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NEW DELHI: The Centre has called a high-level meeting of the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Financial Services and public sector banks on Wednesday to devise ways to curb high-value bank frauds amid the growing use of mule accounts, according to two people aware of the issue.Officials at the meeting will also help devise strategies to fill critical gaps in investigation and enforcement and zero in on procedural bottlenecks, especially delays in securing prosecution sanction under the Prevention of Corruption Act, one person said on condition of anonymity. This issue has increasingly become a sticking point in fraud cases involving bank officials.“With probes often slowed by approval requirements and coordination challenges between lenders and investigators, the high-level meeting signals a push to streamline processes, tighten accountability and strengthen the system’s response to complex, network-driven financial frauds,” the second person said, asking not to be identified.According to Reserve Bank of India data, fraud cases in banks and financial institutions involving amounts of ₹1 lakh and above tripled to ₹34,771 crore in FY25 from ₹11,261 crore in FY24.

₹96,200 crore, growing over 26% year-on-year, while traditional advertising contracted by about 4%. Digital advertising is now 63% of India’s total advertising industry by revenue.The industry’s centre of gravity has shifted since the late 1990s.

The juxtaposition of the Russia-Ukraine war and unfolding US-Israel-Iran war offers a compelling window to the evolving character of contemporary warfare. One is a protracted, grinding contest of endurance; the other, a sharp demonstration of rapid, multi-domain coercion. Yet, taken together, they underline a common truth: technological change has not simplified war, it has made it more complex, more diffuse and less predictable.

There is a paradox at the heart of the US economy. As the federal government imposes sweeping tariffs, signals hostility to multilateral trade and unnerves long-term investors with erratic policymaking, one state has emerged as the most reliable US address for global capital: California, the world’s fourth-largest economy and America’s second-largest exporting state with $188 billion in annual goods exports.

Don ko samajana mushkil hi nahi namumkin bhi hai (Understanding Don is not just difficult, but impossible), quipped market veteran Nilesh Shah, MD of Kotak Mahindra AMC, as conflicting statements on the Iran war emanated from US President Donald Trump over the weekend.Inspired by a dialogue from the 1978 Amitabh Bachchan starrer Don, it encapsulates the uncertainty among India's investors and traders amid frequent changes in President Trump's stance on the conflict's objectives and duration.In a post on Truth Social on Friday, the US President said he was considering ‘winding down’ military operations in the Middle East after getting ‘very close’ to meeting the US' objectives.While investors could see this as a positive sign, they would again be flummoxed by Trump's plan to deploy more troops to the region, explained Shah.Hapless investors and traders have sought to deal with frequent flip-flops preceding Trump's latest comments by initiating an options strategy that enables them to profit from sharp market movements in either direction.Known as a long straddle in options parlance, the strategy aims to profit from a steep move in the Nifty on either side of 23100 by this Monday or Tuesday.This is borne by a 58% rise in open or outstanding positions on the 23100 call and a 79% rise in the 23100 put, per National Stock Exchange (NSE) data as of Friday closing.The market closed at 23114.5 on Friday (20 March), down 8.2% over the past three weeks since the war began.

₹1,800 per month for a starting dose, which translates to ₹450 per week. While some of its competitors have launched injectable vials at lower prices, Alkem’s generic pen undercuts other pen devices launched on Saturday, which are in the range of ₹3,000-4,000 a month.“Affordable pricing will empower healthcare practitioners to offer the therapy to as many deserving patients as they feel,” Alkem's chief executive officer (CEO) Vikas Gupta told Mint in an interview.

market, investors crave stability, and it’s understandable. Nobody wants to lose sleep over their equity portfolios. But there is a proven way to invest in turbulent times and still aim for long-term profits: value investing.At Equitymaster, we believe this strategy is the key to finding high-quality stocks today.

Small-cap funds, the most sought-after mutual fund category that has attracted majority of investor money in the last three years, have a problem — spotting specialized talent to run investments.As a result, several of them have managers running both large-cap and small-cap funds or have co-management teams in place or, in some instances, have even the chief investment officers (CIOs) listed as the primary fund manager of small-cap funds.Investors have put over ₹1.35 trillion into small-cap funds in three years through February, yet the number of fund managers equipped to run these schemes, which demands a distinct skill set, remains limited.Assets managed by small cap mutual funds more than doubled to ₹3.64 trillion in February from ₹1.32 trillion in February 2023. Number of folios, as mutual fund accounts are termed, in the segment also more than doubled to 28 million in the same period, according to industry lobby Association of Mutual Funds of India or Amfi.Mint analyzed all the small cap schemes and found that there are 31 asset management companies (AMCs) that offer both small-cap and large-cap schemes.Of these, 12 mutual funds have the same manager overseeing both large-cap and small-cap funds.Further, among a total of 34 small-cap schemes, 11 named the CIO or head of equities as the primary fund manager.Unlike in large-cap stocks where research coverage is vast, spotting good small stocks requires digging and peeling layers.

