Manufacturing Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Dear reader, as 2025, a year of global tumult and volatility, rolls by, Mint's reporters and columnists look around the corner at what is coming in 2026—to help you know what to expect and prepare for it. Tell us what you think at [email protected]. India’s nuclear energy sector has ushered in the new year with a new commitment, resolve, and imagination.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The AI capability we unlocked this week is based on Perplexity AI's Patent Search.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: India’s top electric bus manufacturers are gearing up for the government’s next mega tender of 6,230 electric buses, cumulatively valued at over ₹6,000 crore, to be deployed across five cities—Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad—according to tender documents released on 9 January. Delhi, grappling with severe air pollution, will get the largest allocation of 3,330 electric buses through this round of procurement, the tender document, reviewed by Mint, showed.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Global mining is entering a phase where growth is no longer just about volume, but about access, reliability, and control. However, geopolitical tensions, tariff wars, and shifting trade policies are reshaping global supply chains, underscoring the need for resource security.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. From India’s economic activity estimated to remain strong in 2025-26, to India's oil companies expected to benefit from the US invasion of Venezuela, services activity losing momentum in December, Niti Aayog expressing worry over India’s high trade deficit with several countries despite trade deals, and rising prices of copper—here’s this week’s news in numbers.Growth dynamicsThe government pegged GDP growth at 7.4% in 2025-26 despite the ongoing uncertainty related to high US tariffs. The first advance estimate released on Wednesday put GDP growth marginally higher than the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) projection of 7.3%.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Tensions mounted in Venezuela following recent US military strikes on Caracas and the capture of its President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. According to a PTI report, a possible US-backed restructuring of Venezuela’s oil industry could deliver a meaningful financial and strategic gain for India, including recovery of nearly US$1 bn in long-pending dues and a restart of crude production from fields involving Indian companies.

₹12 lakh, increasing disposable incomes at the hand of consumers.On the monetary policy front, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has delivered a massive 125 basis points (bps) reduction in interest rates over the past 12 months, which is expected to boost liquidity in the market through higher spending in rate-sensitive segments, such as banking, real estate and consumer durables.“Policy measures implemented during the year, including tax and interest rate reductions, are beginning to yield positive results, which are expected to translate into stronger earnings growth for domestic economy-oriented sectors in 2026,” Yogesh Patil, chief investment officer, equity, LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management (LIC MF), told Mint. The strength of India’s macroeconomic fundamentals, coupled with the expected benefits of recent policy moves, has made this optimism the near-consensus view on the Street.“We expect festive demand momentum in Q3 results to bring calm to the market as we enter 2026.

The purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for Indian services in December released on Tuesday mirrors the trend in manufacturing, with the year ending on a note of moderation. The reading dipped to an 11-month low of 58.0 from 59.8 in November.

Dear reader, as 2025, a year of global tumult and volatility, rolled by, Mint's reporters and columnists looked around the corner on what is coming in 2026—to help you know what to expect and prepare for it. Tell us what you think at [email protected] Delhi: India Inc’s push from low-value, high-volume electronics assemblies to designing and selling high-margin electronics components is expected to pick up pace this year.

legal battles between domestic generic drug manufacturers and global innovators, reigniting the debate over striking a balance between innovation protection and broader drug accessibility.Looking ahead to another year of patent challenges, Mint examines who ultimately benefits from these challenges.New drugs or methods of making them are typically protected by patents under intellectual property (IP) rights. The patent grants the innovator exclusive rights to market the drug for a set period, typically 20 years.

Business activity in India’s manufacturing and services industries softened as companies grappled with subdued demand, increased competition and inflationary pressures.The seasonally adjusted HSBC India Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) Business Activity Index hit an 11-month low of 58 in December, falling from 59.8 in November. With slower new work orders and easing output, companies refrained from recruiting additional staff.Plus, operating expenses rose, with cost pressures reportedly stemming from building items, chemicals, medical supplies, salaries, vegetables and office maintenance fees.“Anecdotal evidence suggested that growth was constrained by a greater presence of alternative providers and cheaper services offered elsewhere,” the services PMI survey report said.

The economy appears to be on a stable footing ahead of the Union budget. Growth clocked 6.5% in 2024-25, public capital expenditure crossed ₹11 trillion, its highest share of GDP in 15 years, and inflation has largely stayed within the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) tolerance band.Yet, a troubling imbalance lies beneath the macro aggregates. Private capital has not responded with the breadth or momentum one would expect at India’s current stage of development.

Mint reported on 23 December, quoting official data, that Japan is now the fifth-largest source of foreign direct investment into India.MUFG, which is one of Japan’s largest private lenders, is in discussions with multiple Indian IT services firms, including Tech Mahindra, for hiring support, the two people said, though the bank’s current India headcount could not be independently verified.The lender has two tech centres in Bengaluru to support back-end IT functions for the bank and enterprise solutions for the parent firm. MUFG ended last fiscal year with a net interest income of $20.8 billion, up 12% from the year-ago period.“They are mainly having talent requirements for Linux, .NET, and Java roles, apart from other AI and cybersecurity requirements,” said one of the two people.Manufacturing conglomerates are making similar moves.

artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and electronics to solar power equipment, medical devices and defence systems.China’s dominance in the silver market does not stem from mining strength but from its overwhelming control over refining. According to the London Bullion Market Association’s (LBMA) list of accredited refiners for global over-the-counter trading, China hosts 27 silver refineries, followed by Japan with 13.

