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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: India’s avocado demand is surging, but domestic supply is still playing catch-up, keeping the country reliant on imports even as local cultivation expands.Government data show imports have more than tripled in two years, rising to $42.27 million in FY26 (till February), from about $27 million in FY25 and $13.5 million in FY24. Domestic output, meanwhile, has increased more gradually—from about 6,000 tonnes in 2023 to around 9,000 tonnes in 2026, experts said.The mismatch highlights a widening gap: rising health-driven consumption is outpacing India’s nascent production base, forcing the market to lean on overseas suppliers even as farmers begin to scale up planting.The area under avocado cultivation has expanded over the years, with farmers in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim and parts of Maharashtra responding to growing urban demand.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The post-pandemic era saw the Indian retail investor evolve into a formidable market force, but is the tide finally turning? After years of relentless accumulation, an interplay of lofty valuations and geopolitical friction has triggered a pivot toward caution.From turning net sellers for the first time in six years to participation patterns becoming increasingly transient and episodic, Mint decodes the moves of these mom-and-pop investors in fiscal 2026, based on the latest data disclosures by the National Stock Exchange.The cash market segment currently shows a highly skewed, long-tailed participation pattern that challenges the narrative of a stable retail base. Data for fiscal 2026 reveals a sharp concentration of ‘transient’ activity: single-day traders alone account for 24% of the base.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Belgium’s Ageas Insurance is prepared to invest additional capital in India to break into the country’s top 10 life insurers in the next three to four years, provided returns on equity remain favourable.“If the growth is there and the return on equity is good, we will be there with the capital,” Ageas Insurance’s global CEO Hans De Cuyper, who is in India, told Mint. “On the life (insurance) side, we have expressed the intention to become top 10.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.With high interest rates, valuation gaps, and global upheavals weighing on traditional mergers and acquisitions (M&A), promoters and institutional investors are turning to the secondary market, driving block and bulk deals to a multi-year high in the January-April period despite bearish sentiment.This year, until 15 April, a total of ₹1.1 trillion changed hands in open-market trades, up 25% from ₹86,810 crore a year ago, according to data from capital markets platform Prime Database.Deven R. Choksey, founder and managing director of boutique fund DRChoksey FinServ, said that investors are using block and bulk deals to realign portfolio weights or pare long‑held positions quickly in a volatile market."What we are seeing is a clear rotation of capital.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Travellers will have to wait a while longer to fly overseas from Navi Mumbai International Airport as the Adani Group-owned facility has postponed the start of its international operations due to the ongoing war in West Asia, a senior executive familiar with the development told Mint on the on the sidelines of the Airport360 Expo in Mumbai.International flights were originally meant to commence at the airport from 29 March, in line with the start of the 2026 summer flight schedule in India. However, the Iran conflict has forced a rethink, causing the launch to be pushed further into the season, said the executive, who requested anonymity to discuss business plans."It is difficult to specify an exact start date at this point, but we expect international departures to commence once the Gulf situation stabilizes,” the executive added.Airlines had lined up nearly 20 daily international departures from the airport for the summer schedule, reflecting strong anticipated demand for overseas travel, particularly to Gulf destinations that are key routes for Indian carriers, the executive said.However, Indian airlines have limited or no flights to the Middle East since the start of the Iran war, which has also led to higher fuel prices and longer flying hours for airlines.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Havells India’s shares lost about 5% after higher input costs and advertising expenses dragged down its March quarter (Q4FY26) Ebitda, lower by 6% year-on-year (y-o-y), to ₹724 crore. Revenue grew by a modest 2.4% to ₹6,688 crore, with a milder start to summer impacting the sale of cooling products, intense competition, and cautious trade sentiments amid global macro uncertainties.The Lloyd Consumer segment, including air conditioners, refrigerators, and televisions, remained a pain point. It reported an Ebit loss for the fourth straight quarter.