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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Music labels, grappling with slow growth in paid subscriptions and advertising revenue in the Indian market, are increasingly eyeing regional music catalogues to bolster libraries and returns. Times Music, Warner Music and Saregama have acquired regional catalogues recently. Such consolidation benefits both established players and smaller regional companies.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Facebook founder Eduardo Saverin's venture capital firm B Capital is looking to increase its exposure in India by investing in deeptech, artificial intelligence and energy transition sectors, according to a top executive.“We want to try to deploy $50 million to $100 million in India on an annual basis,” Karan Mohla, general partner at Singapore-based B Capital, said in an interview with Mint. “We see India as our primary market after the US.”The 10-year-old firm invested in global enterprise tech in its initial five years and in consumer tech over the next two to three years.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Late in 2018, when Angad Soni was preparing to launch Sepoy & Co., his botanical mixers startup, he was sure of two things: one, he had to get the formulation of his first product, tonic water, right. Two, the bottle in which it would be sold had to stand out.The target audience was consumers of premium gins who had likely sampled high-quality tonics on trips abroad, but had to settle for mass-market brands in India sold in plastic bottles, or in cans, such as Schweppes.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.East India has shown a dramatic shift to the right, with West Bengal voting decisively for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the country’s latest round of assembly elections.The Trinamool Congress, which was ousted from power in polls held under the shadow of a controversy over an electoral-roll revision, had for 15 years looked like a stable inheritor of the Marxist regime that ruled the state for the previous 34 years. Unable to differentiate itself from the leftist formation it had replaced, it could not withstand a robust BJP campaign. That Assam would go the BJP way was expected all along.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.For many Indian households, the rupee hitting a record low of 94.85 to a US dollar might feel like a distant headline that has little to do with their finances. Especially when no child studies abroad, no holiday is booked overseas, and no money sits in any international fund.It is easy to assume households are insulated from the volatility of the foreign exchange market.However, the reality of a globalized economy is that the dollar is woven into the daily life of an Indian household, even with no direct spending in dollars.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.WASHINGTON—The antiabortion lobby expected to be more triumphant by now: A conservative Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republicans control both chambers of Congress, and the self-styled “most pro-life president in history” again occupies the Oval Office.But abortions are up in the years after the overturning of Roe, and the antiabortion lobby has a new locus for blame.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Split pricing has its benefits. If something is sold to price-insensitive customers at a steep mark-up, then overall utility can be maximized if the extra charge allows price reduction for others. This idea works best when consumption is easily divided.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A viral narrative on social media last week casts Sam Bankman-Fried as “a genius at picking generational winners.” The figures cited are eye-catching. An 8% stake in Anthropic, acquired for $500 million, is now said to be worth over $30 billion.A $200,000 investment in a tiny AI startup, Cursor, is framed as having grown into a multibillion-dollar stake. Add in Solana, SpaceX, and Robinhood.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.“Do you think you’re Superman?” Meera (Sai Pallavi) scolds her colleague Dino (Junaid Khan) after he nearly gets run over saving a child who wanders into traffic. He protests, and he’s right to. Dino is uncoordinated, underconfident, uncertain.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.When France opens their World Cup campaign on 17 June against Senegal at the Metlife Stadium in New Jersey, they will do so as one of the firm favourites to lift the greatest prize in the game. Winners in 2018 and finalists in 2022, France will arrive on US soil brimming, as usual, with some of the finest players on the global stage right now.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.THE BINHAI library, often called China’s most beautiful, is breathtaking. Swirling shelves of books rise in gravity-defying stacks to a high ceiling in a light-dappled room: a modern cathedral to learning. No wonder the library, in Tianjin, an eastern city, has become a favourite photo stop for glammed-up young folk posting to social media.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Many years ago, in 1971, Peter Kilby wrote that understanding entrepreneurship is like hunting a ‘heffalump,’ a fictional elephant-like creature from Winnie-the-Pooh.Many claim to have captured it, but their descriptions do not match and no two agree on what it looks like. After centuries of research, we are still arguing about what an entrepreneur really is.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.At his Senate confirmation hearing last week, Kevin Warsh told lawmakers that the Federal Reserve needed a serious shaking up, with “messier meetings” and “a good family fight” at an institution that has cultivated discipline and consensus.He may be getting all of that and more.On Wednesday afternoon, the man he’s set to replace as Fed chair, Jerome Powell, announced he wouldn’t be leaving right away. Three of Powell’s colleagues delivered a pointed warning that they are in no mood to cut rates anytime soon.Every Fed chair for the past 75 years has left the central bank when his or her successor took over.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Recent months have seen worker protests across states. Workers protested low wages and poor work conditions in an IOCL factory in Barauni, Bihar, in February. This was followed by protests in Surat, Gujarat.