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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: More than half of IPO-linked capital expenditure in India in the first quarter of 2026 went into technology, cloud and network infrastructure, reflecting a broader shift in how newly listed companies are deploying capital.The trend was visible in the composition of initial public offering (IPO) spending patterns. Data from Uniqus Consultech shows capex accounted for about 30% of the ₹18,778 crore raised across 18 mainboard IPOs in the quarter.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Committed occupancy levels – office spaces where leases have already been signed with tenants but are yet to commence – for key listed real estate investment trusts (Reits) exceeded the 90% mark in FY26. Management executives at Reits are largely upbeat on demand prospects, providing room for occupancy improvement.Embassy Office Parks REIT sees occupancy rising to 92-93% and Brookfield India Real Estate Trust pegs it at 96%.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India Inc’s debate over work-from-home is returning on a call from prime minister Narendra Modi as part of a strategy to deal with the repurcussions of the West Asia war. This comes at a time artificial intelligence is reshaping jobs and productivity expectations, while macroeconomic pressures—from currency weakness to tighter cash visibility—add a new layer of urgency for chief executives.Mint reached out to Dr Ram Charan, feted global advisor to CEOs and boards, for his views on the tough choices CEOs need to make. Dr Charan, formerly a board member at Hindalco Industries, dwelled on work from home, top CEO worries, how AI will reshape the workplace, and how workers can retrain themselves.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Indraprastha Gas Ltd’s (IGL) March quarter (Q4FY26) earnings underscored a familiar contradiction for city gas distributors (CGDs)—robust demand growth alongside rising concerns over profitability owing to cost pressures.Volumes rose 6% year-on-year to 9.7 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) in Q4, aided by 5% growth in CNG and 9% and 13% increases in industrial/commercial and domestic PNG volumes, respectively. Revenue grew 5.4% to ₹4,163 crore.The company has guided for FY27 exit volumes of 10.6 mmscmd.Tailwinds remain supportive.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: The mutual fund industry may be closing in on a structural fix to a long-running cost problem that weighs on asset manager profitability and makes small investments less viable.The industry is working on creating its own KYC Registration Agency (KRA) through Mutual Fund Utility (MFU), a move that could cut know-your-customer (KYC) expenses by nearly half, according to four people aware of the discussions.If implemented, the shift would directly reduce fixed onboarding costs that AMCs must pay for every new investor, regardless of investment size, these people said.Currently, asset management companies (AMCs) pay around ₹35 to KRA agencies for every new investor onboarded. That cost applies even to very small investments.Take a ₹500 monthly systematic investment plan.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Sen. Tim Scott called President Trump on Tuesday with a last-ditch plea.The president was on the verge of publicly endorsing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the state’s tightly contested Republican primary.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Cubans contending with widespread blackouts and growing desperation increasingly hope that a U.S. pressure campaign will lead to change on the island, even as the Communist government projects defiance.Many see a chance for greater freedom and economic transformation, even as others vow to resist any American military intervention.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI as a non-profit entity in 2015 along with Sam Altman and others, has suffered a setback. His lawsuit against Altman for turning a carved-out subsidiary of OpenAI into a profit-oriented entity has been rejected by a US court. Musk’s suit was found to be too late under the law of limitations, which prevents legal action against an event after a specified time lapse.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s insurance sector has found renewed vigour, with two global players ready to expand their market presence and others exploring entry. On Monday, US-based Liberty Mutual Insurance announced a stake increase in its Indian venture Liberty General Insurance to 74% from a bit above 55%.A day earlier, UK-based Prudential said it will buy a 75% stake in Bharti Life Insurance Company. Also, Germany’s Allianz has struck a 50:50 joint venture (JV) with Jio Financial Services.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A 42-year-old client says he is in a constant state of transition. “In my 20s and 30s, I felt I had to give everything to my work so that my business could settle. Now, in my 40s, I’m caught between caregiving for my unwell parents and trying to develop a sturdy relationship with my teenage children.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.From its early days mailing DVDs to becoming a major feature film studio, Netflix isn’t done disrupting the entertainment industry.Speaking at the Licensing Expo in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Netflix Chief Marketing Officer Marian Lee announced the company is expanding into new family-oriented business segments, with “major moves” into toys and candy.Netflix in a press release cited the popularity of its “kids and families” content as one of the reasons for moving further into consumer products.The streaming company said it is working with Ferrero Group to bring Charlie and the Chocolate Factory offerings to market, beginning with 10 seasonal and limited-edition chocolates, plus sugar confectionery, ice cream, and cereals. These products will launch this fall in the U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A weekslong selloff in government bonds has intensified in recent days, threatening to drive up borrowing costs across the globe and knocking some momentum out of what had been a furious stock rally.With bond prices sliding, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note, a key benchmark for mortgage rates and other borrowing costs, reached as high as 4.687% Tuesday, its highest intraday level since January 2025.The yield on the 30-year U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: India’s largest banks are stepping up cyber defences, hiring, and insurance coverage as concerns grow that advanced AI systems could make cyberattacks faster and harder to contain, exposing gaps in preparedness and protection.The pressure has risen after a finance ministry meeting with top banking executives on 23 April focused on banks’ preparedness for AI-linked cyber threats. The meeting came weeks after Anthropic unveiled Claude Mythos, a frontier AI model the company said could identify vulnerabilities and conduct cyberattacks at unprecedented speed.Concerns around AI-enabled attacks have grown since September last year, when a cloud storage server exposed personal banking data of nearly 300,000 individuals, including loan account details linked to several large banks and non-banking finance companies.India’s largest private lender, HDFC Bank, told Mint it reviews cyber insurance annually and is now widening coverage as risks evolve.