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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Growing up, the highlight of every summer vacation in my hometown of Mangaluru was the wild mango curry. My cousins and I would abandon all dignity over plates of hot rice and the golden curry like it was our last meal.Back then these wild mangoes were deemed far too rustic for professional kitchens. But that is changing.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Sugar Cosmetics, once among India’s fastest-growing beauty startups, is seeking a sharply discounted funding round after an aggressive offline expansion and slowing sales growth strained its finances, according to four people familiar with the matter.The Mumbai-based beauty brand has begun a process to raise ₹100-150 crore after grappling with a severe cash crunch over the past six months amid declining revenue, a shrinking offline footprint and rising employee attrition, the people said.The fresh fundraise is likely to happen at a valuation of ₹1,400-1,500 crore, sharply lower from its peak valuation of about ₹3,000 crore in 2022, two of the people said. While typical growth investors are unlikely to invest in the current state, the company will tap family offices and high net-worth individuals (HNIs) alongside some existing investors to facilitate the capital raise even as its revenue declined further to about ₹380 crore in FY26, the person added.The need for fresh capital has intensified as the company struggles to manage working capital and employee payouts.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In recent months, a palpable sense of concern has begun to ripple through investors. Inflationary pressures—once dismissed as a transitory aftershock of global recovery—now risk becoming entrenched.The drivers form a difficult triad: destruction of energy infrastructure in West Asia leading to volatile oil and gas prices, persistent supply chain constraints, and a domestic agricultural squeeze triggered by a lower-than-anticipated monsoon and record-high fertilizer costs.The RBI’s decision to raise the inflation forecast for FY27 to 4.6%—up from an earlier target of 4%—signals that these fears are grounded in reality.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.TOKYO—One of the major surprises about the gravest energy shock since the 1970s is how resilient much of the world has been so far.The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has yanked around 13 million barrels of oil a day from global energy supplies. Blackouts have hit Pakistan, the Philippines has imposed a four-day workweek, and countries including Slovenia and Bangladesh have rationed fuel.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.As India currently emerges as one of the hottest countries in the world, it’s safe to assume that almost everyone is nursing the desire to dive into a pool at every chance they get. There’s no arguing that rising temperatures can disrupt your fitness routine, but access to a pool also offer a refreshing change from lifting weights in the air-conditioned yet often stifling confines of a gym.A lot of people associate a workout with being slightly out of breath—marked by a high heart rate, sweating, and muscle soreness—all of which signal a decent pump from lifting. These markers can be replicated in a pool workout, sure, but it’s also largely true that very few exercises can replace swimming.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.It has been a bruising week for the news cycle, starting with gunfire outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and ending with a geopolitical jolt from the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) exit from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).Let’s begin with Washington.President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and other senior officials were rushed to safety after shots were heard outside the venue hosting the annual gathering of journalists and political leaders.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Asia’s Gen Z is facing a summer of discontent. Already grappling with bleak job prospects and lacklustre growth, it is now being stung by the shock from the Iran war, which is driving up prices of everything from fuel to food. The immediate impact is economic, but there is a growing risk of political instability.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Oracle’s $300 billion megadeal with OpenAI is testing the limits of Wall Street’s appetite for debt tied to America’s data-center boom.Banks including JPMorgan Chase struggled for months to spread the risk of billions of dollars in loans they made to build data centers leased to Oracle in Texas and Wisconsin, people familiar with the matter said. Many financial institutions that would ordinarily buy those loans face restrictions on how much exposure they can have to a single counterparty, and the sheer size of these debt packages pushed them to the limit with Oracle.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Indian automakers are beginning to feel the operational strain of the West Asia conflict, with companies flagging supply bottlenecks, longer shipping times and rising costs, even as domestic demand remains resilient.Early signals from industry executives suggest the impact is weighing far more on supply chains than on demand, which has so far held up. The spillover is beginning to feed into production and exports, pushing up costs that companies are gradually passing on to consumers.At the centre of the strain is the Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime chokepoint that has seen vessel movement fall sharply amid repeated disruptions.

American multinational technology company Oracle, founded by Larry Ellison, is executing the largest layoffs in its history, cutting up to 30,000 jobs or about 19% of its 162,000 global workforce. In India, where it employs around 50,000 people, about 10,000-12,000 roles are being eliminated.At the same time, the company has raised its restructuring budget by $500 million to $2.1 billion in FY26 (June-May), mainly for severance. Oracle attributes part of the reduction to AI coding tools that allow smaller teams to build software faster.

Mint explains what we know so far about the new variant, and how concerned you should be.The latest variant is a part of the Omicron strain that swept across the globe in late 2021. It was first detected in 2024 in South Africa but had remained dormant until now, causing it to be dubbed ‘cicada’ (after the insect that remains underground for long periods before suddenly emerging).It has an unusually large number of mutations in its spike protein compared to LP.8.1, the strain used as the basis for the 2025-26 vaccines.

