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Democracy is inherently fraught. At its core lies the difficulty of translating individual preferences into a coherent social choice, a problem famously captured by Nobel laureate economist Kenneth Arrow’s impossibility theorem and later developed by another Nobel laureate Amartya Sen in his 1970 book Collective Choice and Social Welfare.

Nifty 50 revenue growth at 10–13% year-on-year in Q4, broadly maintaining Q3’s momentum. But the nature of revenue growth is expected to have changed during the latest quarter.While festive demand, tax cuts and discretionary spending supported revenues in the October-December quarter, the March-quarter growth is likely to be driven more by higher realisations in metals and energy, even as underlying consumption trends turn uneven.

The impact of higher fuel costs due to the conflict in West Asia, along with a delay in tariff increases that’s limiting revenue growth, is expected to weigh on the financials of India’s telecom companies in the near term, according to analysts. Mint analyzes how the mismatch between high costs and limited scope for charging customers is likely to put pressure on telecom operators.Telecom operators rely on diesel-powered generators to ensure uninterrupted power supply to telecom towers, which form the backbone of mobile networks.

The El Niño phenomenon could result in one of the driest monsoons in India in at least eight years.Private forecaster Skymet has predicted: the rainfall is likely to be 94% of the long-period average (LPA), or below-normal. While the predictions are in line with broader expectations of low rainfall, Skymet is known for giving more conservative predictions than the official India Meteorological Department (IMD).Both agencies fail to predict the intensity of rainfall accurately more often than not, but Skymet’s track record has worsened in recent years.

Mint spoke with.The decline in value was relatively narrower at 6%, as companies partially offset losses by raising prices in February and March.India smartphone market was flat in 2025 with a 0.6% annual growth by volume totalling 152 million units.Worryingly for the industry, this is the first time in recent years that smartphones are witnessing a simultaneous decline in both value and volumes at the start of a calendar year. So far, brands had relied on no-interest monthly instalments to sustain sales of higher-value phones — a strategy that appears to have hit a roadblock, at least for now.The slowdown coincided with sweeping geopolitical tensions that cascaded into financial markets worldwide, pushing up energy prices and dampening consumer sentiment.

The number of Indian companies setting climate commitments is rising but their progress is uneven and often lacking in depth. A report by proxy advisory firm Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS) highlights that while target-setting is increasing, many companies fall short on execution, timelines and credibility. Mint explains why India Inc.

NEW DELHI: India is moving to position its QR (Quick Response) code-based payment system on the global stage. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has introduced fresh norms covering biometric authentication, QR code-based payments and digital currency security to reduce fraud risks and enhance interoperability according to two people aware of the development.The move is intended to strengthen safeguards in India’s rapidly expanding digital financial ecosystem and build confidence among developed economies, where QR code payments are still a novelty, the people said.The rapid expansion of digital payments, biometric-based authentication systems and QR code transactions in India has raised concerns over fraud, identity theft, data misuse and vulnerabilities in the digital payment infrastructure.

Mint analysis shows a more telling shift: the intensity of the sell-off has steadily eased since the conflict began, with sharp early declines giving way to progressively smaller losses.The sell-off began with a jolt — between 27 February, the last trading session before hostilities escalated, and 6 March, the Nifty and Sensex fell about 3% each as the conflict broke out, followed by a sharper drop of over 5% the next week. Markets then paused, with a largely flat week, before slipping again by over a percent in the week of 23 March.The attacks began on 28 February.From there, the pressure eased.

Mint, Irani said pockets of the market continue to offer value despite headline premiums. Even though smallcaps are quoting at a slight premium to largecaps, on a price-to-earnings-growth (PEG) basis, the ratio is almost half that of largecaps.

Read the full story by Dhirendra Kumar.SpaceX eyes historic debut: SpaceX is heading to the stock market. Reports suggest a potential $75 billion IPO, bigger than Saudi Aramco, with a staggering valuation nearing $2 trillion.But this isn’t just another listing. With businesses spanning rockets, satellite internet (Starlink), AI (via xAI), and X (formerly Twitter), SpaceX is no longer just aerospace, it’s an integrated tech giant.

₹500- ₹2,000 crore, in the past month, according to investment bankers and deal advisors familiar with the matter.While the trend is becoming become more visible, intermediaries Mint spoke to declined to name any companies, citing dealmaking competition and confidentiality agreements governing the mandate shifts."I am seeing IPOs with new liquidity worth anywhere between ₹500 crore to ₹2,000 crore, turn into dual tracks over the last 30 days," a deal advisor working with IPO-bound companies told Mint on the condition of anonymity.This shift follows a cooling investor appetite amid global uncertainty, which has slowed listing activity. As a result, companies have now begun seeking alternative routes to provide liquidity to shareholders and founders."The current environment is not conducive for launching IPOs," said Samir Bahl, chief executive of investment banking at Anand Rathi Advisors.