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Chinese artificial-intelligence startup DeepSeek is tapping external investors for the first time since it became a household name, looking to raise funds for research and development, people familiar with the matter said.In recent weeks, DeepSeek has held talks with potential investors, including Chinese technology giants Alibaba and Tencent, seeking to raise at least $300 million, the people said. The funds will be denominated in Chinese yuan, they said.Beijing-based venture-capital firm Shunwei Capital—backed by Lei Jun, founder of Chinese consumer-electronics maker Xiaomi—has also held talks with the AI startup, some of the people said.Preliminary discussions value the Chinese AI heavyweight at between $10 billion and $30 billion, the people said.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Law firms are closely watching a potentially precedent-setting case before India’s bankruptcy courts that could have far-reaching implications for companies dealing with entities facing international sanctions.At the heart of the dispute lies a key question: can companies legitimately withhold payments to a sanctioned supplier, or can the supplier initiate insolvency proceedings over non-payment? Whichever way this question is ultimately settled is likely to reshape bankruptcy disputes in India.The issue has surfaced after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Ahmedabad, in a 26 March order, held that foreign sanctions cannot be used as a defence to avoid payment of dues to operational creditors such as suppliers and vendors.The case involves an insolvency plea by Mumbai-based petrochemical supplier CJ Shah & Co. against Flint Group India Pvt.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Axis Bank is expected to report a steady performance in its March quarter earnings, marked by resilient loan growth, modest margin pressure and improving asset quality trends, six brokerages said. While headline growth remains healthy, the focus of analysts and investors will be on liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) and management commentary on the outlook for growth and profitability.Net profit at India’s third-largest private sector lender is expected to fall more than 2% to ₹6,942 crore from a year earlier, according to a poll by Bloomberg.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: India’s early and intense summer is already pushing electricity demand towards the highest levels seen during peak summer last year, challenging the country's power system for the weeks ahead.Peak demand has risen to nearly 240 GW this week amid rising use of cooling appliances, up from about 215 GW end March, according to the Grid Controller of India. With the weather bureau warning of sustained above-normal temperatures, demand is seen rising further, raising the likelihood of new records this season.The record high power demand so far is 250 GW seen on 30 May, 2024.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.As companies around the world accelerate automation and adopt artificial intelligence (AI) tools, layoffs have shifted from speculation to reality. Thousands of professionals who once considered their careers stable are now navigating sudden unemployment.The scale is significant.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Steel companies are set to post a strong March quarter (Q4FY26), thanks to firm demand and higher prices after hitting multi-year lows in November 2025. Will this momentum continue in the coming months?Mint breaks down why this rally in prices is expected to decline starting mid-May.Steel prices began rising around mid-December, driven initially by higher coking coal costs, and continued to gain through the quarter.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: Telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm is expected to post steady subscriber additions for the March quarter (Q4FY26), but the absence of tariff hikes and a shorter quarter are likely to cap growth, a trend analysts expect across the sector.Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of Jio Platforms, will report its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on 24 April alongside parent Reliance Industries Ltd.“Reliance Jio is expected to add 5 million subscribers q-o-q (quarter-on-quarter) to 520 million, with Arpu (average revenue per user) likely to grow by 1% q-o-q to ₹216/month, led by 5G FWA (fixed wireless access) addition,” brokerage house Centrum said in a note dated 5 April.Arpu, a key industry metric that tracks average revenue earned per user, is seen inching up modestly as operators lean on premiumization rather than price hikes.On a standalone basis, Centrum estimates Jio will report ₹33,529 crore revenue from operations, up 2.4% sequentially and 11.7% year-on-year. Net profit is projected to rise 2.8% quarter-on-quarter and 11% annually to ₹7,371 crore.Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom operator by market share, accounts for the bulk of Jio Platforms’ business.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The government’s decision to reopen wheat exports in February after nearly four years—and then scaling up the quota from 2.5 million tonnes to 5 million—comes as India sits on a comfortable surplus. The move aims to ease excess supply and support farm prices without hurting food security. But how do exports lift farmer incomes, and can this be done without stoking inflation? Mint explains.Because there is more wheat in the system than the country currently needs.