UPS Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Telecom operator Vodafone Idea Ltd on Monday laid out an ambitious financial roadmap to generate and secure over ₹1.08 trillion in cash over the next three years, betting on a sharp rise in operating earnings, possible bank debt funding, income tax-related recoveries and promoter support to fund its turnaround.The telecom operator has to pay ₹49,000 crore towards spectrum dues over the next three years, execute a capital expenditure plan of ₹45,000 crore for network expansion and upgrades, and meet interest payments of about ₹5,000-6,000 crore to service bank debt, taking its cumulative outgo to nearly ₹1 trillion.“...we are very confident that with the bank loan for the capex and for the Ebitda addition, we will be able to fulfil all our obligations across the next three years,” Vodafone Idea’s chief financial officer, Tejas Mehta, told analysts during the Q4 earnings call. Ebitda is short for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.As of the end of March, the telecom operator had a cash and bank balance of ₹3,715 crore.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Beneath the one-time profit hit from the ₹590 crore Chandigarh fraud, IDFC FIRST Bank’s March-quarter (Q4FY26) earnings revealed a deeper concern: deposit growth slowed sharply after the incident dented depositor confidence.The private sector lender’s customer deposits rose just 1% sequentially during Q4 to ₹2.84 trillion, even as Indian banking sector deposits rose 13.5% year-on-year (y-o-y) to ₹262.3 trillion during the per, up from 10.3% growth a year earlier, according to Reserve Bank of India data.“We saw an increase in total deposits by about 16.8% on a YoY basis…The growth was modest at 1% during the quarter…There was also an impact of the one-off fraud incident, which occurred during the quarter,” chief financial officer Sudhanshu Jain had said during the bank’s post-earnings analyst call on 25 April.On 23 February, the lender disclosed a ₹590 crore fraud at its Chandigarh branch, where employees carried out unauthorized transactions in accounts linked to the Haryana government, creating a deposit balance discrepancy. The bank has since paid the state government ₹590 crore, suspended the employees involved and filed police complaints against them.During earnings call, the bank said it had fully expensed the impacted amount in Q4FY26 and was “reasonably certain” no further material financial adjustments would be required beyond those already recognized.While IDFC FIRST Bank was not accused of direct wrongdoing, the incident triggered reputational concerns and weighed on deposit flows during the quarter.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The finance ministry, on Monday, has directed all public sector banks, insurance companies, and financial institutions to implement austerity measures, including switching to electric vehicles (EVs), curtailing foreign travel, and shifting to video conferencing for meetings, as the government moves to reduce expenditure and protect the country's financial system from economic instability due to the West Asia war.“All organisations may aim at replacing the petrol and diesel cars hired by them in their head offices and branch offices with electric cars as far as possible,” according to an official circular of the department of financial services (DFS) reviewed by Mint.Earlier this month Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made seven big appeals, austerity measures so to speak, to cushion India from the economic uncertainties arising from the prolonged West Asia war. These included conserving petrol and diesel by using public transport and metro; avoiding purchasing gold for a year, and restricting foreign travel to conserve forex."It is time for us to use petrol, diesel and gas with great care,” Modi said on Sunday while inaugurating projects in Hyderabad, Telangana.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.As the West Asian crisis broke out late February, Sunil JhunJhunWala, managing director and co-founder of Tiruppur-based Techno Sportswear Pvt. Ltd, an active wear brand, moved fast.The disruption to the movement of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, he rightly surmised, would affect the supply of polyester filament yarn (PFY)–a raw material derived from crude oil—which he imports from China.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.IF There has been a common narrative around artificial intelligence this year, it is that advances in the technology are shaking up the vast—and hitherto cosy—world of software. In order to keep this blitzkrieg going, the labs at the forefront of AI need to raise enormous amounts of money.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The world is making a run on U.S. energy, setting American motorists and foreign buyers on a collision course.President Trump and his administration have successfully talked down and taken measures to contain American energy prices. That, combined with the fact that the country has a huge surplus, has prompted overseas buyers to buy huge volumes of U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Rare earth metals are on the minds of all investors these days, and for good reason. Recent trade tensions have put China’s rare-earth monopoly into stark relief.