Mint, introduces a bank passbook-like system in which companies that meet targets earn credits, while those that fall short accumulate debits that attract penalties.Automakers with debits will be allowed to purchase credits from the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) at fixed rates set annually from 2028 to 2032, ranging from ₹2,500 to ₹4,500 per gramme of CO₂/km.While automakers will be allowed to trade credits among themselves, as is the global norm, the option to purchase credits directly from a regulator is unprecedented.“California allows fully transparent credit trading among OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), while Europe permits pooling among manufacturers,” said Amit Bhatt, India managing director at International Council on Clean Transportation, a non-profit organization that advises regulators on environmental issues.“In contrast, BEE’s proposal represents a distinct Indian approach by introducing a regulated credit purchase mechanism, effectively creating a financial compliance pathway that is not available in either benchmark jurisdiction,” he added.Queries sent to the BEE, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Mahindra and Mahindra, and Hyundai Motor India remained unanswered.To put it simply, every automaker will have a passbook for each of the fiscal years from 2028 to 2032. A positive credit balance would indicate that the company's average annual fuel emissions are below the maximum cap.

GDP may be greater than on inflation, as the government will try to shield vulnerable consumers using policy tools, and in the worst case, growth may possibly be lower by 60-100 basis points,” added Shukla.The failure of talks could impact the stock market's fledgling recovery from its 52-week low, and unsettle the currency and energy markets."This is bad news and puts the recent recovery at risk," said Nirmal Jain, founder of IIFL Group, advising investors to wait rather than rush in to buy a likely dip.The bellwether Nifty had recovered 8.4% from its 52-week low of 22,182.55 on 2 April to Friday's closing of 24050.6. A further recovery toward the pre-war level of 25,178.65 on 27 February, which analysts had expected ahead of the peace talks, looks like a "tough ask," said Rohit Srivastava, founder of analytics firm IndiaCharts.While analysts including Srivastava do not believe the market will test its 52-week low again unless the fighting widens, options traders have baked in a 23,000-25,000 range for the Nifty in April.

India is set to more than double its export quotas for wheat, including for its flour products atta and maida, two people aware of the decision said. The move was cleared recently by a top panel monitoring supply of essentials amid the West Asia war, they said.

₹1 trillion in the upper layer could leave little wiggle room for Tata Sons, save for the benevolence of the central bank. The holding firm of the eponymous group has been in the category in recent years, a classification that entails tighter regulatory oversight and a mandatory listing requirement.The new norms, released on 10 April, currently in the form of a draft circular, take away a part of RBI’s discretion in deciding who gets to be on the list.

What I’m about to say was once obvious, yet it will seem less persuasive with each passing year: Bitcoin is nothing without its origin story. The story is that an unknown man whose real name was certainly not Satoshi Nakamoto created this cryptocurrency between 2008 and 2009 to liberate us from governments and banks. As Bitcoin’s value rose hundreds of times, it became public knowledge that he held about 1.1 million Bitcoin, worth over $120 billion US dollars at some point last year, and over $70 billion at the time of filing this column.

Mint explains.Reports suggest SpaceX could file for an IPO with a potential roadshow as early as June. At an estimated $75 billion, the offering would surpass Saudi Aramco’s $29.4 billion listing in 2019 by a wide margin.The proposed valuation of $1.75 trillion to $2 trillion would place SpaceX among the world’s most valuable companies, a sharp jump from its most recent private market valuation of about $800 billion.The scale is significant.

₹28,292.1 crore in the financial year ended March 2026 (FY26) was lower than the previous year’s ₹32,184.2 crore, marking the third decline in total shareholder returns - comprising dividends and buybacks - over the past six years, and the fourth such fall since the company went public in 2004.This 12.1% fall in total payouts in FY26 follows a 3.87% decline in FY24. At least twice before—in 2021 and 2016—Tata Sons’ income from TCS dropped over the previous year.As India’s largest IT services company continues to explore acquisition opportunities, analysts are questioning whether Tata Sons can continue to rely on cash from its crown jewel, TCS, which accounted for 83% of Tata Sons’ ₹38,835 crore revenue in the year ended March 2025 (FY25).Shares of TCS closed 2.45% lower at ₹2,524.35 apiece on the BSE on Friday, a day after the company reported its first annual revenue decline in dollar terms since listing.TCS’s lower payouts to its parent come at a time when Tata Sons, under chairman N.

₹1.20 trillion even as the markets turned volatile, according to a February Care Edge report. A meaningful share of these borrowed positions is concentrated in relatively illiquid stocks, where MTF outstanding is several times the daily trading volume.This is not merely a story about rising leverage. It is a window into a larger regulatory blind spot.Financial regulation is designed to protect individuals.

Strait of Hormuz.The nuclear question is the oldest and most fundamental source of Western suspicion. Iran insists it has never sought to build a bomb.

The RBI’s monetary policy committee kept the repo rate unchanged at 5.25%, reflecting the wait-and-watch approach adopted by global peers such as the US Federal Reserve, Bank of England, and European Central Bank amid the war in West Asia. The RBI pegged FY27 GDP growth at 6.9% under the new GDP (gross domestic product) series, down from FY26 growth estimate of 7.6%. The central bank flagged risks from Strait of Hormuz disruptions and high energy prices.