Mint, Audi India's top executives said that the company has exhausted its current resource allocation for the EV business and is in discussions with its headquarters for the next phase, echoing earlier comments from Skoda and Volkswagen India leadership, and leaving the Wolfsburg-based Volkswagen Group among the few major foreign carmakers without a clear EV roadmap for the country.This is in contrast with other foreign luxury car makers like Mercedes and BMW and mass-market players like Renault, Honda, Hyundai, VinFast and Suzuki that have announced their EV plans for India and committed to scale their sales over the next few years.“We are not selling an electric car because we have been selling it for the last 3-4 years. The quota that was allocated to us, the cars that we were selling got over,” Balbir Singh Dhillon, brand director at Audi India, told Mint ahead of its latest car launch in the national capital.“We are in the process of defining what next model that we bring in, at what point in time, at what price point,” Dhillon said, adding that the company would publicly announce its plans soon and remains optimistic about the opportunity in the country's EV market.Dhillon's comments echo statements from the brand head of Skoda as well as the Volkswagen Group head in India over the past two months.

investors in a FoF that then allocates capital across underlying AIFs, managers can effectively broaden participation while staying within the letter of the rules.“We have seen a gradual increase in FoFs in the industry as it helps an AIF accommodate investors who could not participate in a fund the first time around,” said Pratik Jain, managing partner–investments at Wealth Co. Asset Management Pvt.

Mint spoke with traders who left salaried jobs to trade full-time, on what it takes to make it work in this changed environment.At 58, Manish (name changed) left his job as a director at one of the Big Four firms in 2018 to start a renewables-focused start-up. With that not panning out as expected, he wanted to keep his income level sustained without disturbing the corpus he had.He decided to take up trading full-time and started doing certificate courses for currency and derivatives trading, took the NSE exam, and attended various private classes.

In normal times, being Porsche’s boss would rank as one of the world’ s most desirable jobs. But I do not envy new Chief Executive Officer Michael Leiters one bit.Barely two months after taking the helm, he made a decent fist on Wednesday of outlining what ails the German sportscar manufacturer and providing the first hints of how he plans to put things right. He’s committed to restoring the company’s “former glory” and insists Porsche “represents a compelling recovery story.” But investors hoping his arrival marks an immediate start of better times for the storied brand could be disappointed.

What is an economy for? Since Adam Smith, economists have given a straightforward answer to this question: the economy increases our consumption possibilities. A well-functioning economy is one that offers a widening array of ever-more affordable goods and services, from food and consumer items to housing and transportation.

mutual funds (MFs) up to ₹1.25 lakh in a financial year without paying tax. Capital losses can also be used to offset gains and reduce tax liability.

Mint.In India’s fast-growing but tightly regulated beer market—dominated by three global brewers controlling about 80% of sales—smaller players face mounting cost pressures and limited pricing flexibility. Premiumization is emerging as a key strategy for these brewers to protect margins and expand.Bhatia said the company expects healthy growth in line with or higher than the market average from its FY25 turnover of ₹400 crore, adding that the business has been profitable since its third year of operations.The brewer currently operates at an Ebitda margin of around 20%, compared with 10-15% for listed beer companies, which are significantly larger in scale.The company’s growth comes even as beer makers grapple with rising packaging and logistics costs.Bhatia said packaging accounts for nearly half the cost of production, particularly in cans and glass bottles, while the liquid itself contributes roughly 10-15% of the total cost.These pressures are making the low-priced segment increasingly difficult for smaller brewers, he said.Bhatia said the pricing playbook followed by Budweiser Magnum, owned by AB InBev, has reshaped how smaller brewers think about margins.

Renault S. A.

₹350 crore, its managing director and chief executive Saugata Gupta said during the December-quarter earnings call.Gupta said the company’s broader digital-first portfolio, which includes specialized and online-led brands, is also scaling rapidly and is expected to exit 2025-26 with an ARR exceeding ₹1,000 crore.Premiumization has also played a key role in its core hair oil business. Gupta said the value-added hair oils category delivered another strong quarter with market share reaching an all-time high of nearly 30%, reflecting “considerable progress towards premiumization of the mix”.Marico's group chief financial officer, Pawan Agrawal, said this shift towards higher-value products has also supported profitability.

“The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.”—All the President’s MenAmerican Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a Democrat and member of the Foreign Relations Committee, took to social media Tuesday night to share takeaways from a classified briefing the White House shared with him and other legislators about the Iran war.“I obviously can’t disclose classified info, but you deserve to know how incoherent and incomplete these war plans are,” he noted, emphasizing that regime change in Iran is no longer in the cards. “They are going to spend hundreds of billions of your taxpayer dollars, get a whole bunch of Americans killed, and a hardline regime—probably a MORE anti-American hardline regime—will still be in charge.”Murphy also said US President Donald Trump’s administration no longer intends to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.

Multi-asset allocation funds have emerged as the new favourite among mutual fund investors. Multi-asset funds received the highest inflows of ₹8,476 crore in February, per Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) data.In an interview with Mint, Deepak Shenoy, chief executive officer (CEO) of Capitalmind AMC, explains how these funds work, who they are suitable for and whether investors risk chasing yet another market fad. Edited excerptsMulti-asset funds were created for a certain type of investor.

government bond eased from Tuesday as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) purchased government securities to inject liquidity. The 10-year yield ended Thursday at 6.66%.

₹4,466 during mid-day trading, mirroring a broader market rebound. The stock eventually closed 0.7% lower, but still outperformed the Sensex, which ended the day down 1.7%.Behind the renewed investor faith lies the return of founder and managing director Rahul Bhatia as interim chief executive.Bhatia, who co-founded the airline with his friend, Rakesh Gangwal, in 2006, minced no words in his first email to the staff on Tuesday evening.