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₹30,500 crore in FY15 to nearly ₹2.9 lakh crore by FY25, according to industry estimates and RBI data.The rapid expansion in cards and outstanding dues raises an uncomfortable question: are more Indians slipping into a credit card debt trap?Outstanding balances per card have also climbed steeply—from ₹1,600 in FY15 to nearly ₹25,700 in FY25—signalling significantly higher credit utilization.For those who have already fallen into the trap, is there a practical way out? Experts say—yes, there is.The real issue, experts argue, is not the rise in credit card usage, but the purpose for which cards are being used.“While rising credit card usage reflects both expanding financial access and growing consumer confidence, the intent behind spending matters more than the volume,” said Yashoraj Tyagi, chief executive officer, CASHe, an online lending platform.“When usage grows faster and financial literacy doesn’t catch up, credit stops being just a convenience tool, it becomes a survival tool,” said Bhuvanaa Shreeram, co-founder of House of Alpha Investment Advisers, a Sebi registered investment advisory firm.Rising delinquencies suggest that for a segment of borrowers, cards are not just financing convenience purchases—they are also plugging cash-flow gaps. And that, she believes, is the real problem.According to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Financial Stability Report, household debt in India rose to about 41.3% of GDP by end-March 2025, up from around 38% in recent years.

A recent report by the Haut-Commissariat à la Stratégie et au Plan that urged the EU to consider either steep tariffs on Chinese imports or a deliberate weakening of the euro against the renminbi has triggered reactions well beyond Paris and Brussels. What began as a domestic French strategic recommendation has evolved into a wider debate about Europe’s economic direction and its role in an increasingly fragmented global trading system.The proposal, suggesting tariffs of up to 30% or a 20–30% euro depreciation, reflects mounting anxiety over Europe’s widening trade imbalance with China and its erosion of industrial competitiveness.

NEW DELHI: India recently piloted peer-to-peer power trading that will enable consumers such as households, businesses and farmers who generate renewable energy to directly sell their surplus power to other consumers through digital protocols. Mint examines how digital public infrastructure under the India Energy Stack helps such transactions.Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading refers to the direct trading of power between consumers. Once implemented, it will allow households and entities that produce solar power through rooftop installations to sell their excess generation to other consumers.

India’s digital public infrastructure story has been remarkable. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) made digital payments a habit. CoWin demonstrated population-scale tech execution during a crisis.

The new Income Tax rules have proposed a change for claiming house rent allowance (HRA) that may affect claims where the rent is paid to parents, siblings or any other relative. Effective 1 April, salaried employees may have to clearly state their relationship with their landlord while claiming HRA tax benefits.The aim is to prevent misuse of the exemption, especially in cases where rent is shown to be paid to family members to reduce tax liability, said Sandeepp Jhunjhunwala, partner at Nangia Global Advisors.

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cement division in 2023 after 12 years at BCG. In 2024, Abhishek Malhotra, who has worked at McKinsey and Kearneyover 10 years, joined RPSG Group as president and strategy head.

₹250- ₹270.Now let’s talk of the present. Today, India is the world’s fourth largest economy and is eyeing the number three spot. Our per capita income has crossed $3,000.

Mumbai: India is increasingly seeing private equity and venture capital backed companies tap public markets at an earlier stage in their lifecycle, driven by factors such as greater predictability in business performance, liquidity needs, and conducive regulatory policies, making IPOs an attractive option.“Over the past few years, public markets have also become more willing to underwrite newer business models. That increases confidence for sponsors to view IPOs (initial public offerings) as a viable, attractive exit option earlier in the company lifecycle,” Gaurav Sood, managing director and head of equity capital markets of Avendus Capital.

Jewar: HCL Group, the parent firm of India’s third-largest tech services company HCLTech, aims to supply chips for a quarter of all of India’s displays within as soon as two years, chairperson of the group Roshni Nadar-Malhotra said on Saturday.The top executive, who also happens to be the only woman at the helm of one of India’s six large-cap IT services firms, was speaking at the inauguration of the company’s joint-venture chip assembly plant for displays in Jewar, Uttar Pradesh.“It’s too early to discuss client names, but there is ample demand, and India has a huge market. We’ll roll out the first commercial display chip from our plant in 2028, and look to scale up to our peak capacity of 36 million chips per month very soon.