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A $10 million purse? Believe it. A Hermès handbag owned by the late fashion icon Jane Birkin sold for that eye-popping, record-setting sum last summer at Sotheby’s in Paris.Now, if you can afford a $10 million pocketbook, there’s no doubt you have plenty of dough.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.B9 Beverages Ltd founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Ankur Jain has been asked to resign and is expected to exit as early as this week, according to two persons familiar with the matter, as investors and lenders move to stabilise the cash-strapped craft beer maker, where production was halted around September last year.The leadership reset will come this week with the appointment of a new CEO. "Salary delays as a result of financial mismanagement have run into several crores.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Bengaluru/Mumbai: War-driven cost pressures are deepening an already weak travel cycle, dampening luggage makers’ peak summer season and pushing them to pivot to smaller, lower-priced products from bigger suitcases. Higher airfares and geopolitical uncertainty have hit suitcase sales, forcing brands to lean on backpacks and accessories to protect volumes without eroding margins.The April-June quarter accounts for about 40% of annual sales for luggage brands as families typically spend more on holidays and leisure travel.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: India is looking to strengthen the social security net for informal workers amid rising living costs for retirees. Under the plan, the finance ministry, in consultation with the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), is considering doubling the assured pension ceiling under the flagship Atal Pension Yojana (APY) to up to ₹10,000 a month, according to three people aware of the discussions.The proposal aims to boost fresh enrolments as well as retention in a scheme that now has 90 million subscribers but faces high drop-offs.Launched in May 2015, the pension scheme focuses on informal sector workers and currently provides a guaranteed monthly pension of ₹1,000-5,000 after the age of 60 years, depending on the subscriber’s contribution slab.With nearly half the enrolled subscribers discontinuing contributions over time, the government is examining a long pending demand to enhance the pension cap to up to ₹10,000 per month to make the scheme more attractive and aligned with rising living costs, according to the people cited above.The scheme's gross enrolments in FY26 crossed 13.5 million, the highest ever in a single fiscal year since its launch.“The government and the PFRDA are examining options to enhance the upper pension cap to around ₹8,000– ₹10,000 per month, aiming to make the scheme more attractive and aligned with rising living costs,” said one of the people cited above, requesting anonymity.Under the scheme's structure, the government provided a co-contribution in the initial years for subscribers enrolled before 31 March 2016.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday tightened and consolidated rules for e-mandates—automated instructions that allow recurring payments—aimed at improving transaction processing by payment system operators (PSOs) and reducing friction for users.Mint explains what has changed, why it matters, and what payment system operators will need to adjust.An e-mandate is a one-time authorization that allows a bank to automatically process recurring payments on a customer’s behalf. These are used for subscriptions such as OTT services, mutual fund investments, utility bills, insurance premiums, and loan instalments.Setting up an e-mandate requires a one-time registration and authentication using an additional factor of authentication (AFA), alongside the issuer’s standard process.Each mandate must specify a validity period, which customers can modify or withdraw at any time.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Earlier this month, local business leader Tom Harris picked up eyedrops at a drugstore near his office without needing an employee to retrieve them from behind a locked plexiglass barrier. In that seemingly mundane act, he glimpsed evidence of the turnaround for New York City’s shoplifting epidemic.Harris, president of the Times Square Alliance, a Manhattan business group with some 2,600 members, said he once fielded several calls a day from retailers about their problems with theft.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.HCL Technologies shares plummeted more than 10% on Wednesday after a weak earnings report for the March quarter (Q4FY26) and full year FY26 led to analyst downgrades. The company’s modest revenue guidance for FY27 has raised questions about whether its stock deserves to trade at a valuation that’s in line with or higher than those of rivals such as TCS and Infosys.HCL has forecast revenue growth of 1-4% in constant currency terms, down from its previous year's initial guidance of 2–5%. This outlook is primarily driven by an expected 1.5-4.5% growth in services.Client-specific headwinds in telecom, manufacturing and retail could shave about 50 basis points (bps) off growth, it cautioned.