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Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day.” In India, which keeps getting pilloried by the US president as an exemplar of bad behavior in trade, the reciprocal tariff announcement of April 2 has acquired a fervent overtone. In preparation, New Delhi is offering one sacrifice after another, hoping that the angry god of the White House will let it go with nothing more serious than a slap on the wrist. The latest peace offering is the decision to do away with a 6% tax on ads that local businesses place with foreign search engines, social media and e-commerce firms. This is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s way of telling Trump, “Look, we aren’t China. Not only do we allow Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. to hog our digital-advertising pie, if you want us to make it cheaper for them to operate, that’s fine, too.” Also Read: India open to clearing import duty hurdle for US auto parts The sacrifice is a win for Trump, though it isn’t much of a loss for Modi. Known colloquially as the “Google Tax,” the levy was a bad idea when it was introduced in India’s 2016 budget. Since then, domestic advertisers have had to withhold 6 cents on the dollar when they get their bills from places like Ireland, where online platforms typically book their revenue. Just like Trump’s tariffs will be mostly paid by American consumers, the burden of the so-called Indian equalization levy had to be absorbed not by the tech platforms, but by the advertisers. It pushed up costs for local businesses. Where would they advertise, if not on Google or Facebook?

Nifty, has ended positive seven times in the last 10 years. Nifty’s highest return in April was 14.7% in 2020, during the Covid-induced nationwide lockdown. The next best years were 2018 and 2023, when the 50-stock benchmark gained 6.2% and 4%, respectively.

Anand Mahindra can’t stop gushing about this enterprising IAS officer. D. Krishna Bhaskar, who was posted as district collector in the Rajanna-Sircilla region of Telangana, created history in 2020 when he managed to increase groundwater levels by six metres in less than four years. Taking to X on Monday, the billionaire praised the IAS officer for coming up with an innovative solution to India’s water woes. The tycoon stated that in a country whose economy is dependent on farming, depleting water resources is a major concern.

Freezing rain swept through Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada's most populous province on Sunday, causing widespread power outages as trees and power lines were brought down across the upper Great Lakes region. Thousands of people were left without electricity, while forecasters warned of severe weather heading towards Tennessee. The National Weather Service predicted winds of up to 70 mph (112 kph), along with the potential for tornadoes and hail up to 2 inches (5 centimetres) by Sunday night. «Make sure your safe place is ready just in case,» forecasters advised via a post on X (formerly Twitter). By Sunday evening, approximately 360,000 customers were without power in Michigan, with another 62,000 outages reported in Wisconsin and more than 110,000 in Indiana. In Ontario, over 400,000 customers were affected, reported NYT.

Authorities have looked in recent months to revive confidence in the Chinese economy, grappling with a prolonged property sector crisis and now under increasing pressure from fresh trade tensions with the United States. The Purchasing Managers' Index — a key measure of industrial output — came in at 50.5 in March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), above the 50-point mark that separates growth and contraction. The reading for March was up from February's 50.2, and the highest in twelve months. Manufacturing was boosted by workers' return to work after the traditional Spring Festival travel period in February and the fact that «enterprises' production and operating activities accelerated,» NBS statistician Zhao Qinghe said in a statement.

borrowing roadmap for the first half of FY26, announcing plans to raise Rs 8 lakh crore through bond issuances between April and September, lower than the earlier estimate of Rs 8.4 lakh crore. As part of its evolving debt strategy, the Centre will also tap into the sustainable finance market, proposing to issue Rs 10,000 crore worth of green bonds during this period.

After fasting from dawn to dusk for 29 or 30 days, Eid is a joyous occasion to come together with loved ones, give thanks, and celebrate the blessings of Allah. This year, the crescent moon was sighted in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, March 30, marking Eid there, while in India, the celebrations will begin on Monday, March 31, 2025, following the moon sighting in Lucknow.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. With Myanmar devastated by an earthquake that has claimed more than 1,600 lives, India has initiated efforts to assist it in relief and rescue missions. Under Operation Brahma, two naval ships with relief supplies were despatched.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Do you have demat accounts with multiple brokers? Not only are you paying higher annual maintenance charges (AMCs), but these charges add up for every such account. But there is a way to lower this payout: open a basic services demat account (BDSA).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: The government is preparing to decriminalize more than 100 offences under various laws by the end of this year to improve investor confidence and unlock potential for faster economic growth, three persons familiar with the development said.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. In an industry known for controlling narratives, Indian advertising is now grappling with one it can’t spin. Just days before the Indian Premier League (IPL) kicked off—India’s single biggest ad moment of the year—the Competition Commission of India (CCI) launched a sweeping investigation into the heart of the media-buying ecosystem.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Ajay Piramal, head of the eponymous $10-billion pharma-to-financial services conglomerate, said for a succession plan to succeed, the control of businesses should be passed on to the children only if they are passionate about it. Piramal, 69, chairman of the Piramal group, was discussing the group’s business succession plan with his daughter Nandini Piramal, chairman, Piramal Pharma Ltd, in the Mint India Investment Summit in Mumbai on Friday.