“The bank is continuously strengthening its cyber security posture, including hiring highly-skilled talent across security engineering, developer security operations, red-teaming or simulation of cyber attacks, and AI security,” said Ramesh Lakshminarayanan, group head of information technology and chief information officer at HDFC Bank.At Axis Bank, teams participate in programmes such as adversarial AI and ‘red teaming’ to simulate attacks.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.There was a telling moment on the second day of Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing. America’s president was strolling with Xi Jinping through the gardens of Zhongnanhai, the Chinese leadership compound, on May 15th.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.You are blessed with a baby girl and want to begin investing in her name. For many parents, the first option that comes to mind is the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY).Backed by the government and offering fixed returns with tax benefits, the scheme has become one of the most popular long-term investment options for daughters.However, while the returns may look attractive, there are important restrictions around lock-in and liquidity that parents often overlook before investing.The current interest rate on SSY is 8.2%.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.BENGALURU: India’s top engineering and management institutes are no longer content with merely incubating startups. Increasingly, they also want to participate in the upside created by companies emerging from their own ecosystems.Institutions including Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, IIT Madras and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru are setting up venture funds to invest in campus-linked deeptech startups, as rising investor interest in sectors such as semiconductors, defence and spacetech pushes universities to play a larger role in the businesses they help build.But why are they doing this now? How are these funds structured? And what kind of startups are they backing? Mint explains.So far, IIT Bombay and IIT Madras have launched venture funds, while IISc Bengaluru is in the process of setting up one.The funds are being structured through affiliated entities, incubators and alumni-backed networks because IITs and IISc operate as Section 8 entities, or non-profit organisations.IIT Madras, through its research park, has partnered with venture firm Unicorn India Ventures to launch the IITM Unicorn Frontier Fund, a ₹600 crore vehicle with a ₹400 crore green-shoe option.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Coming soon to ChatGPT: help with your personal finances based on insights from your actual accounts. OpenAI says subscribers to the Pro version of its artificial-intelligence chatbot will be able to connect their financial accounts to it and get personalized guidance.OpenAI is relying on Plaid, a fintech company, to securely link users’ bank accounts to ChatGPT, according to an OpenAI announcement on Friday.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged employees across organizations to work from home (WFH). With fewer commutes, nationwide fuel consumption would fall, making WFH seem like an instant remedy for the current fuel crunch. The critical question, however, is whether WFH is a reversible move.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: This month, India’s semiconductor push gathered momentum with Tata Electronics’ pact with Dutch major ASML and two new projects, a mini/micro-LED display fabrication unit in Dholera and an OSAT packaging facility in Surat.With nearly a dozen semiconductor initiatives now underway, how close is India to becoming self-reliant in chips?Tata Electronics’ pact with ASML, the world’s leading maker of chip lithography equipment, marks a key step in India’s entry into global semiconductor manufacturing by securing access to critical technology. Alongside the two projects announced in May—a micro-LED display fab in Dholera and an OSAT packaging facility in Surat with a combined investment of ₹3,936 crore—the move broadens India’s semiconductor base.The micro-LED fab positions India in advanced display manufacturing, while the OSAT unit helps plug a packaging gap, reducing dependence on Taiwan and Malaysia.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp has doubled its share buyback programme to $2 billion in 2026, with the flexibility to buy shares worth as much as $3.45 billion as the Nasdaq-listed company looks to instill investors with confidence after its stock was battered this year.The board of directors authorized the increase in the share repurchase target from $1 billion originally planned for 2026, the company said in a statement 18 May. The repurchase is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2026.“Our plan to increase the amount of share repurchases reflects our strong conviction in the long-term opportunity AI creates and our critical role in it as an AI builder,” S Ravi Kumar, chief executive officer of Cognizant, said in the statement.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Amber Enterprises India Ltd exited FY26 with a healthy 22% year-on-year revenue growth at ₹12,186 crore, driven by its consumer durables and electronics segments.However, management has flagged margin pressure building in its core consumer durables business amid soaring input and labour costs.The consumer durables division — which contributes nearly 72% of total revenue and includes room air-conditioners (RAC) and related products — remains the backbone of the company.Despite Q4 being seasonally strong for AC companies, segment margins dropped to 7.5% in Q4FY26 from 8.4% in Q4FY25.For the full year, margins slid to 7.1% in FY26 from 7.7% last year.Copper-clad laminate and gold prices have risen over 60% in the past year, while minimum wages have increased sharply in key states such as Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.Amber has implemented a cumulative RAC price hike of around 14%. However, in consumer durables, price pass-through typically takes one quarter, while in PCB manufacturing it can take nearly two quarters.As a result, management has guided for a temporary margin decline of 50–100 basis points over the next few quarters.Amber already operates at sub-10% Ebitda margins.