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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The government is preparing to table the Electricity Amendment Bill, 2025, in the upcoming Budget Session, setting the stage for a significant overhaul of India’s power distribution sector, according to a news report. Ahead of its introduction, the Ministry of Power is expected to begin consultations with key stakeholders to build consensus around the proposed changes.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The U.S. dollar hovered near a one-month high on foreign exchange markets Friday as investors looked to both a key reading of the domestic labor market and a crucial ruling on tariffs to define the greenback’s direction into the coming months.

₹2,000 crore through a private placement of bonds—part of a broader ₹10,000 crore fundraising programme for FY26. Investors cheered the move, pushing the stock up 8% since the fundraising announcement on 1 September.The rally, however, comes after a choppy stretch, even as industry tailwinds promise potential. Its long operating track record and market leadership position NHPC as a key beneficiary of the government’s ambition to build 55 GW of hydropower capacity by 2030.

The recent decision of Indian Railways (IR) to raise fares on all classes of travel, other than suburban rail, season passes and short-distance second-class ordinary, reflects a dilemma that has long dogged IR and underpinned its fare decisions: Should IR be run as a commercial enterprise, albeit state-owned, or as a departmental undertaking with social objectives placed above profit?Historically, all governments, both before and after India’s 1991 embrace of market principles, have veered towards the latter view. Sadly, political calls have shaped almost everything about IR, including track expansion, stops along routes and, of course, train fares. Fare revisions have always had a populist angle.

The budget is around the corner, and the government is staring at a massive tax shortfall. To make matters worse, nominal GDP growth is likely to be slower than anticipated in 2025-26.However, neither of these two will put the government in an uncomfortable position, as non-tax revenues have exceeded expectations, and the fiscal deficit calculation will benefit from statistical revisions.The government’s tax collections have grown only 3.3% in April-November, sharply lower than the 10.8% growth aimed for in the budget.

Dear reader, as 2025, a year of global tumult and volatility, rolls by, Mint's reporters and columnists look around the corner on what is coming in 2026—to help you know what to expect and prepare for it. Tell us what you think at [email protected] venture capital (VC) funds have raised about $2.5 billion across 20 new vehicles so far in calendar 2025, outpacing the $1.6 billion secured via 16 funds in 2024 and $1.9 billion across 19 funds in 2023, according to Venture Intelligence.

When elevated valuations and fresh supply of equity could moderate market returns, investors could consider putting their money in equity schemes – with the flexibility to manoeuvre across sectors and market capitalizations – and in asset allocation schemes with a greater tilt towards equity, Sankaran Naren, executive director and chief investment officer at ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, said in an interview with Mint.Naren advises restraint while making standalone investments in precious metals like gold and silver at current prices, adding that exposure to them could at best be taken through multi-asset strategies or via asset allocation. The markets are closely tracking the impending Indo-US trade deal, he added.

challenges this approach, highlighting how unreliable recent performance can be for future returns.The study tracked the top 10 equity mutual funds in 2014 and mapped how their rankings shifted annually through 2025. It also analysed rankings based on three-year returnsThe findings illustrate why investors should dig deeper into historical returns, not just stop at funds’ recent performance, and why investors must even go beyond returns for their fund selection.The study does not disclose fund names, instead tracking rank movements over time.

₹19.6 lakh in FY25 compared to ₹14.5 lakh for a private bank employee, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 29 December. The gap has widened since FY24, when the per-employee profit of government-owned banks stood at ₹15.2 lakh, surpassing ₹14 lakh for their private peers.Profit per employee is a key metric that tracks staff productivity.India’s public sector banks had an image of being inefficient, with governments continually injecting fresh capital into them each year.