Liberation Day, U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that the reciprocal tariffs he plans to unveil this week will apply to all nations, not just a select group of 10 to 15 countries with the largest trade imbalances. Trump has pledged to introduce a sweeping tariff plan on Wednesday, a move he has dubbed «Liberation Day.» He has already imposed tariffs on aluminum, steel, and automobiles, alongside heightened duties on all imports from China. «You'd start with all countries,» Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. «Essentially all of the countries that we're talking about.» White House economics adviser Kevin Hassett recently told Fox Business that the administration’s tariff focus would be on 10 to 15 nations with the most significant trade imbalances, though he did not specify which ones. Meanwhile, India is considering reducing or even eliminating customs duties on auto parts imported from the US, a government official told ET. The move comes as part of efforts to strengthen trade ties, with officials believing it would not significantly impact the domestic industry. Trump views tariffs as a means of shielding the domestic economy from unfair global competition and as leverage for negotiating better trade terms for the U.S.

IndusInd Bank has done multiple deals with peer banks, transferring highly rated corporate loans in an attempt to shore up liquidity amid a likely flight of deposits, following the ongoing investigation into accounting lapses that could erode its net worth by ₹2,000 crore, said people familiar with the matter. ICICI Bank and Federal Bank have provided liquidity support to IndusInd by acquiring highly rated loans at an interest rate of 7.5-8% through the traditional Inter-Bank Participation Certificate (IBPC) market, they said.

As the due date for the revised return of income for AY 2024-25, 31 December 2024, has passed, you cannot revise your income tax return for the said year to claim the TDS credit not claimed in the original return.

We look at banks as safekeepers of our money, which they are. The banking system in India is generally robust. As long as you keep your money with a leading bank, your money is safe. However, on paper, your money is safe up to ₹5 lakh per bank, which is known as deposit insurance. This insurance is taken care of by Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC). With the latest cooperative bank failure, there are talks of increasing the coverage from ₹5 lakh to, say, ₹10 lakh.

RBI) data showed, illustrating deceleration in the country’s discretionary spending through a month that coincides with the start of school board examinations in most parts of the country. This decline usage was also accompanied by a significant reduction in new credit card additions that nearly halved to 440,000 in February—from 820,000 in January. To be sure, India’s broadest equity gauges plunged through the first two months of 2025, before a late rearguard from overseas buyers through the last ten days of March helped the indices erase losses for the calendar year. Equity gains were often at the vanguard of big-ticket expenditures, particularly in the metros, through the first nine months of 2024.

Once DC openers made a quick start off the block, the result was never in doubt, but their approach was vastly different. Du Plessis wound the clock back with some stunning shots, such as a straight six off Pat Cummins. But at other end, McGurk was struggling for his timing, partly because of his exaggerated back-lift and partly because of his desire to hit all the ball out of the park. However, his senior partner was willing to do the heavy-lifting and brought up his fifty in 26 balls.

The wage bills of companies with operations in these places have increased by 20-25%, as their expenses on unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled workers have gone up, said top corporate executives. While this has been sharper than usual, the growing preference of people to work in gig roles and stay back in villages amid an increase in income from the rural employment guarantee scheme and other welfare programmes are compounding the problems for companies as they are finding it difficult to mobilise workers. States like Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry, Meghalaya, Odisha and Jharkhand have increased minimum wages by up to 38% in the last one year, as per industry executives and data compiled by staffing firm CIEL HR. Manpower cost has been a challenge because minimum wages have grown in certain markets by a very high degree, value fashion retailer V-Mart Retail managing director Lalit Agarwal said. Odisha recently hiked minimum wages by 29% and Jharkhand by 22%, he said. V-Mart reported a 24% increase in manpower cost in the December quarter compared with a year earlier

The new mechanism, which would be operationalised after planned imposition of a safeguard duty on specified steel imports, would be extended to MSMEs and members of the Engineering Exports Promotion Council (EEPC), the people said. «Discussions are on on the mechanism...It would be implemented once safeguard duty is imposed...This is being done to shield domestic consumers from rise in prices,» an official said.

Debadatta Chand had the proverbial baptism by fire as CEO at India’s second largest public sector lender, Bank of Baroda (BoB), hit by the controversy over the financier’s attachment notice on actor and MP Sunny Deol just a couple of months into the top job. Then came the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) curbs on its digital banking application, restrictions that took nearly seven months to be lifted. But after a trying first year, Chand has eased into the corner-room job, seeking consistency in the bank's business matrix and reducing the lender's dependency on costlier wholesale deposits. In a detailed interview with ET, Chand spoke about BoB’s current positioning and shared his outlook for what's traditionally known as a corporate-focused lender. Edited excerpts: You will complete two years at the helm in June. How has BoB shaped up in this time? The bank is doing extremely well. Fundamentally, it is a strong bank. For the past two years, the performance has been consistent, and the outlook is stable. Earlier we (had) talked about how to double the business in 5-6 years and how to maintain margin in a dynamic market scenario. The performance has been very satisfying. The balance sheet strategy is to not to be heavily dependent on the bulk deposit. Our RAM (retail, agriculture MSME) is going very strong. We decided to go slow on fine priced corporate loans. We are capturing market share in retail loans and deposits.