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Mint explains.India is the world’s second-largest fertilizer consumer, but domestic supply hasn’t kept pace.The country imports about 60% of its diammonium phosphate (DAP) requirement and roughly 15% of its urea and nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK)-based fertilizer demand, along with intermediates such as rock phosphate, phosphoric acid and potash.Even urea relies on natural gas as feedstock, much of which is imported. This leaves domestic production exposed to global energy markets.“Domestic availability is limited for raw materials and intermediaries such as liquefied natural gas (LNG), phosphate rock and ammonia,” said Anand Kulkarni, director at Crisil Ratings.Analysts say this dependence is unlikely to ease without a shift in technology.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Roast comedy works around a fascinatingly self-referential format. The roast is the roast because it claims to be the roast.It is a format I have always watched, from classic Dean Martin roasts to the inimitable Don Rickles putting his friends through the wringer, to its mostly middling current incarnation, because amid predictable and easy gags, occasionally someone rises to the top with outstanding material.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The hedge-fund herd was early to see opportunity in the stocks of chip makers and other artificial-intelligence hardware companies. Those bets just delivered stock-picking funds their best month in over two decades.Steve Cohen’s Point72, Whale Rock Capital Management and Seligman Investments are among the hedge-fund firms that posted strong returns in April thanks in part to rallies in semiconductor stocks and those of related equipment makers.That helped make April the best month for stock-picking funds since December 1999, according to an industry index compiled by research firm PivotalPath, with a gain of 6.5%.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Bengaluru: India is emerging as one of the most sought-after growth markets for global quick-service restaurant chains, prompting several international brands, which once struggled in the country, to attempt a comeback with revamped playbooks.The latest entrant is Panda Express, the US-based Asian fast-casual chain, which plans to enter India in 2027 through a partnership with Trimex Foods. It is targeting growing demand for international dining brands and widening popularity of Chinese cuisine among Indian consumers, even as global chains remain cautious about the country’s highly competitive and value-conscious market“India has become very aspirational with spending power growing up.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The key to being good at climbing and bouldering is having a strong core, grip and pulling strength. While these are not the only things necessary in this highly technical activity, they are almost imperative to be able to climb for longer and conquer more difficult levels.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.To my mind, there is one thing the US version of The Office did better than the BBC original, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. This, I assure you, is a big deal because I worship at the altar of those flawlessly written British episodes.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Ganga mostly flows east-southeast across the Indo-Gangetic alluvial plains towards its mouth in Kolkata. As it approaches Varanasi in eastern Uttar Pradesh (UP), it encounters something unusual: an outlier of ancient Vindhyan sandstone that juts northward into the otherwise soft alluvial plain. The river cannot cut through this resistant rock as easily as through alluvium, so instead of continuing straight eastward, it deflects northward, running along the western flank of this Vindhyan rock ridge.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Explorers have dreamed of harvesting deep-sea metals since the 1870s, when the British scientific ship HMS Challenger pulled up mineral-laden rocks on its round-the-world voyage.The first commercial effort to exploit these riches failed a century later. In 1970, a U.S.

At a dinner hosted by a family that owns a newspaper business, the conversation naturally drifted towards artificial intelligence, then doom. I said something I believe in, even though I knew it was not very persuasive. That the time has come for a triumphant return of a general interest print magazine, as long as it was brilliant, entertaining and not overrun with activists.

war in West Asia rocked global sentiment.Fresh project announcements slipped 13% to ₹44 trillion in the financial year 2025-26 (FY26), according to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). It almost erased 16% growth seen in the previous fiscal.The slowdown was primarily driven by a 58% collapse in the government-led capex announcements, which had jumped 54% in the previous year.

KPIT Technologies. The three companies ended last year with $1.26 billion, $870 million, and $691 million, up 8.16%, 0.81%, and 17.72%, respectively.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. MIDLAND COUNTY, Texas—Perched in the control room of a Chevron rig, an operator steered a drilling bit thousands of feet under the arid surface of the Permian Basin. As he did so, he received real-time directions from a specialist in Houston, some 477 miles away.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s business-as-usual budget for 2026-27, presented on 1 February, was followed less than a week later by an equally pragmatic monetary policy decision, Friday last. In one of the shortest monetary policy announcements to date (just 27 minutes), Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) governor Sanjay Malhotra announced the unanimous decision of its rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to keep the repo rate unchanged and maintain status quo on the stance as well (albeit by a 5:1 majority).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. WestBridge Capital, a US- and India-focused early-to-growth-stage investment firm, is betting big on climate tech to become a large, for-profit opportunity for investors in the coming decade. The firm has backed Gurugram-based Varaha, a developer of high-integrity carbon removal projects, and led the $20 million Series B funding round.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI: In a move aimed at improving the quality of construction insulation material and packaging for processed liquid food and beverages, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has amended two norms covering bonded mineral wool and paper-based multilayer cartons. The revised standards will come into effect after a six-month transition period to allow the industry to comply with them, as per a government order reviewed by Mint.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Software companies’ pitch to investors could use an upgrade. Once a favorite of Wall Street, software stocks have been sliding lately, with investors increasingly concerned about how the sector could be upended by their newest crush: artificial-intelligence companies.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. One of the key themes of India’s upcoming Union budget, the first after US tariffs rocked global trade last year, will be to de-risk the economy from prolonged headwinds by announcing reforms and incentives for manufacturers, small businesses and exporters, according to two persons familiar with discussions.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India has reached a point where if emerging markets start getting flows, a possibility due to the uncertain macro environment, India will get its share of foreign institutional flows, said Rahul Singh, chief investment officer - Equities at Tata Mutual Fund. “If emerging markets as an asset class start to get sustainable flows, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) need not have to sell India to buy China," Singh said in an interview with Mint.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Whenever my friends want to eat puri-aloo, they invite themselves over to my home. In my hometown of Lucknow, this combination is found on every table, irrespective of class, community or faith.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Indian hotel operators have run into high valuations and a lack of quality assets as they seek to expand in a market hungry for luxury travel. They have turned creative to overcome these hurdles by acquiring properties that can be redeveloped or repurposing office buildings into hotels and even incorporating apartments into their projects.

Although safe for Earth, the Moon still poses a small impact threat.