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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Utilities plan $1.4 trillion in capital expenditures through 2030, a 21% increase, driven by AI’s rising power demands.Global data center electricity demand is projected to double by 2030 to 945 terawatt-hours, with over 800 new centers in development.AI power infrastructure companies like GE Vernova (up 38%) and Vertiv (up 80%) have strong backlogs and high valuations.Tech is leading the market again as the war in Iran recedes and first-quarter earnings come in strong. It’s a great sign for companies supplying the industry’s insatiable thirst for power generation and infrastructure.Utilities plan to spend $1.4 trillion on capital expenditures through 2030, up 21% from estimates last year, according to the nonprofit PowerLines.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: The Centre plans to buy 1 million tonnes of chana (gram) to build adequate buffer stocks to manage potential supply shortfalls and ensure steady availability in the open market, two officials said.The purchases through the Price Stabilisation Fund are part of graded measures to keep prices of essential food grains stable and prevent market volatility amid forecasts of a below-normal monsoon this year and the possibility of El Niño, a weather phenomenon that increases the risk of drought and reduced crop yields.“The procurement drive will be carried out under existing price support mechanisms, with agencies stepping in to buy from farmers both to support farm-gate prices and to maintain retail price stability,” one official said.India’s chana production climbed 6.2% to 11.8 million tonnes in FY26, with the yield up 1.6% to 1,238 kg per hectare.“Chana production has improved significantly this crop year compared to last year, largely due to the import duty on chana and yellow peas. This has supported domestic prices and encouraged higher sowing.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Kevin Warsh spent the past year constructing a case for the Federal Reserve to deliver the interest-rate cuts President Trump wants: An artificial-intelligence boom would soon deliver a productivity surge that would hold down prices.When Warsh appears Tuesday in front of senators for the confirmation hearing that could put him one step closer to leading the central bank, his toughest audience could be his future colleagues. They have been delicately but unmistakably signaling their pointed skepticism.If confirmed, he stands to inherit a Fed caught between a technological shift that has yet to hold prices down and a fracturing geopolitical landscape that keeps threatening to push prices up.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Ganga mostly flows east-southeast across the Indo-Gangetic alluvial plains towards its mouth in Kolkata. As it approaches Varanasi in eastern Uttar Pradesh (UP), it encounters something unusual: an outlier of ancient Vindhyan sandstone that juts northward into the otherwise soft alluvial plain. The river cannot cut through this resistant rock as easily as through alluvium, so instead of continuing straight eastward, it deflects northward, running along the western flank of this Vindhyan rock ridge.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.On 17th April Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, declared that commercial passage through the Strait of Hormuz was “completely open”. Shortly afterwards Donald Trump, America’s president, echoed his words: the conduit was “completely open and ready for business”.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.For centuries, Santhal and Gond tribes in central and eastern India have called the mahua tree the ‘tree of life’ as an ode to its versatility: from a nutrient-dense edible flower to local arrack to cooking oils made from seeds, it’s sturdy wood is used in carpentry and nearly every part of the tree is used in traditional medicine.Add the latest end-use of madhuca longifolia, the scientific name for the mahua tree: turn its bitter-sweet flowers into fine chocolates and granola for the discerning and well-paying urban consumer.Meet Rishabh Lohia, a young social entrepreneur from Ranchi in Jharkhand, giving mahua the contemporary makeover. A former student of economics who found inspiration in Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s writings, Lohia left his family’s real estate business in 2024 to launch Wild Harvest, a packaged food brand specializing in mahua products.For Lohia and his partner Ashali Bhandari, building Wild Harvest is akin to creating a new category in the ever-expanding fast-moving consumer goods basket.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.It’s a long shot, but asset management companies (AMCs) are trying everything to lure fund managers into swapping their Bandra Kurla Complex offices for a new life in an upcoming financial hub about 500 km away.AMCs are offering pay hikes, relocation perks and faster career tracks to coax fund managers into moving to GIFT City, where talent remains hesitant to move.The push comes as regulators tighten norms on keeping an on-ground presence in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), forcing fund houses to ensure that key personnel are physically based in GIFT City (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City). But attracting experienced fund managers has proved to be difficult, with AMCs competing for a limited talent pool."Fund managers, if they have to move to GIFT City, are likely to ask for a salary hike.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.When Wells Fargo told the fintech Bilt that it would no longer be the lender for its rent-rewards credit card, Bilt scrambled to find another large bank partner. When that failed, Bilt wound up with private-credit funding.In February, Bilt struck a deal to move roughly $1.2 billion of credit-card balances with funding arranged by a group including Blue Owl Capital and Stone Point Capital as well as Goldman Sachs and TD, according to people familiar with the deal.The companies also agreed to fund hundreds of millions of dollars of credit-card balances that Bilt cardholders will incur in the future, the people said.Consumer debt has become one of the hottest categories in private credit, increasingly sought after by funds and investment arms of insurance companies on the hunt for high-yielding investments.Private credit is in focus on Wall Street right now because of the loans that fund managers have made to software and other companies, often as part of private-equity buyouts, that are now running into trouble.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Exxon Mobil, Chevron and other energy companies are speeding up their searches for new oil-and-gas prospects—far away from the perils of the war in the Middle East.Exxon recently outlined a potential plan to pump up to $24 billion into Nigeria’s deep-water oil fields, while Chevron expanded its footprint in Venezuela. BP bought stakes in oil blocks off the coast of Namibia, and TotalEnergies signed an exploration deal with Turkey.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.WASHINGTON—The United Arab Emirates has opened talks with the U.S. about obtaining a financial backstop in case the Iran war plunges the oil-rich Persian Gulf state into a deeper crisis, U.S. officials said.U.A.E.