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Swiss luxury watchmaker Tag Heuer is riding India’s growing middle class to bet that localized retail sales can offset a falling global appetite for high-end Swiss timepieces. The LVMH-owned brand plans to open boutique shops rather than rely on third-party distributors to shore up sales in a volatile luxury market.As parent LVMH struggles with a profit slide, India’s demand for Swiss watches has defied the downturn, surging more than 26% early this year.

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₹600 per kg to ₹1,000 per kg, premium Mamra almonds from Iran up about 25% to ₹3,500 per kg, and prunes in some cases doubling from ₹500 per kg to ₹1,000 per kg. Pistachio prices have risen from ₹2,000 per kg to ₹2,800 per kg in the past month.Overall, he said, imported dry fruit prices have increased between 15% and 100%, depending on availability and sourcing constraints.India sources a wide range of dry fruits globally, with Iran and Afghanistan among the key suppliers of pistachios, figs, raisins, apricots, dates and premium Mamra almonds.

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steel tubes market, supported by an expansive distribution network.That scale advantage is difficult for competitors to replicate, and remains the backbone of APL’s pricing power and market-share resilience. Thanks to this pricing power, Nuvama Institutional Equities expects Ebitda per tonne to remain healthy at over ₹5,500.Importantly, this is no longer just a volume-led story.

The civil aviation ministry on Thursday has suspended a decision requiring airlines to offer passengers free selection for at least 60% of the seats on a flight. Mint examines whether this will help airlines offset rising aviation turbine fuel costs triggered by the war in Iran.Last month, the country’s aviation regulator asked airlines to offer 60% of the seats on every domestic flight to be selected free of charge, allowing passengers to choose them without paying an additional fee.

move, cleared at Sebi’s March board meeting, allows FPIs to settle funds on a net basis in the cash market, replacing the current system where each leg of a transaction is settled separately. The change is aimed at reducing funding costs and aligning India with global practices, but intermediaries warn it could strain systems and workflows.Some industry participants have also questioned the timing amid volatile global conditions.Under the current gross settlement system, FPIs must fund each transaction independently.

EPL Ltd’s recently announced merger with Indovida is not just another expansion, but a shift in the business model. The transaction is structured as a share-swap, making it largely cash-neutral, where EPL will issue shares to Indovida shareholders.The deal values EPL at about ₹339 per share, implying a 70% premium to its pre-announcement closing price on 27 March, while Indovida is being acquired at a discount to EPL’s valuation multiple.

With the war in Iran now in its second month, India’s cooking-gas shortage is turning serious. Policymakers must view this as more than a temporary blip; it is a crisis that may permanently shift how the world’s most-populous nation consumes energy. Electric cooktops are vanishing from shelves: Amazon’s local unit reported a 30-fold jump in sales.

India’s defence exports surged to a record ₹38,424 crore in 2025-26, marking a 63% increase over the previous year, defence minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday. The ballast was provided by defence public sector undertakings, whose outbound shipments saw an impressive 151% increase to ₹21,071 crore. Defence exports by the private sector recorded a relatively modest 14% rise to ₹17,353 crore.

India’s proposed amendments of its IT Rules may read at first glance as a technical tightening of platform obligations. The government has described them as “clarificatory and procedural,” intended to improve legal certainty, strengthen enforceability and ensure more effective oversight of content hosted by online intermediaries, particularly news and current affairs.A closer reading, however, suggests that government ‘advisories,’ ‘guidelines’ and ‘clarifications’ could effectively become binding.

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Mint, the company “has started receiving queries and having conversations with at least two West Asian nations to supply space-based sensing and Earth observation data”.Speciale Invest and Infosys-backed GalaxEye is in the race for surveillance satellite solution services. Suyash Singh, co-founder and CEO, said the company is ready to launch its Drishti optical and synthetic aperture radar (OpToSar) surveillance satellite this quarter, following which surveillance imaging and data services will commence commercially from July.“There is certainly a lot of interest, but the number of surveillance satellites that can cater to foreign demand in the current war from India is only in double digits, as compared with the US having hundreds of satellites in orbit," Singh said."We’re launching a 1.5-metre earth observation satellite in about two months, and in anticipation of the future demand based on queries received, have established plans to set up a 0.5-metre resolution satellite constellation of 20 satellites for Earth observation and surveillance constellation by 2029,” he added.Space firms are therefore hedging their bets on surveillance satellites, seeking to tap into a global surge in demand for space-based data.Several factors are driving this shift.“One of the key factors is that many West Asian nations, including Iran, do not have sovereign satellite capabilities and run very limited and small-scale space programmes.

Bengaluru: India’s growing faith-tech startups are moving beyond digital horoscopes and virtual rituals to claim the nation’s $35 billion market for spiritual merchandise. So, the firms that once focused solely on software are now wrestling with the complexities of supply chains, selling everything from ‘blessed’ crystals to sacred beads.The pivot toward e-commerce is a move for higher margins and stronger customer loyalty.

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With no end in sight to the West Asia war, concerns are rising over inflation, interest rates and GDP growth in India. As part of the Money Guru series, Bank of Baroda chief economist Madan Sabnavis breaks down the potential impact on the economy, household finances and job markets, and assesses whether recession risks are real or overstated.At a theoretical level, inflation could rise, but much depends on how long the war lasts, how high crude oil prices go and how much of this increase is passed on to consumers. So far, the government reduced excise duty on petrol and diesel, absorbing much of the crude price increase.

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd’s EV debut got off to a poor start with production falling short of target as its domestic launch got delayed, a rare-earth magnet crisis hit manufacturers and global electric vehicle sales growth slowed.The country’s largest car manufacturer exported 25,000 EVs and registered 1,400 units domestically in FY26, missing a target set by chairman RC Bhargava at the start of the fiscal year to produce 70,000 units of its first electric vehicle, mostly for overseas markets. Although Maruti hasn’t disclosed EV production numbers, they are typically a little higher than sales volumes.“There were some initial delays but now the ramp-up is progressing steadily,” Rahul Bharti, senior executive officer-corporate affairs at Maruti Suzuki, told Mint in an emailed response.According to experts, Maruti’s EV manufacturing plan faced setbacks for reasons ranging from a delay in the launch to production-related issues.“The lower-than-anticipated production came on the back of rare earth magnet issues which affected production schedules of automakers.

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