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The central bank is proposing a safety net for one of the world's largest digital payment ecosystems, offering to partially reimburse victims of cyber fraud—even when the victims themselves are at fault.The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday proposed that it, along with banks, will compensate victims of fraudulent digital banking transactions of up to ₹50,000. The customer will be paid up to 85% of the loss, or up to ₹25,000, whichever is lower.

₹1.19 trillion)market, which is still less than 5% organised,” he said.He also added that Uber’s existing intercity cabs business is growing about 50% year-on-year and operating across around 3,000 routes.Only 19% of India’s intercity bus market was booked online in fiscal 2023, underscoring how under-penetrated the category still is despite the scale of demand, according to a 2023 study by travel advisory firm VIDEC Consultants.The same report estimated the overall intercity bus market at ₹539 billion ($6.7 billion) in fiscal 2023 and projected it to grow to ₹688 billion ($8.6 billion) by fiscal 2026.Within the online segment, the report said MakeMyTrip Group-owned redBus controlled about 75% of the OTA intercity bus market in fiscal 2023, with ixigo-owned AbhiBus trailing behind.When asked why Uber was not using its own capital to build a standalone bus-ticketing business, Singh said the category was still under-penetrated enough for multiple models to coexist.“The best part of the fact that, as you laid out, it’s still under-penetrated means there is such a long journey, and we believe different business models will coexist,” he added.Uber wants to retain and acquire users who prefer buses as an affordable intercity option to Uber's premium cab option.

The fear that artificial intelligence will lead to mass layoffs is spreading. Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of the financial technology firm Block, laid off nearly half of its workforce last week. Citing AI’s labour-saving capabilities, he predicted other companies would soon follow suit: “Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes.”As an economist, I disagree with Dorsey’s prediction.

western disturbances travel eastward with westerly winds. They make for the primary source of rainfall and snowfall in northwest and north India in winter months.Though the number of western disturbances in the last three months was the highest in the last five years, their intensity was lower resulting in the highest rain deficit in the months those years."A majority of the western disturbances that influenced India during the winter season, especially during December to February, were feeble, resulting in below-normal rainfall and limited snowfall activity across large parts of northwestern India," said Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director general of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).Northwest India recorded rainfall deficits of 86.8% in February and 12% in January.

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Gold has nearly doubled and silver has tripled over the past two years. Both metals surged in popularity last year as investors globally placed greater trust in liquid physical assets over the US dollar-denominated financial system.In January, Indians invested more in gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) than in equity mutual funds for the first time, with net inflows surging to a record ₹24,040 crore even as equity fund investments slipped to ₹24,029 crore.

The Iran conflict has raised panic among retail direct investors who prefer investing in small and midcap stocks (Smids) and trading directly on the markets, unlike their mutual fund counterparts.This is borne out by activity data released by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) for Monday, the first day after markets reacted to the outbreak of war in the Middle East.It shows that retail investors sold shares worth ₹3,508.51 crore, more than foreign institutional investors' (FIIs) outflows of ₹3,070.55 crore, per NSE data. NSE had almost 93% share in the equity cash market as of January end, with the BSE accounting for the rest.Data on investor activity for Wednesday and Thursday will be available with a lag.

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Could India be returning to Russia for oil supplies? Going by a Bloomberg report, it seems so. Two shipments of Russian crude oil that were originally headed for East Asia have reportedly been redirected towards India and are expected to unload this week, with one already having reached Paradip.

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While most Indian households meticulously track their primary loans and repayment schedules to avoid the fallout of a default, a different category of spending often goes unnoticed. These are the ‘silent EMIs’ — recurring monthly payments that are individually small and scattered. Because they lack the immediate weight of a major loan, they are easy to overlook, yet their cumulative impact on a household's financial health is immensely powerful.Silent EMIs are the monthly payments we commit to without much thought about their impact on our household income.

India’s telecom giants and global technology firms are locked in a tussle over pricing and regulation of the country’s business internet backbone.At the centre of the clash are Domestic Leased Circuits (DLCs)—dedicated, high-security broadband lines used by banks, data centres and enterprises. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is conducting its first review of these tariffs in more than a decade, which could slash price caps that have been unchanged since 2014.The total revenue earned by service providers from DLCs in FY 2023–24 is around ₹13,300 crore, which is approximately 60% higher than the revenue earned in FY 2012–13, according to Trai.Mobile operators, including Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, are defending their turf, arguing that government intervention would amount to a subsidy for Big Tech.

₹290 crore in a Series B funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments, as the company looks to deepen its presence and expand its rural storefront network, Ankur Dahiya, co-founder and chief executive told Mint.“We started in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and we feel its the right time to expand our footprint in the same Ganges belt,” said Dahiya. “Secondly, we want to increase our penetration in the areas we're present.”The fundraise comes as Rozana scales its hybrid rural commerce model—combining neighbourhood storefronts and centralized warehouses with a network of women-led last-mile partners—at a time when relatively few startups are focused exclusively on India’s rural e-commerce opportunity.The fundraise was led by German conglomerate Bertelsmann's local venture capital arm, Bertelsmann India Investments (BII) with participation from Fireside Ventures, US-based Spark Growth Ventures, FE Securities and a few family offices.The deal was majorly a primary investment with a small component of secondaries to give early angel investors an exit.

investment funds that invest in alternative assets such as private equity, hedge funds and other non-traditional investments beyond traditional stocks and bonds, with wealthy individuals and institutions as their main investors. Regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), there are three categories of AIFs in the country, with Category III AIFs focusing on high-risk, high-return trading strategies using leverage.Tata AMC entered the Category III AIF space in 2019 with its Absolute Return Fund, a conservative long-short strategy.

XED, which provides education programs to top executives. The company plans to raise $12 million through a dollar-based offering in GIFT City this month.While the offering will test the IPO route at the offshore financial centre, the forthcoming framework is aimed at companies that want to list directly on the exchanges.If implemented, the proposal would allow Indian and global companies, whether already listed elsewhere or privately held, to list their shares on GIFT City exchanges without raising fresh capital.

e-Rupee, with total transactions of 120 million valued at ₹28,000 crore since its 2022 launch, central bank data till December showed. While retail CBDC can be used to pay other users, as well as merchants for goods and services, wholesale use cases include interbank settlements and large-value transactions.

India is weighing a plan to prioritize natural gas supply to critical sectors after LNG (liquefied natural gas) shipments from Qatar were disrupted following an attack on QatarEnergy’s Ras Laffan liquefaction complex on Monday, three people aware of the matter said.The move assumes significance as India imports about 55% of its natural gas requirement. Further, of the $14.9 billion worth of natural gas imports in FY25, Qatar’s share was about 50%, according to data from Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC).“The government is looking at multiple options to ensure uninterrupted supply of natural gas,” one of the three people mentioned above said on condition of anonymity.

West Asia conflict could ease.The benchmark Nifty50 index recovered close to half of its recent losses in the last hour on Thursday, as reports emerged that Iran had reached out to the US for talks to end the war, improving risk appetite. The news coincided with the weekly expiry of Sensex options on Thursday, which also forced the traders to square off their positions in panic.The US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on Saturday that killed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, triggering retaliation and fuelling a wider regional conflict in West Asia, dragging stock markets around the world lower.Over two trading sessions starting Monday, the Nifty50 had fallen 695 points, of which 285 points—about 41%—were recouped on Thursday.

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