JSW Steel and other steel stocks are in the news. The company’s shares jumped 4.9% on 31 December, largely on account of the government’s decision to impose import tariffs on steel products. Before the recent correction, the stock had been trending up for more than two years.Import tariffs help protect pricing of domestic steel producers by preventing cheaper imports, so what does the future hold for the stock? Today, we will discuss the pros and cons of investing in JSW Steel.

New Delhi: Homegrown carmakers Tata Motors, and Mahindra and Mahindra are increasingly improving the speed at which they develop products to gain market share in an intensely competitive domestic market, according to senior executives at auto component makers working with the companies.Indian carmakers have reached parity with European, Japanese and Korean automakers and are increasingly catching up to the speed of Chinese carmakers in rolling out new products, according to top executives at US-based component major BorgWarner Inc. and homegrown auto part maker Lumax Auto Technologies Ltd.This comes in the backdrop of Indian automobile manufacturer Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd reaching the number two rank in annual sales in 2025 for the first time in at least a decade, since retail registration data became available, toppling Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor India Ltd.The shift is inevitable, Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO of Mahindra’s automotive division, said.

Mint.The proposed change aims to build a comprehensive database of bulk drug traders, improve traceability of imported raw materials, over 70% of which come from China, and allow regulators to quickly identify and hold accountable specific dealers involved in the supply of substandard inputs in India’s $50-billion pharmaceutical market.The new mechanism would dismantle the umbrella approach in the current common licensing system for raw materials and finished medicines, give the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) a long-missing registry of nearly 1.2 million bulk drug traders, and significantly strengthen traceability and accountability in the country's pharmaceutical market.The government move comes in the backdrop of India’s reputation as the ‘Pharmacy of the World’ taking a hit due to deaths of children in Uzbekistan, Gambia, Cameroon and India linked to cough syrups manufactured by Indian firms.As per the officials, a draft notification is in the works for this separate licensing regime for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), including bulk drugs and advanced intermediates, which were valued at approximately $3.5 billion in FY25.While the total value for India's total pharmaceutical-related imports—including finished products—for FY24 was approximately $8.2 billion, bulk drugs remain the dominant share of this inflow data from the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics and commerce ministry shows.India’s API market is projected to reach $38.13 billion by 2034, growing at a CAGR of 8.50% from 2025 to 2034, according to reports by research firms like Market Research Future.“The lack of transparency in the raw material supply chain was highlighted by recent reports of cough syrups

Electric two-wheeler maker Simple Energy plans to raise $30-40 million in fresh capital, largely from international backers and existing investors, in what could be its first round with institutional participation, chief executive Suhas Rajkumar told Mint. So far, the company has raised capital mainly from family offices and high net-worth individuals rather than venture capital funds.The fresh funds will be used to increase production capacity and support a second manufacturing plant as the Bengaluru-based company rolls out its Gen 2 Simple One range of scooters and the long-range Simple Ultra scooter, which according to the company has clocked 400 km in the Indian Driving Cycle (IDC), a standardized lab test by the Automotive Research Association of India.“We plan to close a fresh round of $30-40 million this year, which will have a mix of equity and debt, and have been talking to institutional investors, mostly international ones,” Rajkumar said.Simple Energy has also held discussions with domestic private equity and venture capital investors, but has so far struggled to convert that interest into large cheques, Rajkumar said.

₹10,900-crore PM E-Drive scheme, two people aware of the development said.This comes less than a fortnight after CESL concluded the country’s largest electric bus tender of 10,900 units under the PM E-Drive scheme, which seeks to accelerate adoption of electric mobility and focuses on public transport, freight, and ambulances to reduce carbon emissions.CESL’s plan involves reducing the upfront cost of these e-trucks and setting up electric vehicle (EV) chargers by building scale through demand aggregation. CESL, the subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), has started talks with Indian ports that are big users of trucks to ferry goods, said the first of the two persons cited earlier, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.This focus on e-trucks comes at a time when the incentives for two- and three-wheelers under the PM E-Drive scheme are set to lapse in March 2026.“CESL is looking to become the nodal agency for e-trucks also, now that the e-bus tender is done,” said the person cited above, referring to the recently-concluded tender for 10,900 e-buses.“There have been talks for becoming the nodal agency, and some talks with 1-2 ports also.

New Delhi: IPO-bound Inox Clean Energy Ltd announced on Monday that its renewables independent power producer (IPP) arm Inox Neo Energies Ltd has acquired 250 megawatt-peak (MWp) of operational solar projects from SunSource Energy Private Ltd and is in the process of acquiring another 50 MWp.Although the company did not disclose the transaction value, two people in the know of the developments said the acquisition was done for about ₹1,000 crore. It will be funded through pre-IPO fundraises, internal accruals, and capital from the promoters, one these people said.MWp denotes the maximum direct-current power a system can produce under ideal laboratory conditions, representing its theoretical peak capacity, unlike MW, which indicates actual, real-world power output that fluctuates with weather and time.The acquisition is a strategic move in India’s rapidly expanding commercial & industrial (C&I) power market.

New Delhi: The country’s second-largest battery manufacturer, Amara Raja Energy and Mobility Ltd, is betting on expansion in the US market as part of its bid to double the share of revenue from exports in the next five years.The Hyderabad-based auto ancillary firm is doubling down on building a local distribution network in the North American market to benefit from its edge in one of the advanced technologies in the lead acid battery industry to win incremental business at a time when tariffs in the US have brought uncertainty for Indian businesses, according to a top executive.“One of the most exciting opportunities, especially on the lead acid side, is building ourselves up in North America. That's where we see certain technology trends like a move towards AGM (Absorbent Glass Mat) batteries,” Harshavardhana Gourineni, executive director at Amara Raja, told Mint.“We're the only manufacturer in India that's supplying AGM batteries to the OEMs.