Track Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) tighter gold loan rules are likely to slow growth in one of South Indian Bank’s fastest-growing businesses, with the lender saying the new rules could constrain how much demand it can meet.“The revised RBI guidelines will have a certain amount of impact on how much business we can do,” managing director and chief executive officer P. R.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Just as online brokers have made stock investing possible with a click, several applications now allow users to invest in fixed deposits (FDs) from multiple banks online without needing savings accounts with those banks.In April, low-cost broker Zerodha joined the bandwagon by launching such digital FDs on its investment platform Coin. Other apps that facilitate digital FD investments include Stable Money, SuperMoney, Jiraaf, and GoldenPiThe main advertising pitch for digital FDs is higher interest rates than those offered by traditional banks and the convenience of a one-stop shop.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A group of 20 AI researchers recently spent two weeks trying to break a set of autonomous AI agents—systems with real email accounts, persistent memory, shell access and the authority to act on their owners’ behalf. They succeeded 11 times out of the cases they documented. The agents disclosed private medical records, wiped email servers, broadcast defamatory messages, looped in resource-consuming spirals for nine days, and were corrupted through a fake governance document that gave an attacker persistent but invisible control across multiple sessions.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Farm goods that have long remained shut out of cash settlements may be in for a pivotal shift, potentially deepening derivatives trading in India's vital commodities sector. A regulatory panel formed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has greenlit cash settlements up to fixed thresholds in select agriculture commodities, two people aware of the discussions said, balancing the need to deepen the sector while minimizing the risks.Currently, physical delivery is mandatory for all farm derivatives, meaning traders must hand over or take receipt of the physical goods once the futures or options contract expires.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mumbai: Axis Bank is selectively chasing corporate loan growth in sectors with strong tailwinds, such as data centres, commercial real estate and renewables, while staying “watchful” in the weaker segments, said Vijay Mulbagal, group executive and head of wholesale bank coverage, corporate salary, sustainability and CSR.The private sector lender has also sidestepped the “bidding game” in some aggressively priced loans to state-run firms, as banks grapple with pressure on margins and companies remain cautious on large capital expenditure despite healthy profitability.India’s third-largest private lender reported a 38% growth in corporate loans during the March quarter of FY26, significantly outpacing its rivals. The growth of corporate lending—outstanding loans at ₹4.12 trillion as on 31 March—was also higher than the bank’s retail or small business segments.Mulbagal, who joined from HDFC Bank in 2024, took over the corporate vertical a year ago, told Mint in an interview that the bank has not been reckless and its underwriting standards have been strong, with corporate borrowers rated A- and above at 91% of the book.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Renewed hostilities near the Strait of Hormuz sparked a choppy retreat in domestic equities, even as favourable state-election outcomes provided a brief cushion to markets this week. Benchmark indices fell about 0.6% on Friday amid a global risk-off mood, as Iran accused the US of breaching their ceasefire agreement, citing attacks on its oil tankers and air strikes on coastal areas.But markets ultimately eked out marginal weekly gains, though the underlying sentiment remained fragile and directionless.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.OnEMI Technology Ltd, the operator of digital lending platform Kissht, listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday at ₹190 per share, an 11.1% premium to its issue price of ₹171. The debut offers one of the clearest public-market tests yet of whether an app-first lender can be valued beyond just another unsecured credit player.That question matters because while the market has large listed financial firms such as Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, and Aye Finance, it has few listed pure-play digital lenders of Kissht’s kind.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The usage gap in India’s flagship financial inclusion programme has widened further, with inactive zero-balance accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) surging to 26% at 143.83 million at state-run banks, while falling to 36% at 6.3 million at private banks as of March 2026.The total PMJDY accounts across state-run and private banks stood at 581.8 million, with deposits reaching ₹3.02 trillion by early April 2026. State-run banks had 449.8 million accounts, while private banks held 20.8 million.This spike in inactive accounts has been broad-based across public sector banks, which had 112.4 million dormant PMJDY accounts, or 21% of the total, at the end of March 2025.