₹1 crore for high courts and ₹2 crore for the Supreme Court), pendency reduction has been marginal, reflecting a culture of litigation as bureaucratic insurance rather than legal necessity.This culture stems from several institutionalized incentives that make ‘default litigation’ the path of least resistance.Audit and vigilance frameworks indirectly treat unappealed losses as negligence; accounting codes of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) require every audit objection to be ‘settled’ or ‘explained,’ and an appeal offers safe harbour from being questioned, while a liberal appellate framework allows virtually automatic filing.Despite calls for a binding national litigation policy, successive governments have balked.Instead, we now have a ‘Directive for Efficient and Effective Management of Litigation’ (April 2025), which introduces nodal officers, legal cells and MIS dashboards, but lacks statutory teeth, performance-linked disincentives or real-time data integrity.LIMBS itself remains under-updated and fails to track reasons for appeal.Here is a five-point agenda for inclusion in a national litigation policy. First, India must move away from its open-ended appeal culture and adopt a ‘leave-to-litigate’ system that acts as a regulatory filter.

• Don’t go cold turkey. If you’re averaging multiple hours on social media, it’s not realistic to go to zero. Start with a goal of limiting or restricting your use by a certain amount.• Use your phone to set screen-time limits or cut-off times. Your phone can help you reach your goals.

The Indian stock market is no longer a place where bargains are easily available. Thanks to the rally over the past two years, all stocks, including midcaps, have moved up.Riding a mix of earnings growth, policy stability and steady domestic inflows, most now enjoy valuations way above their historical medians.In such an environment, the question for investors is no longer where growth exists; it is how to capitalise on it.

₹515 crore to Prestige Estates Projects Ltd. With this transaction, cumulative non-core asset monetization has reached ₹1,017 crore, slightly exceeding the company’s stated guidance of ₹1,000 crore. Before the Prestige deal, Ramco had already monetized ₹502 crore of non-core assets.As of the end of September, Ramco carried a net debt of ₹4,591 crore, with a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.6x and an interest coverage ratio of 3.23x.

₹350 crore. Rainmatter Foundation, which was set up in 2020 works as a different, non-profit entity which provides climate-related grants.While the firm's initial focus was on fintech, in the early 2020s, it ramped up investments to include industries like health and wellness as well as climate.Rainmatter’s stance comes at a time when many Indian venture capital funds have grown cautious on climate-tech, a sector that, despite early optimism, has struggled to deliver healthy exits or meaningful scale.Average cheque sizes in the segment have declined over the past three years, dropping from $52 million in 2023 to $28 million in 2024 and $27 million in 2025, according to data from Venture Intelligence, a private company tracking platform.“We never started investing in climate because other VCs were investing.

all-stock deal will bring Advent and Warburg Pincus onto Coforge’s board, a move that could bolster its fundraising prospects. Coforge will issue shares worth $1.89 billion to Encora’s shareholders at ₹1,815 apiece, and may raise about $550 million through a qualified institutional placement or a bridge loan to retire Encora’s term debt.The deal—India’s largest ever in IT services—could lift Coforge’s FY27 revenue by 28%, according to Jefferies India.

True financial well-being doesn't start by asking what the market can give you. It starts by calculating what you need to get. It begins with the Required Rate of Return.When you create a financial plan that is dependent upon market return expectations, you are essentially creating a home without a solid foundation.

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When the new tax regime was first introduced in the Union Budget 2020-21, it did not attract many takers that fiscal year.This new optional tax regime offered taxpayers lower tax rates in exchange for foregoing most tax deductions and exemptions under the then-prevailing old tax regime. Its newness and the fact that the old regime still remained more attractive for most people made the shift infeasible.However, the government brought in changes to make the new regime more attractive, encouraging more people to adopt it.

Sensex is on track to end December marginally in the red, extending last year’s weak finish and marking the sixth time in close to a decade that the benchmark index has closed the holiday month with losses.A Mint analysis shows the index headed for a modest decline of about 0.2% in December, following a 2% fall in December 2024. The only worse December in recent years was 2022, when the Sensex dropped almost 4%.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI : As scrutiny over train accidents mounts, the Centre is considering its biggest-ever outlay on rail safety, with allocations likely to cross ₹1.3 trillion in FY27, according to two people aware of the development. The proposed outlay, around 12% higher than the current year’s budget, would be directed towards maintaining rolling stock and critical infrastructure, including track renewals, and the rollout of India’s indigenous automatic train protection system—Kavach, one of the people said, requesting anonymity.

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