Prevention Financial News

western disturbances travel eastward with westerly winds. They make for the primary source of rainfall and snowfall in northwest and north India in winter months.Though the number of western disturbances in the last three months was the highest in the last five years, their intensity was lower resulting in the highest rain deficit in the months those years."A majority of the western disturbances that influenced India during the winter season, especially during December to February, were feeble, resulting in below-normal rainfall and limited snowfall activity across large parts of northwestern India," said Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director general of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).Northwest India recorded rainfall deficits of 86.8% in February and 12% in January.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the nationwide Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination campaign on 28 February by including it in India’s Universal Immunization Programme to vaccinate 12 million girls annually. With 120,000 new cases and 80,000 deaths annually, India accounts for a quarter of global cervical cancer deaths.Infection by certain HPV strains can cause precancerous cell changes, which may eventually lead to cancer.Mint explains the rationale behind the plan to help stop cervical cancer – the second most common cancer among women in India – by leveraging the country's digital infrastructure and primary health centre network.The aim is to prevent cervical cancer in girls before they are exposed to the virus.

₹10-20 per megawatt-hour to ₹40-50, they remain below the ₹60-70 levels seen a year ago, said Aditya Malpani, senior director and regional business development head for west at Ampin Energy Transition, a renewable energy company that also trades I-RECs.Prices of RECs have remained steady around ₹350, as abundant supply has prevented a price increase despite high demand from industries and utilities looking to meet their renewable consumption obligations (RCOs) for FY26.“This increase happens generally at this time of year because corporates want to meet the 31 March target of sustainability,” Malpani said. “Both RECs and IRECs see an increase in demand at this point.”RECs are domestic instruments issued by the National Load Despatch Centre, typically used by state discoms and industrial power users to meet RCO targets.

Help is available: Reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline) by dialing or texting 988 or going to 988lifeline.org.Write to Julie Jargon at [email protected] all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint.

Those who view President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran as a blow to China should think again. Beijing will manage any potential leadership change in Tehran as long as the oil keeps flowing, a summit with Trump and President Xi Jinping stays on track, and Washington handles Taiwan—China’s most sensitive red line—with care. Xi’s strategy is closer to the ancient Chinese phrase that notes the benefit of sitting on the mountain and watching the tigers fight: conserve strength while others exhaust themselves, and intervene only if core interests are directly threatened.Beijing doesn’t think of alliances the way the US does.

Anthropic’s latest complaint against three Chinese labs is a warning sign for Silicon Valley: Don’t expect to earn too much from the competitive edge your model gives you. Companies from the developing world will line up to swim across your moat, if they can—and neither the US government nor your lawyers will be able to help you. As the music industry and Big Pharma could tell them, nobody will eliminate your rivals, you have to accommodate them.The company says it has pretty solid evidence that DeepSeek, MiniMax and Moonshot ran “industrial-scale campaigns” to “illicitly extract” the capabilities of its own model, Claude.

In a recent judgement in the Supertech case, the Supreme Court held that the focus of insolvency resolution in real estate cases should be on home completion rather than liquidation. We had argued for such an approach in our article in Mint on 7 October (shorturl.at/mTftF). This judgement should fundamentally alter the real estate insolvency process and bring relief to thousands of tormented homebuyers.

Before the enactment of India’s Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), there was very little talk of turnaround professionals. Yet, they were deployed in many companies, not as external consultants, but as individual key managerial personnel (KMP).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. On 11 February, the Reserve Bank of India released draft guidelines that seek to make banks more accountable for the financial products they sell to individuals. The guidelines aim to prevent banks from mis-selling various financial products, especially life insurance plans that double up as investments.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. MEXICO CITY—For many drug-enforcement officials in North America, there was one cartel boss who was too big and too dangerous to ever try to take down—Nemesio “El Mencho" Oseguera, the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India Inc.’s December quarter (Q3FY26) earnings surprised positively on some counts. For instance, on an aggregate basis, the Nifty 500 index companies delivered strong double-digit profit-after-tax growth of 19% in Q3 (adjusted for extraordinary items), the highest in eight quarters, showed an analysis by Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

