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Revised estimates of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) released on Friday by the statistics ministry show a slightly smaller output pie than previously estimated, but testify to the Indian economy’s resilience. The new GDP series with 2022-23 as its base year pegs growth in 2025-26 at 7.6%, higher than 7.4% estimated under the old series with base year 2011-12. The slowdown of 2024-25 also turns out far milder, with GDP expansion slowing to 7.1% from 7.2% the year before, instead of 6.5% from 9.2%.

₹7,421 crore in 2024, per latest available data from media investment agency WPP Media, while media spends rise 7% to ₹7,989 crore the same year.“ICC’s new sponsorship cycle that began in 2024 had a leaner look with fewer number of brand partners,” the WPP report said. “This strategy, driven by the 'Less is More' approach, aims to limit sponsor slots, allowing each brand a larger Share of Voice (SOV) within the roster.

manufacturing expansion.The government has amended the BIS (Conformity Assessment) Regulations, 2018, restructuring the framework for Scheme-II and Scheme-VII by formalizing a Self-Declaration of Conformity (SDOC) model for eligible notified products.“Under this system, manufacturers can obtain a licence to use the Standard Mark through registration based on self-declaration, backed by accredited lab reports,” said one of the two officials cited above, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.Scheme-II refers to the registration-based certification framework under BIS, largely covering notified electronics and IT (information technology) products where conformity is established through third-party testing and documentation, rather than mandatory pre-licence factory inspection.Under the revised Scheme-II, the application fee and annual licence fee are fixed at ₹1,000 each, with a resource fee of ₹25,000 per application payable in advance. Applications involving multiple test reports will attract an additional ₹20,000 for each extra report, with the fee structure now formally codified under the Self-Declaration of Conformity framework.Queries sent on Friday to BIS and the ministries of consumer affairs and commerce remained unanswered till press time.However, easier access to BIS certification—needed to use the Standard Mark on notified products—is paired with stricter ongoing compliance.

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free trade pact, opening up markets to each other in an uncertain global trade landscape. From India’s perspective, the agreement delivers unprecedented market access, with over 99% of Indian exports by trade value set to receive preferential or duty-free entry into the EU market.The rules provide some flexibility while still requiring clear value addition in India.

Bharti Enterprises founder and chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal has said that members of the next generation of the Bharti family will become more visible ‘at the shareholders’ table’ in the coming years, signalling a gradual succession plan within the group.Mittal said the younger family members would be mentored by him, executive vice-chairman Gopal Vittal, and the senior leadership team as they gradually assume larger roles. The comments offer the clearest indication yet of how succession planning is evolving at the Bharti Group, signalling continuity while retaining professional management oversight at one of India’s largest telecom and diversified business conglomerates.Speaking about succession planning as he approaches 70, Mittal said in a recent investor call with analysts that he still has ‘some years left’ to contribute to Bharti Airtel and Bharti Enterprises.“The next generation of my family—a larger family—is all building muscle in different forms and shapes.

assassination of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which has raised hopes of a speedy end to the conflict, regime change in Teheran, peace in the region and the stability that markets crave. Iran's state media confirmed that Khamenei died on the first day of military assault by the US and Israel."Markets could actually rally on hopes of stability in the region in the days ahead after the confirmed death of the supreme leader," said Nirmal Jain, founder of IIFL Group.

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₹1.71 trillion as fertilizer subsidy for FY27. The support goes to plant nutrients such as urea, phosphorous and potash, with the subsidy system designed to partially absorb price spikes faced by farmers arising from international commodity shocks.At the same time, policymakers have begun encouraging alternatives.

A rift between the AI firm Anthropic and the US federal government has broken into the open at a fraught geopolitical moment. Negotiations between the AI firm and the Pentagon over deployment of frontier models by the US military stalled after Anthropic refused to permit the use of its models for two specific use cases: domestic surveillance and lethal autonomous weapons. Open AI has struck a deal with the Pentagon in the meantime, even as the use of AI in the battlefield accelerates with deployments by Israel and the US in the ongoing war in West Asia.

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healthcare access, and household finances months after their exit from the company.However, employees noted that the CEO, Ankur Jain, was not at his residence during the demonstration.The group has also launched an Instagram page documenting employee grievances and the protest.The protest underscores the severity of the financial and governance crisis at B9 Beverages, once among India’s fastest-growing craft brewers. What began as delayed salary payments in late 2024 escalated into halted production, large-scale exits and mounting statutory disputes—raising broader questions around startup governance, employee protections, and accountability in venture-backed firms.Employees said repeated attempts to seek clarity on repayment timelines failed to yield firm commitments, prompting the decision to protest outside the promoter’s residence.“There is no other place for us to protest, except outside his house,” one employee said.Jain expressed regret over unpaid salaries.

The fear of artificial intelligence (AI) is so rampant now that it appears to be a matter of decorum to admit to this fear. People keep telling me AI is coming and that I should be scared. I’m very open to being scared, which I’ve always thought is a reasonable way of surviving life, but somehow I am not, and I have tried to understand why.Also, I don’t know what exactly I should be scared of, because there are two distinct fears.

In a recent judgement in the Supertech case, the Supreme Court held that the focus of insolvency resolution in real estate cases should be on home completion rather than liquidation. We had argued for such an approach in our article in Mint on 7 October (shorturl.at/mTftF). This judgement should fundamentally alter the real estate insolvency process and bring relief to thousands of tormented homebuyers.

₹590 crore siphoned from Haryana government accounts through the bank’s Chandigarh branch, allegedly by employees colluding with outsiders—is dismaying but not surprising. Bank frauds of this kind have happened before and will happen again. That alone is not what is driving the fury on social media.What is driving it is something else entirely.Most of the funds were restored or secured within about a day.

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Mint explains this breakthrough initiative for patients with severe facial disfigurement and who have exhausted conventional options to restore critical functions such as breathing, eating, and speaking, besides identity and social acceptance; along with accompanying legal and ethical issues.Face transplantation has transitioned from an experimental procedure to an established clinical practice. Successful procedures have been performed in France (the site of the first partial transplant), the US, China, and Turkey.

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, she was reading a book called “Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage,” about a woman disentangling the family finances after her husband of 20 years abruptly leaves her. While Adhikari had no concerns about her husband running off, the book did get her thinking about how little she knew of their monetary logistics.