IndiGo, with India’s largest airline hitting one air pocket after another.In early December, it was caught off guard by its approach to new domestic regulations that curtailed and staggered pilots’ flying hours, forcing widespread flight cancellations. Then came the US attack on Iran, setting off a chain reaction across oil prices, West Asia aviation, and the rupee’s exchange rate against the dollar—all variables central to IndiGo’s business.As it heads into the peak summer season, the airline has significant course correction ahead if it is to return to the steady glide path it has long been known for.Nowhere is the strain more visible than in the share price of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, IndiGo's parent company.

₹800 crore handicrafts industry is seeing orders stall, cash get locked up and livelihoods fray—exposing its deep reliance on export markets.In Eidgah’s Narwara locality, Pashmina weaver Rauf Ahmad Qureshi, 54, keeps one eye on his loom and the other on television updates from the Gulf, where demand for his work is shaped. “We get work through traders, so any crisis impacts us quickly,” he told Mint. “An artisan lives hand to mouth.

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China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (for 2026–2030), approved in March, retains the direction of its earlier Plans, serving as a setter of priorities and an instrument for policy coordination across China’s vast administrative system. The central question is whether this Plan will deliver what China’s economy needs: a decisive shift in favour of consumption-led growth.China’s growth model: The country’s growth has long relied on investment, industrial production and exports.

West Asia war could push inflation higher, keeping prospective homebuyers on the sidelines. Affordability was already under strain after sustained price hikes, driven by rising construction costs even as demand held up.Early signs of a slowdown are emerging.

RBI measure will bring some temporary relief to the rupee, but appreciation will be limited because fundamentals remain unfavourable, treasury officials said.“Currency appreciation may be limited to the extent of unwinding of these current leveraged positions. But once that is settled, I think the currency will again follow the fundamentals, and as long as this crisis continues, rupee will depreciate,” Reddy of Karur Vysya Bank said.Following the central bank move, the rupee gained 1.3% to touch a one-week high of 93.59 per dollar on Monday, before shedding gains to hit a new low of 95.1250. Likely RBI intervention lifted it to 94.83 at close, little changed from ⁠its previous close.

India’s fertilizer industry enters 2026 at a critical inflexion point: inventories are at record highs, yet the sector faces volatile global gas prices, West Asia risks, and a structurally subsidy-dependent business model. For investors, that means strong tailwinds on volume visibility but real caveats on margins and policy risk.The immediate backdrop is a whiplash from scarcity in 2025 to abundance going into kharif 2026.

₹1 lakh segment.The pressure is most visible at its youth-focused brands CaratLane and Mia by Tanishq, where demand is showing signs of strain as gold becomes less affordable. Titan is expanding design-led silver offerings to retain entry-level buyers, rather than relying only on lower-carat gold or pricing tweaks.The shift underscores a broader pivot underway in India’s jewellery market: as gold prices climb, consumers—particularly younger buyers—are becoming more experimental, gravitating toward lighter, lower-ticket categories such as silver and silver-studded pieces.Gold is currently trading at around ₹1.5 lakh per 10 grams on the MCX, up sharply over the past year, while silver is hovering around ₹2.35 lakh per kg, indicating a widening affordability gap between the two metals.“We are seeing a structural shift in India’s jewellery consumption.

auto parts imports from India to about 25%, from roughly 2%.Mint reported in December that stress among European auto part makers has created opportunities for Indian component manufacturers such as Sona BLW Precision Forgings (Sona Comstar) and Samvardhana Motherson.“Per companies’ management commentary, step-up in closure of EU foundries on labour shortage, rising energy cost, worsening financial stress is creating opportunity for Indian suppliers offering huge benefits on the inherent low manufacturing cost,” Emkay said in its 9 March note based on takeaways from management interactions.“The trend is intensifying, as EU OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) are aggressively seeking alternative sourcing options. In North America, Indian players offer 20-30% benefit despite tariff headwinds; this helps gain share with existing clients, catering to new clients,” they added.Chennai-based MM Forgings makes steel forgings for commercial and passenger vehicles, while Noida-based Uniparts India manufactures driveshafts and precision machine parts.

Cross-border payments are a relatively new but fast-growing fintech segment in India, with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) payment aggregator–cross border (PA-CB) framework drawing in a new crop of startups alongside larger payments firms looking to build export and import payment rails. Firms such as Skydo and BriskPe have secured RBI approvals in recent months, while Razorpay and Cashfree are also expanding in the category, reflecting the size of the opportunity in a market tied closely to India’s trade flows.India’s trade exposure makes the segment worth watching closely.