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.HDFC Bank management’s focus has shifted from bringing down the loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR) to pursuing credit growth opportunities. In its March quarter (Q4FY26) earnings call, the management stated that LDR is not a constraint, citing similar comments from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.BENGALURU: Wealthy Indians are spending more overall, but a smaller share of that spending is going to retail stores selling goods like clothing and gadgets.As incomes rise for affluent households, they are increasingly spending on travel, fine dining and curated experiences such as concerts and wellness retreats, even as they continue to purchase high-value premium goods.In response, retailers are accelerating efforts to add experiential formats, from curated in-store services to immersive store environments, as they strive to stay relevant in a consumption landscape increasingly driven by engagement rather than transactions.New data from Visa Consulting & Analytics (VCA), shared with Mint, shows retail’s share of wallet drops from nearly 50% among emerging affluent consumers to about 28% for the ultra-wealthy, as spending on travel and experiences rises sharply.“Affluence is not an absolute state defined by income. It’s defined by how and where people spend.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Centre is planning a nationwide policy push to enable the adoption of flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) that can run on ethanol blends of up to E85 (85% ethanol and 15% petrol), as the West Asia conflict prompts India to explore ways to cut oil import dependence, according to two people aware of the development and a correspondence reviewed by Mint.India’s current 20% ethanol blending mandate, introduced in 2025, had triggered public complaints over reduced mileage and concerns around engine performance.The Union petroleum and natural gas ministry has called a meeting on Monday to deliberate on the issue. “During the meeting, a presentation will be made by the working group constituted for preparing the plan for the rollout of FFVs,” one of the people cited above said, requesting anonymity.The working group, comprising experts from oil marketing companies, automobile makers and the government, will present its plan to top executives of state-run oil firms and representatives of the automobile industry lobby group Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam), and officials from relevant ministries.Global crude prices have remained volatile amid the conflict, briefly crossing $100 per barrel before easing following a ceasefire, with risks of another spike persisting.Such a scenario poses a significant fiscal risk to India, considering it imports 90% of its oil requirements.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.All new steel plants opening till the year 2030 may have to mandatorily use 30% domestic coking coal, under a plan to reduce import dependence and boost local coal use. Currently, steel plants use a maximum of 20% domestic coal in their operations.The blending mandate is expected to reduce the cost of importing coking coal by almost 25%, two people aware of the plan said.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Opportunistic investors who traded for only a single day constituted almost a whopping one-fourth of the 35.8 million active retail investors on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) last fiscal year, data in the bourse's monthly Market Pulse issue showed.Even when aggregated, investors trading up to 10 days constituted 69% of the total active retail base. This reveals a "highly skewed, long-tailed pattern, where bulk of investors trade only a handful of days in a year, while a very small proportion participates regularly," according to NSE's Economic Policy & Research Department (NSE EPR), which prepared the data.In absolute terms, those trading for just one day stood at 8.43 million investors, comprising 24% of the total individual investor base of 35.84 million.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Indian automakers are beginning to feel the operational strain of the West Asia conflict, with companies flagging supply bottlenecks, longer shipping times and rising costs, even as domestic demand remains resilient.Early signals from industry executives suggest the impact is weighing far more on supply chains than on demand, which has so far held up. The spillover is beginning to feed into production and exports, pushing up costs that companies are gradually passing on to consumers.At the centre of the strain is the Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime chokepoint that has seen vessel movement fall sharply amid repeated disruptions.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Nifty 50 and Sensex rose over 1% last week, extending gains a week before—their strongest in over five years—but the pace has now moderated. On Friday, both indices closed about 0.65% higher, with the Nifty at 24,353.55 and the Sensex at 78,493.56. With signs of stability emerging, we should look at stock-specific action.IRCON(Cmp ₹154.69)Why it’s recommended: Triveni Turbine (TRITURBINE) is a leading India-based manufacturer of industrial steam turbines up to 100 MW, specialising in design, manufacture, and custom-engineered back-pressure and condensing steam turbines.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Air India has said it will complete the retrofit of its legacy aircraft by 2029, nearly two years later than originally planned, after supply-chain constraints slowed its fleet overhaul plans. The final phase of the programme will cover 19 wide-body jets starting in the second half 2027 and is expected to take up to two years to complete, a senior executive said on Sunday.“There are some 777 Boeing aircraft which will be sent for retrofit in the second half of 2027 and these will be ready in the next 18 to 24 months… so by 2029.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Big banks in America have ridden a dealmaking boom that has helped drive demand for corporate loans and pulled record-breaking fees from the wild swings in financial markets. But the most surprising and intriguing news so far in the past week’s earnings parade of the US financial sector was the diverging fortunes of bond traders at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase.The war in the West Asia has created a huge amount of uncertainty since the American and Israeli attacks on Iran began at the end of February, but mergers and acquisitions still got done and US commercial and industrial loans jumped by the most in more than three years.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A body representing alternative investment funds (AIFs) at GIFT International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) asked the government to intervene after the RBI mandated in late March that such funds must be treated as ‘resident Indians’ when reporting foreign assets.In a letter dated 10 April, which Mint has seen, the AIF Chief Financial Officers Association flagged a “critical regulatory overlap” triggered by the RBI's mandate for filing foreign liabilities and assets (FLA) returns, saying it conflicts with the specialized status usually granted to funds in the international zone. GIFT IFSC is a specialized regulatory zone within GIFT City that’s treated as a foreign jurisdiction for financial transactions.The association asked the union government to start a dialogue with the central bank and issue a joint clarification circular exempting IFSCA-registered entities from the FLA return rule.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Economists often talk of ‘inflationary expectations’ and one may be left wondering what these mean. In essence, the argument goes that present inflation is not relevant as this has already been witnessed. What is important is future inflation, which is why expectations of price levels matter.