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A quiet shift is underway in how India spends, as salaries fail to keep pace with the rising cost of living.An April 2026 white paper titled The New Indian Household Balance Sheet by wealth manager Client Associates found that net financial savings have fallen sharply to about 5.2% of gross domestic product in 2023-24, down from nearly 7.7% in the pre-pandemic years, as rising borrowings eat into household surpluses and household financial liabilities have climbed to 6.2% of GDP, a decade high, driven by rapid growth in home loans, personal credit, and credit card spending.And somewhere in between wanting something and not being able to afford it, a new habit has taken hold: buy now and pay later (BNPL).BNPL is a type of short-term loan that lets you pay for goods or services immediately and pay them back at a later date, usually in instalments or with a single interest-free deferred payment. Unlike conventional loans, it is largely interest-free as long as the customer pays on time.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.BENGALURU: A month after Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) completed its largest retrenchment exercise, laying off about 2% of its workforce, the company asked managers during its latest appraisal cycle to place about 5% of its 584,519 employees in Band D, the lowest performance category, according to an internal email reviewed by Mint and independently confirmed by an executive.“Please review critically and share the list of associates who can be considered for Band D, thereby meeting the agreed 5% distribution,” said an email from a TCS HR executive to one of the business unit heads of the company in April.Business unit heads classified about 3% of employees, about 17,500 people, as underperformers, according to three other executives.The ratings have stoked fresh concerns among employees across India’s largest software services firm, especially after many of the 12,200 employees laid off in the recent retrenchment exercise were similarly rated.Top performers, meanwhile, received hikes of about 6%, according to annual salary increase letters sent to employees on Sunday.An email sent to TCS on 12 May seeking comment went unanswered till press time.While TCS, like peers Infosys Ltd and HCL Technologies Ltd, has long classified some employees as underperformers, executives said the explicit 5% Band D distribution has heightened concerns.“A couple of things stand out this time around. Until last year, it was understood that many employees would be placed in Band D, as in other IT companies.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Ford has finally hit upon an electric strategy that shouldn’t lose money. The key element is that it doesn’t involve vehicles—not for now, anyway.Ford’s stock, a habitual water-treader, jumped almost 14% on Wednesday, its biggest gain in over six years, on news that the Detroit stalwart had found a way to tap into the AI boom—sort of.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: India’s petrol and diesel price hike, alongside a volatile crude oil outlook, is set to ripple across key sectors and is already feeding early market pressure, with analysts warning of further inflation if global oil prices climb.Oil marketing companies (OMCs) finally bit the bullet and raised prices of petrol and diesel by around ₹3 a litre on Friday amid elevated global prices. More hikes are expected going ahead as under-recoveries remain high.Higher fuel prices are expected to feed quickly into logistics and freight costs, with transport operators unlikely to absorb higher diesel expenses, triggering cost pass-through across supply chains and sectors dependent on transportation and energy-intensive inputs, potentially widening inflation pressures across the economy, according to experts.“We raise FY27 headline inflation to 5% versus 4.6% earlier assuming a ₹10 per litre hike in retail fuel prices, along with the impact of El Niño-led adverse monsoons,” said Madhavi Arora, chief economist at Emkay Global.The cost pressures come at a time when corporate earnings in consumption- and transport-linked sectors are already under strain from elevated input costs and uneven demand recovery.Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies are expected to face higher distribution and input costs, even as they continue to grapple with already elevated raw material inflation.Large FMCG players have already begun raising prices as fuel, packaging and food commodity costs continue to rise.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.KYIV—It was the middle of January when the cold and lack of electricity forced Olha Kosova and her baby to flee their Kyiv apartment to her parents’ place in the suburbs.Now, spring is here, the electricity is working and Kosova and 1-year-old Lisa are back home in their sun-drenched apartment.“I don’t even remember this winter,” Kosova said. “It fades from the memory so quickly as if it never happened.”Kyiv and its residents are bouncing back from the darkest winter of the war. Russia struck Ukraine’s energy infrastructure more than 1,400 times with missiles and drones dating to last July, according to an official Ukrainian tally.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Indian currency has been experiencing sharp depreciation amid the West Asian crisis, driven largely by rising energy prices and moderating capital flows. That said, the weakness of the Indian rupee has been a persistent concern over the past year, even before the conflict began. It has depreciated by about 11% over the past year, with about 5% of this value loss having occurred after the US-Iran war began on 28 February.The main concern for the rupee is India’s weak balance-of-payments position.