank’s board and the management maintained they had no inkling of Chakraborty’s exit and he did not specify what he was referring to as part of his ethical concerns despite being repeatedly asked.Earlier on Tuesday morning, the bank said its board approved the appointment of external law firms to conduct a review of Chakraborty’s resignation letter.

Geopolitical shocks affect commodity prices and energy costs, altering inflation trajectories and corporate margins. Most immediately, shifts in global risk perception influence capital flows across emerging markets.

There is a paradox at the heart of the US economy. As the federal government imposes sweeping tariffs, signals hostility to multilateral trade and unnerves long-term investors with erratic policymaking, one state has emerged as the most reliable US address for global capital: California, the world’s fourth-largest economy and America’s second-largest exporting state with $188 billion in annual goods exports.

India’s fertilizer industry enters 2026 at a critical inflexion point: inventories are at record highs, yet the sector faces volatile global gas prices, West Asia risks, and a structurally subsidy-dependent business model. For investors, that means strong tailwinds on volume visibility but real caveats on margins and policy risk.The immediate backdrop is a whiplash from scarcity in 2025 to abundance going into kharif 2026.

drug carries a warning that it must be administered only under the supervision of an endocrinologist to ensure that complex metabolic side-effects are properly regulated. There is a concern that if other medical professionals begin prescribing it, they may not be able to properly manage its side-effects,” one of the two officials cited above said, requesting anonymity.According to a Lancet study, India could have the world's second-highest obesity burden by 2035, with 449 million overweight and obese people by 2050, when a third of the country's population will be obese.

Mint.The shift began last year, when the firm sold its majority stake in human resources tech and services player PeopleStrong to the private equity arm of investment banking giant Goldman Sachs. The Mumbai-based company had first invested in PeopleStrong in 2017 from its Fund II, which was sized at $555 million, according to private market data intelligence platform PitchBook.“We bought a services business and pretty much spent all the R&D dollars to really build the products business and make it successful,” said Gaur.The same year, the firm acquired a majority stake in digital engineering services QBurst in a $200 million deal, marking its first bet in the segment.

French alcohol major Pernod Ricard recently appointed Debasree Dasgupta as chief marketing officer of its India arm. She moved back to the country from Sweden, where she was Pernod Ricard’s global vice-president and chief marketing officer for Absolut, the firm's vodka brand.This month, Pernod Ricard launched a brand new campaign for its premium whisky brand Blender’s Pride, featuring international runway models Avanti Nagrath, Kirandeep Chahal and Mahieka Sharma, aiming to cement the brand’s 20-year association with ‘success’ and fashion.How does this help Blender’s Pride maintain pole position in the competitive premium whiskey business? Edited excerpts:I landed very recently, in February this year, but I am extremely excited to come back to such a booming market.

The international system is entering a phase that increasingly resembles an earlier era of geopolitics—one defined less by shared rules and more by competing spheres of influence. Signals emerging from Washington’s strategic thinking, particularly during the presidency of Donald Trump, point to a worldview in which power, leverage and bilateral bargaining take precedence over the norms and institutions that have guided global governance for decades.With the next Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) approaching, the future of multilateralism is in the spotlight.

, born as Robert Prevost in Chicago and known for most of his life as “Bob,” has had a quiet start to his pontificate. But with the world facing crisis after crisis, the first-ever American pope is stepping up his efforts at moral suasion in defense of a fading international order that the American president, among other leaders, is rapidly dismantling.The papacy has always been political.

State Bank of India has evacuated 64 employees from West Asia to Mumbai over the past few days as the country’s largest lender activated a business continuity plan in response to the escalating war in Iran.SBI obtained approvals from local regulators to temporarily manage its operations in three countries from India, two people aware of the matter said. Only minimal on-ground presence has been maintained in these locations to comply with regulatory requirements.“People have shifted to India after regulators permitted it.

Jupiter International Ltd (JIL), a Kolkata-based homegrown solar cell manufacturer, has appointed bankers to help raise $300 million through an initial public offering (IPO), three people familiar with the matter said.The company has appointed IIFL, Axis Capital, Nomura and ICICI Securities, the people said, adding that the draft papers are likely to be filed in May. “The issue will be largely to raise primary capital to fuel expansion plans,” one of the people cited above said on the condition of anonymity.Jupiter, IIFL, Axis, and ICICI did not respond to Mint’s requests for a comment till the time of publishing.

crude prices translates quickly into higher fuel costs. In the US, for instance, a gallon of regular petrol that averaged $2.94 in February now costs $3.58—a 20% increase—according to AAA Fuel Prices, a retail fuel price tracker from the American Automobile Association.In contrast, petrol in cities like Mumbai has held steady at around ₹103 per litre in recent weeks.At the core of this stability are state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) such as Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum.When international prices surge, these companies often absorb the increase instead of passing it on immediately to consumers.According to Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Bank of Baroda, "In the interest of social stability and to shield the common citizen from sudden inflationary shocks, domestic oil marketing companies often maintain steady product prices even as global crude costs climb.

₹200–300 crore in the new facilities, even as competition intensifies with airlines and airport operators moving to build captive maintenance bases.Carriers such as Air India, IndiGo and Akasa Air have outlined plans to set up their own MRO infrastructure, including at Bengaluru and Jewar, tightening the competitive landscape AIESL is stepping into.AIESL, originally set up as a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India, was later hived off into AI Assets Holding Co. Ltd following the Tata group’s acquisition of the airline.The company is evaluating a calibrated approach to expansion.

Mint, “We need to see how the weather holds up and how much it impacts consumption.”India’s beer market, which sold about 440 million cases in 2025, is expected to close FY26 with 4-5% growth despite a weak first half. The industry is now looking to FY27 for a more meaningful rebound, with volumes likely to reach 455-460 million cases if favourable weather persists, said Vinod Giri, director general of the Brewers Association of India.“Despite all the early setbacks in FY26, we should end the year in positive territory, around 3-4% growth.

New Delhi: India has joined a group of developing economies in pushing for a global framework to reduce the cost of cross-border remittances, positioning the issue as a key development priority ahead of the 14th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization scheduled in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, later this month.The conference will take place during 26-29 March 2026.In a revised draft ministerial declaration circulated on 17 March, India, along with Morocco, Pakistan and the African Group, called for coordinated global action to bring down remittance transaction costs, which remain significantly above the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal target of less than 3% by 2030.India is world’s largest recipient of remittances, with inflows estimated at around $135.4 billion in FY25, according to an India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) report. This marks a steady rise from about $129 billion in 2024 and reflects a strong increase over the past decade.