₹30,500 crore in FY15 to nearly ₹2.9 lakh crore by FY25, according to industry estimates and RBI data.The rapid expansion in cards and outstanding dues raises an uncomfortable question: are more Indians slipping into a credit card debt trap?Outstanding balances per card have also climbed steeply—from ₹1,600 in FY15 to nearly ₹25,700 in FY25—signalling significantly higher credit utilization.For those who have already fallen into the trap, is there a practical way out? Experts say—yes, there is.The real issue, experts argue, is not the rise in credit card usage, but the purpose for which cards are being used.“While rising credit card usage reflects both expanding financial access and growing consumer confidence, the intent behind spending matters more than the volume,” said Yashoraj Tyagi, chief executive officer, CASHe, an online lending platform.“When usage grows faster and financial literacy doesn’t catch up, credit stops being just a convenience tool, it becomes a survival tool,” said Bhuvanaa Shreeram, co-founder of House of Alpha Investment Advisers, a Sebi registered investment advisory firm.Rising delinquencies suggest that for a segment of borrowers, cards are not just financing convenience purchases—they are also plugging cash-flow gaps. And that, she believes, is the real problem.According to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Financial Stability Report, household debt in India rose to about 41.3% of GDP by end-March 2025, up from around 38% in recent years.

The new Income Tax rules have proposed a change for claiming house rent allowance (HRA) that may affect claims where the rent is paid to parents, siblings or any other relative. Effective 1 April, salaried employees may have to clearly state their relationship with their landlord while claiming HRA tax benefits.The aim is to prevent misuse of the exemption, especially in cases where rent is shown to be paid to family members to reduce tax liability, said Sandeepp Jhunjhunwala, partner at Nangia Global Advisors.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. A BIT OF sabre-rattling can be useful in foreign policy. Too much of it, though, and the sabre is liable to end up pointing back at you.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Sports nutrition brand Fast&Up has attracted interest from venture capital firms Venturi Partners and Elev8 Venture Partners for its ongoing $70 million fundraise, two people familiar with the matter said. The proposed $70 million round highlights rising investor appetite for preventive nutrition brands as India’s wellness market scales rapidly.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New leadership and a new policy direction at the Federal Reserve revives the eternal American debate over the purpose of—and even the need for—a central bank. The debate dates to the republic’s beginning.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India’s finance minister has stated in interviews that the Budget Session of Parliament is slated to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) to clearly grant insolvent companies a “clean slate," with their civil and criminal liabilities wiped out, once a new management takes over. However, the key question is whether legislative reform is sufficient, given the tenacity of tax authorities and investigative agencies.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI: India plans to centralize testing and quality control of 42 essential veterinary vaccines at a single national laboratory, replacing a fragmented system that allows self-certification and state-level testing, according to two government officials and a document reviewed by Mint.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Imagine you’re in your late 60s and are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. You start planning the rest of your life: telling your spouse you may eventually become incapacitated; looking into long-term memory care; checking off as many bucket list items as you can.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Bengaluru/Mumbai: India’s HPV vaccine market is seeing a clear revival after years of low uptake, with digital health platforms and private healthcare providers reporting a sharp rise in demand amid growing awareness of cervical cancer prevention. On PharmEasy, a digital-first diagnostics and pharmacy company backed by Prosus and Temasek, HPV vaccines now account for nearly 25% of total vaccine sales, making it one of the fastest-growing segments within its preventive healthcare portfolio.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Tata Steel Ltd reported a 15% year-on-year rise in consolidated Ebitda, adjusted for forex translation, to ₹8,200 crore in the December quarter (Q3FY26), even as revenue grew a more modest 6% to ₹57,000 crore. Lower raw material costs, gains from cost-takeout initiatives and higher volumes helped offset continued losses in the UK operations.