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.BENGALURU: Godrej Properties Ltd (GPL), the country’s highest-selling residential developer, is stepping up its push into high-value housing, lining up a series of premium and luxury launches across key markets as part of a ₹48,000 crore pipeline for fiscal year 2027 (FY27), executive chairperson Pirojsha Godrej said Wednesday.GPL is targeting ₹39,000 crore of sales bookings this year, on the back of a strong launch pipeline and demand for branded developers.The planned launches span prime micro-markets, including Golf Course Extension Road in Gurugram, Ashok Vihar in Delhi, and Bandra Bay in Mumbai, underscoring a clear tilt towards higher-ticket projects.The shift follows a year of aggressive land acquisitions in top locations and marks a more pronounced move into luxury, even as GPL has previously developed such projects.In Gurugram, now emerging as one of India’s key luxury hubs, GPL will develop a project on an 11.36-acre land parcel acquired earlier this year, with a revenue potential of about ₹4,500 crore. In Delhi, the company plans to launch a much-awaited project spread over around 27 acres in Ashok Vihar, where apartments are likely to be priced at ₹5 crore and above.In Mumbai’s Bandra Bay, where developers such as Adani Realty and others are preparing luxury launches, GPL is planning a project with apartments priced at over ₹15 crore each, as per analyst estimates.“The launches this year will reflect the kind of business development GPL has done last year, where it has acquired land in key micro-markets within the cities it operates in.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Industry bellwether Larsen & Toubro (L&T) didn’t go unscathed from geopolitical tensions despite strong order inflows and a robust backlog. The management estimates the company lost almost ₹5,000 crore of revenue in the March quarter (Q4FY26).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The rupee closed at a record low of 95.29 on Tuesday as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued to sell and crude prices stayed above $100 per barrel. Costlier oil is pushing up India’s import bill, while weak foreign inflows are limiting any recovery, said market participants.The rupee will see a meaningful recovery only once Brent crude falls below $100 and capital flows turn supportive again, market experts said, adding that against some emerging market peers, the rupee is beginning to look undervalued.Yet, the overall bias remains weak, with the rupee consistently facing selling pressure on rebounds.“In the near term, 94.70 is likely to act as resistance, while 95.50 is seen as immediate support, with markets closely tracking US non-farm payrolls and unemployment data this week for further direction," said Jateen Trivedi, vice-president and research analyst for commodity and currency at LKP Securities.Over the past year, the rupee has weakened by nearly 11%, with over 4% of that decline coming since the war broke out.Even as earnings improve and nominal growth normalizes, the rupee remains under pressure from higher crude prices this year and continued FPI selling after last year's trade tensions, said Harsh Gupta Madhusudan, fund manager, PIPE, Ionic Asset.The last one to two years have been the perfect storm for India with gold imports remaining strong, India not having any clear AI play, and post-2024 elections macro tightness filtering through with a lag, which is now being reversed.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.With the government planning to roll out E-PRAAPTI, an Aadhaar-linked portal by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), subscribers will soon be able to trace and access dormant or unclaimed provident fund accounts with minimal effort. The platform is designed to let users identify legacy accounts, link them to their Universal Account Number (UAN), update KYC details and reactivate balances through a fully digital process.The shift marks a move from an employer-dependent system to a member-led model, where individuals can manage PF accounts directly using digital authentication.Mint explores how the portal could help unlock dormant provident fund accounts and what the shift to a member-led system means for subscribers.India has a large number of inactive provident fund (PF) accounts, largely due to job changes, incomplete KYC, or accounts created before UAN became universal.Over time, EPFO has acknowledged that a significant portion of its total accounts are inactive or inoperative—many of them small-value balances that workers have lost track of.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Affordable-housing lender Shubham Housing Finance, backed by Multiples Private Equity and Premji Invest, has initiated early discussions with investment bankers for a potential ₹2,000-crore initial public offering (IPO) that could be filed within the current financial year, according to two people aware of the development.News of the Gurugram firm’s planned IPO comes over a month after early investors in Shubham Housing Development Finance partially exited through a $96-million secondary transaction led by private equity firm Creador, with participation from existing investor LeapFrog Investments.“Shubham has initiated preliminary talks with bankers. The contours of the issue are still being worked out,” said one of the people cited above.