Mint on 19 February.Concerns around the death knell for the IT services sector comes after India’s $283 billion IT sector lost at least $45 billion in market value in the first six weeks of this year.The knee-jerk reaction came after OpenAI’s GPT 5.3-Codex and Anthropic’s Claude 4.6-Cowork demonstrated abilities to automate tasks such as sales invoicing, legal processes and more, which is handled by TCS, Infosys, and HCLTech. Shares of these IT firms fell 10-14% in five days, after Anthropic and OpenAI’s launches.Still, like Altman, many believe that AI could actually lead to being a new growth vector for IT services.“Enterprises won’t splurge on AI until they see clear business returns, and for them, the big takeaway will be to ensure that it works with legacy systems and gives actual benefits—none of which should kill the middleware layer of technology firms,” Ana Paula Assis, senior vice-president and chair for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific at IBM, told Mint.On 9 February, analysts at brokerage firm Investec also argued in favour of the tech outsourcers, and said they “should benefit from legacy code modernization, migration of legacy SaaS (software as a service) applications, building AI foundation layers for enterprises and physical AI, among other opportunities.”On 15 February, analysts at Kotak Institutional Equities also questioned if OpenAI and Anthropic’s advancements were hyped more than what there were worth.“Benchmarking results (of AI models) aligned more with incremental improvements rather than a large step-up in capabilities.

₹590 crore fraud at its Chandigarh branch were genuine or forged, two people familiar with the matter said, even as it has suspended four officials and prepares a forensic audit.The Warburg Pincus-backed lender on Sunday said the discrepancy was discovered when a Haryana government department requested that its account be closed and the funds transferred to another bank—the account balance was found to differ from what the account owner believed it should be. Similar discrepancies were noted when other Haryana government entities engaged with the bank on their accounts.IDFC First told the stock exchanges that it has informed the RBI, filed a complaint with the police and is also in the process of filing further complaints with appropriate law enforcement agencies and reporting to relevant authorities.

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In Jules Verne’s classic Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Captain Nemo’s futuristic submarine, the Nautilus, is battery-powered. Electric shipping has remained science fiction ever since. That might be about to change, though.

Mumbai finally got itself a new mayor, Ritu Tawde from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after a long hiatus. The city’s municipal corporation is the country’s richest local body and expectations from the incoming mayor were quite high.

Kati Patang Lifestyle, the maker of Saffron Lager and Bareilly Bold, is sharpening its focus on premium beers and preparing to enter the spirits business.Co-founder, Shantanu Upadhyay, speaking to Mint exclusively, said it is in advanced discussions to acquire a controlling stake in premium spirits brands and distribution networks, which could expand its addressable market from roughly $1-10 billion while improving margins.The company is also scaling up its UK presence as the BSE-listed brewer seeks to reposition itself as a lifestyle-led alcoholic beverage platform rather than a niche craft label. Kati Patang is also planning a real estate project under its name, which will house some hospitality projects.The decade-old New Delhi-based company, which listed last year through a share-swap with VirtualSoft Systems Ltd, has increased its stake in CHADKP Holdings Ltd, owner of Chadlington Brewery and The Tite Inn in Oxford, from 23% to 51%, gaining majority control within a year of its initial £300,000, or about ₹3.67 crore, investment.The company is also in advanced talks to enter the spirits business, given that a large share of alcohol consumption in India is in brown spirits such as whisky.

A few months ago when the editor of Rahul Pandita’s debut novel asked me for a blurb, I wrote that his book was “addictive”. I thought I had found a way to say something meaningful about a book in a blurb, a form of praise that has become meaningless, filled with tired phrases like “tour de force.” But then I realized that I had not been paying attention to book covers. ‘Addictive’ is the new ‘unputownable.’ Apparently, the world believes addiction is a good thing, as long as it is said of a book.

IT services companies which are trying to adapt. Established network agency companies are struggling to stay relevant as advertisers turn to AI to not just generate creatives, but also conduct market research and run campaigns end-to-end.

₹1,800 billion in FY20 to ₹2,400 billion in FY25. Within this, branded ethnic wear grew faster, at an 18–20% CAGR, lifting the organized segment’s share from about 11% to nearly 19% between FY19 and FY22.Even so, the unorganized segment still accounts for roughly 70-75% of the market, leaving significant room for organized players to expand while intensifying competition.Manyavar commanded roughly 38% share of India’s branded men’s ethnic wear market as of FY22, the latest available data, underscoring its dominance within the organized segment.