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In 1604, James I of England anonymously published a small book titled A Counterblaste to Tobacco. He called smoking “a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.” Within a year, he had raised the import duty on tobacco by 4,000%. The duty did not work.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.With global energy dependency rapidly shifting from conventional sources to nuclear power, it is natural to fear a Chernobyl or Fukushima-like incident anywhere in the world today. Human exposure to nuclear risks is also rising through genetic research in agriculture, radiation use in healthcare, and the increasing possibility of nuclear conflict.In such circumstances, a natural question arises: do our everyday insurance policies cover nuclear risks?As on date, none of the insurers in India provide coverage for nuclear exposure or related nuclear incidents.Whether personal, institutional, or commercial, almost all insurance policies exclude coverage for risks arising out of nuclear exposure or similar events.Apart from underwriting challenges due to lack of data, the core reason is structural: nuclear exposure is rarely individualistic.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s music industry is finally witnessing a long-awaited shift from free to paid consumption, with revenues and subscriptions climbing steadily.Yet the transition remains fragile. Sustaining the move from free to paid listening is critical, especially at a time when AI-generated versions of songs threaten to divert streams from original works and pirated sources continue to undercut legitimate consumption.Speaking to Mint, Victoria Oakley, chief executive officer of IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry)—the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide—said the recent uptick in paid streaming marks a long-promised transition for India.However, she cautioned that the regulatory framework around AI remains unclear, even as governments, including India’s, grapple with how to balance technological innovation with rights protection and fair monetization for the creative community.According to a recent Ficci EY report, the Indian music segment, measured as revenues earned by music labels from licensing and other income, grew by 10% to reach ₹5900 crore in 2025.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Xi Jinping had just finished a lunch of herbed-ricotta ravioli at a secluded estate outside San Francisco in 2023 when his security agents sprang into action.Their mission: ensuring no trace of the Chinese leader’s DNA fell into foreign hands. The agents—measuring about 6-foot-3, dressed in identical dark suits—were observed grabbing Xi’s utensils and plate and spraying them with an unidentified liquid.Welcome to the unseen theater of great-power diplomacy, where a meeting of the two most powerful leaders on earth can hinge on the slightest missed protocol, an unexpected miscue or even a bit of saliva left on a fork.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.With Dhurandhar: The Revenge crossing the ₹1,000 crore mark at the domestic box office—becoming the first Hindi film to do so—industry watchers believe India’s theatrical potential could stretch to ₹1,200–1,500 crore for the right film.But unlocking that ceiling is far from easy.Films remain constrained by limited and uneven screen penetration across smaller towns, high ticket pricing that curbs footfalls, and intense competition that shortens exclusive theatrical runs. Add to that the shortage of consistently mass-appealing commercial entertainers, and record-breaking numbers become rare events rather than the norm.“The success of the Dhurandhar franchise clearly highlights the headroom in India’s theatrical market and demonstrates how scale-driven content can unlock exceptional outcomes,” said said Bhuvanesh Mendiratta, managing director, Miraj Entertainment Ltd.The opportunity is significant, but structural challenges persist.Screen penetration remains the biggest constraint.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.“Don’t underestimate the power of the common man.” These words were popularized by Shah Rukh Khan with a slight twist in his film Chennai Express.I wonder why the common person’s power is visible exclusively during the elections, religious functions and marriage celebrations? Why don’t they rise in defiance?However, I was pleasantly surprised by an unknown woman from Mumbai.Last Wednesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was rallying against the defeat of the Nari Shakti Vandan (Amendment) Bill in Parliament.The local police, despite adequate arrangements, couldn’t avert a traffic jam. Many were stuck. Resentful people were surprised to see a woman suddenly appearing and directly confronting Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s top private-sector banks reported a marked improvement in asset quality in the March quarter, with no visible stress in their loan portfolios despite the US-Israel-Iran war.The gross non-performing asset (GNPA) ratio either declined sequentially or remained stable, highlighting resilient credit performance across segments, largely due to lower slippages and stabilization in microfinance portfolios.While HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, RBL Bank and Yes Bank continued to report sub-1.5% GNPA levels, others, such as IndusInd Bank and IDFC FIRST Bank, saw a moderation in stress over the previous quarter.However, the improvement hides a cautious undertone, with lenders increasingly building buffers and stress-testing their portfolios against adverse global scenarios.Axis Bank has taken the most explicit stance, frontloading provisions to prepare for potential shocks. During the fourth quarter, it created a one-time additional provision of ₹2,001 crore as part of a voluntary enhancement of its provisioning framework.“Based on an assessment of evolving and unpredictable macro and geopolitical uncertainties, the bank created an additional one-time provision…This action is prudent and precautionary in nature and does not reflect deterioration in asset quality,” chief financial officer Puneet Sharma said in the earnings call on 25 April.The bank’s internal stress scenarios assume extreme conditions, including crude oil prices exceeding $150 per barrel, inflation at 7.4%, and a 20% currency depreciation in 2026-27.“Based on some of these test scenarios, we look at which accounts could go into NPL…and based on that, this number is right.