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: The shrill emergency alerts that lit up millions of phones across India on Saturday brings the spotlight on an ongoing legal battle on the award of this critical public safety network project.Germany-headquartered Utimaco Technologies has alleged irregularities in government’s selection of the implementation agency for the cell broadcast system to roll out a nationwide disaster alert mechanism, according to people in the know and a copy of the company's petition seen by Mint.A case on the matter has been pending before the Delhi high court since 2024, with the next hearing slated for 11 May 2026.Utimaco, which owns Israel-based emergency alert solution provider Celltick, said India's decision to assign the project to the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) lacked fairness and transparency. Citing the absence of an open tender, the petition said the move violated the principle of natural justice and fair competition.C-DOT is a research and development wing of the department of telecommunications (DoT).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Godrej Properties Ltd (GPL), India's best-selling residential developer, has set an ambitious sales target of ₹39,000 crore for 2026-27 even though home prices are likely to remain stable, executive chairperson Pirojsha Godrej told Mint in an interviewIn FY26, GPL's sales bookings rose 16% year-on-year to ₹34,171 crore. That was achieved through the sale of 17,513 units spanning 27 million sq ft, the highest ever by an Indian real estate firm.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.There is a tendency to think of mutual funds in binary terms: either actively managed or passive index funds. In reality, it’s a spectrum. Some active funds diverge sharply from their benchmark, making concentrated bets the index barely touches.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.State-owned Uco Bank expects its micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) portfolio to remain stable despite global headwinds, managing director and chief executive officer Ashwani Kumar told Mint in an interview on Thursday. The bank is eyeing a retail lending boost and is stepping up investments in technology to drive growth, he said.While geopolitical tensions and supply-chain disruptions could have some impact, Kumar expressed confidence that policy support would help cushion the sector.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A clarification by the Reserve Bank of India has undercut Tata Sons’ attempt to distance itself from public funds, potentially retaining it in the upper layer of non-bank financial companies (NBFCs), a category that entails tighter regulation and a mandatory listing requirement.The move complicates matters for the holding company of the Tata group, which has been trying to stay private, especially since RBI introduced its scale-based supervision of non-bank lenders.Late Wednesday, the central bank said it has received feedback that the mention of ‘indirect public funds’ in its draft non-banking financial company (NBFC) circular of 6 February leads to treating equity investment in an NBFC by group entities having debt as ‘indirect receipt of public funds’.Per RBI, public funds include funds raised either directly or indirectly through public deposits, inter-corporate deposits, bank finance and all funds received from external sources.Mint had reported in 2024 that Tata Sons had turned debt-free in a bid to avoid getting listed under the upper layer regulations and surrendered its registration as a core investment company (CIC). The RBI is yet to communicate its decision on this issue.A former regulator said the earlier argument was that since Tata Sons does not have public funds, it can give up its CIC registration, not be in the upper layer, and therefore can stay private, does not hold water.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Blackstone-backed Bagmane Prime Office Reit, which is set to launch its ₹3,405-crore initial public offering (IPO) next week, expects strong leasing momentum led by global capability centres (GCCs) as it looks to acquire assets and grow its portfolio, CEO Richard Hugh Andrew said.The IPO, which opens on 5 May, comprises an issue of fresh shares worth ₹2,390 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) worth up to ₹1,015 crore by a Blackstone affiliate. The proceeds from the new shares will be used to part-fund the acquisitions of Luxor at Bagmane Capital Tech Park, a million sq ft completed asset, and a 93% stake in Bagmane Rio Business Park, a 1.1 million sq. ft leased building.India currently has four listed office Reits—Mindspace Business Parks Reit, Embassy Office Parks Reit, Brookfield India Real Estate Trust (Biret) and Knowledge Realty Trust.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s top companies are estimated to have spent anywhere between ₹69,000 crore and ₹72,000 crore on legal matters in the fiscal year ended March. The spending has risen from ₹60,000 crore in FY25 due to shifting regulations, geopolitical risks and rising compliance demands.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The insurance sector requires deregulation in some areas and stronger regulation in others. However, deregulation does not mean laissez-faire,” said Ajay Seth, chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai).In an interaction with Mint, he outlined the regulator’s approach to balancing sector liberalization with consumer protection, amid proposed reforms such as the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha Act.He discussed foreign participation, regulatory safeguards, challenges in health insurance, global risks, and new initiatives such as the Public Insurance Registry and the Bima Sugam platform.