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The government has stripped India’s telecom regulator of oversight over television ratings, taking full control of the system that influences billions of dollars in advertising spending.The 2026 policy released last week hands complete oversight to the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB), showed the document reviewed by Mint. Until now, both the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and the ministry shared oversight, creating a dual system.Trai, however, continues to regulate other key aspects of the broadcasting and cable TV sector, including channel pricing, advertising limits, interconnection and distribution rules, service quality, and compliance standards.The policy has also issued guidelines to establish standards for the registration, operation, audit, and oversight of all entities engaged in providing television rating services in India.TV ratings track what millions of people watch every day and dictate where advertising money is spent.

The Indian government has tasked the country’s top management institute, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), to find out why its flagship scheme to promote domestic manufacturing in various sectors has not delivered as expected, and suggest remedial measures.According to two government officials aware of the development, the study—to be conducted under the aegis of federal think tank NITI Aayog—will examine 14 production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes that have attracted around ₹2.16 trillion in investments since they were launched during the covid-19 pandemic in 2020.PLI schemes offer companies incentives linked to incremental domestic production, rewarding them for increasing output over a base year, rather than providing upfront subsidies.Despite a large outlay, the schemes have seen limited traction—of the nearly ₹1.91 trillion allocated for incentives, only about ₹28,748 crore or 15% had been disbursed by December 2025, according to a 20 February commerce ministry statement.“The study will undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of the scheme and focus on their impact on production growth, export expansion, job creation, and their role in enhancing India’s position in global supply chains,” the first official cited above said, requesting anonymity, adding that the study will also help understand whether the schemes need expansion or restructuring.Early indicators already point to uneven performance across sectors.Jaijit Bhattacharya, president of the Centre for Domestic Economy Policy (CDEP) Research, said that industries such as mobile phone manufacturing and food processing have done relatively well, largely because they require lower investments and are easier to scale.

Jungle Ventures, a venture capital firm targeting India and Southeast Asia, expects to exit 8–10 portfolio companies over the next 12-18 months, with half of those deals anticipated in India, according to a company executive.“The next 18 months are going to be big in terms of exits for us. The companies have matured, founders have done well,” Arpit Beri managing partner, India at Jungle Ventures, told Mint in an interview.

Fertilizers are vital to India’s economy as they underpin the agricultural sector, which financially supports nearly half the population. Companies from the sector ensure food security by providing essential nutrients for crop yields.Fertilizer stocks are currently in the spotlight because the escalating West Asia conflict has triggered a massive supply shock, driving global prices to three-year highs and forcing a strategic shift in India's domestic production.Here are three beaten-down stocks from the fertilizer space that investors can watch.

A year after it acquired AGS Health from EQT in a billion-dollar transaction, global private equity firm Blackstone has hired bankers to plan a listing for the company at three times the buy value, three people with knowledge of the development said. The company, which is now being valued upwards of $3 billion, will look to raise around $500 million from the public market listing, these people added.AGS, which provides a host of services, including medical billing, claim submission, denial management and medical coding, has appointed investment banks JM Financial, Jefferies, ICICI Securities, Nomura and JP Morgan India and others for the IPO.“It will be a mix of primary plus secondary share sale,” said one of the people cited above.

A leading stockbrokers' association plans to ask the government to defer the increase in the securities transaction tax (STT) on equity futures and options after the Reserve Bank of India postponed implementation of rules on bank funding of capital market intermediaries amid the Iran war-induced rout in the stock markets."The RBI deferment comes as a major reprieve, given the doldrums the market is in because of the West Asia crisis," said K Suresh, national president of the Association of NSE Members of India (ANMI). "Now, we will request the ministry of finance to temporarily hold back imposition of the hike in securities transaction tax on equity futures and options, given the drop in volumes it could lead to, given the extant conditions."In the FY27 budget presented on 1 February, the government proposed to increase the STT on equity futures to 0.05% from 0.02% and on options premium and exercise of options to 0.15% from 0.1% and 0.125%, respectively, from 1 April.

Mint India Investment Summit 2026, held in Mumbai last week.Shaji Varghese, chief executive officer of Muthoot Fincorp, said that of India’s 60 million small businesses, only 20–30% have access to credit, underscoring the critical role NBFCs play in bridging the gap. “That relevance is only further pronounced now.

fintech space.“We are a well-capitalized and profitable organization, built on a disciplined and conservative approach to managing growth and expenses. Following our recent fundraise of ₹240 crore, we are not in immediate need of additional capital,” a spokesperson for the company told Mint in an emailed statement.

India’s technology market has often served as a proving ground where global platforms compete both for users and influence over the digital set-ups of industries. The rise of GenAI models is setting the stage for a similar contest. Winning revenue from Indian enterprises will soon become one of their most consequential battlegrounds.

trade deficit and high gold imports.The impact of the war-led disruptions—built on top of the calibrated depreciation—pushed the rupee towards a level not previously anticipated. Even then, economists believe that the RBI should not defend the rupee too much as it may provide temporary relief, but could stoke sharper depreciation later."If this is a long-drawn-out crisis, you want to preserve your forex reserves because when we got into trouble in 2013, our reserves went down, then the taper tantrum made it worse," said Gaura Sengupta, chief economist at IDFCFirst Bank.Forex reserves declined 3.4% and 0.6% in FY12 and FY13, but failed to arrest the rupee’s decline.

New Delhi: India has intensified its public health battle against tuberculosis (TB), a disease that the World Health Organization said officially reclaimed its position as the world’s leading infectious killer in 2023, surpassing covid-19. While the initial 2025 target set in the National Strategic Plan served as a catalyst for a 10-fold increase in funding to ₹6,356 crore in FY26 from ₹640 crore in 2015, India remains committed to eliminating the disease well ahead of the global 2030 deadline.To reach this goal, the government is leveraging artificial intelligence, community support, and rigorous airborne infection control.

NSE), typically happens on the last Tuesday of every month. With markets shut on Tuesday for Mahavir Jayanti, the rollover will take place a day earlier, on Monday.“Investors or traders opting to exercise or physically settle their stock options and futures upon monthly expiry could provide an element of support to the market,” said Kruti Shah, quant analyst at Equirus Securities.If, instead, traders close out positions or roll them over to the next month, it would signal more short aggression, Shah said.

Essel Propack after its merger with Swiss firm Propack in 1997. Over the next two decades, Essel Propack built a strong international footprint across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa.In 2019, Blackstone invested $460 million to acquire a 75% stake in the company, and renamed it EPL.

Tejas Networks Ltd designs and manufactures high-performance wireline and wireless networking products for telecommunications service providers, internet service providers, utilities, defence, and government entities in over 75 countries.The company is a part of the Tata group, with Panatone Finvest (a subsidiary of Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd) being the majority shareholder.In the last month, the stock price has rallied from ₹317.5 on 24 February 2026 to ₹422.4 on 24 March.In the editorial, we examine some factors that would determine the direction of the stock.Read on…The company has been systematically diversifying.

₹9.15 trillion transmission network investment roadmap spanning 2023 to 2032.Buoyed by this outlay, overall transformer demand is projected to grow at a robust 18-22% CAGR through FY28. This expansion is further supported by India's goal to reach 500 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy by FY30.

Infosys Ltd’s announcement late Wednesday to buy two US-based tech services firms for $560 million takes its acquisition spend in a fiscal to an all-time high, reflecting the pressing need for new capabilities as automation tools upend India’s tech sector.The country’s second-largest information technology (IT) services company said it will spend up to $465 million to buy Optimum Healthcare IT, a Florida IT services and consulting firm.On the same day, it announced the acquisition of Stratus, a New Jersey-based tech services provider to the insurance sector, for up to $95 million.Both deals are in cash and are expected to close by June. The payment includes upfront amounts and earn-outs but excludes management incentives and retention bonuses.The acquisitions will add $319 million in incremental revenue to Infosys, including $276 million from Optimum Healthcare and $43 million from Stratus, making up almost 45% of Infosys’ incremental revenue last year.Infosys ended last year with $19.28 billion in revenue, up 3.85% on a yearly basis.

₹29,000-crore liability for unsettled cases.A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan reaffirmed that landowners whose land was acquired for highway projects between 1997 and 2015 are entitled to extra compensation, known as solatium, and interest, even for past acquisitions.The apex court maintained that financial implications of the judgment, estimated at around ₹29,000-crore by the NHAI—cannot be a ground to deny fair compensation to landowners.“The grant of solatium and interest cannot be made contingent upon the magnitude of the financial burden. The Constitutional guarantee of just compensation cannot be diluted on that basis.

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 has reviewed the correspondence.Such cookstoves are used in African countries such as Nigeria and Ethiopia and elsewhere in Brazil.The push by ISMA and GEMA comes in the backdrop of India’s ethanol makers also lobbying the government for higher ethanol blends in vehicle fuels and to find more use-cases for the country’s surplus ethanol production, as reported by Mint earlier. They have been seeking incentives for flex-fuel vehicles which run on very high ethanol blending, and higher procurement of ethanol by oil marketing companies.

The West Asia crisis is taking a toll on Indian manufacturing and services sectors. Private sector companies are grappling with demand slowdown and input cost inflation.The seasonally adjusted HSBC Flash India Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) Composite Output Index fell to a nearly three-and-a-half year low of 56.5 in March from a final reading of 58.9 in February.The Flash PMI is an early, advanced estimate of economic activity in the manufacturing and services sectors.

Asset allocation is essential because no single asset class consistently outperforms across market cycles. Equities may lead during periods of economic growth, while debt provides stability during downturns, and gold acts as a hedge against inflation and currency risks.