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: The government’s decision to curb silver bar imports could push exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking the white metal from trading at a discount to moving into a premium over spot prices, after two weeks, amid concerns of an impending supply squeeze, analysts said.This would mark a shift from ETFs trading at a discount to net asset value (NAV), which is calculated from spot prices, to potentially trading at a premium. It implies that if spot prices rise, ETF prices could rise more, and if spot prices fall, they would fall less than the spot.Premiums and discounts typically reflect demand conditions.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Is Keynesian advice relevant to India’s economy? Austerity, Keynes warned, could worsen an economic slump. If we all cut back on spending, output would reduce.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Shortly before the 2024 election that would move him back into the White House, Donald Trump took a phone call on his plane from a secret supporter.Nicki Minaj was on the line, and she wanted Trump to know she was supporting his re-election, according to people familiar with the matter.Trump’s campaign managers, sensing an opportunity to score an endorsement from the rap world’s most popular female star, asked Minaj to take her support public. But Minaj—and her management team—said she needed to stay behind the scenes because taking a political stance posed a risk to her brand and businesses, some of these people said.Not anymore.Today, the 43-year-old best known for chart toppers like “Starships,” for leading an online army of mega-fans known as “Barbz” and for bringing a theatrical streak to contemporary hip hop has embraced a new status atop MAGA’s A-list.She has visited Trump in the Oval Office, spoken in support of administration priorities at the United Nations and encouraged her tens of millions of social-media followers to lobby their legislators on the White House’s behalf.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mumbai: Two strategic joint ventures have set the Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel on course to becoming one of the world's biggest steel companies outside of China.The first joint venture is with Japan's JFE Steel through a recent 50% stake sale in Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd (BPSL), a company it acquired through the bankruptcy court five years ago.Add to that another equal joint venture with South Korea's POSCO to set up a new 6 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) capacity steel plant in Odisha.Including planned capacity expansions at BPSL, the two partnerships would add about 16 mtpa capacity by 2032, setting it on course to reach 80 mtpa capacity by 2032, according to Jayant Acharya, the chief executive officer and joint managing director of JSW Steel.The company’s consolidated steelmaking capacity stood at just under 38 million tonnes per annum at the end of FY26, including BPSL.These capacity additions would make JSW Steel a strong contender to be the world's largest steelmaker outside China by 2032.At present, ArcelorMittal is the world’s largest steel company outside China, with a capacity of 65 million tonnes per annum, according to 2024 manufacturing capacity data from the Belgium-based World Steel, the latest figures published by the international trade body.The BPSL stake sale to JFE Steel brought JSW Steel about ₹37,250 crore, which sharply deleveraged its balance sheet, and gave the company the financial muscle to fund expansion. The Mumbai-headquartered steelmaker pared about ₹30,000 crore of debt in FY26, mostly in foreign borrowings.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: The government has digitised the compliance process for environmental clearances linked to industrial expansion, in a move aimed at easing regulatory burdens and accelerating project approvals, said two officials aware of the development.The ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) has made the process of obtaining certified compliance reports (CCR) for industrial expansion proposals digital through the existing PARIVESH portal, aiming to ease procedures for businesses seeking environmental clearance (ECs). Launched in August 2018, PARIVESH (Pro-Active and Responsive facilitation by Interactive, Virtuous, and Environmental Single-window Hub) is a central government digital platform, which automates and streamlines the process for businesses and developers to apply for and track mandatory environmental and ecological clearances.The online system will enable industries to file compliance reports pertaining to projects where environmental clearance is needed, upload mandatory documents and track approval status through a single digital platform, reducing paperwork and procedural delays, the officials said, requesting anonymity."It will be useful for those projects which require environmental clearance.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: In 1973, Arab nations declared an embargo on oil production, leading to a global energy crisis. Prices quadrupled overnight. And some governments suddenly remembered ethanol.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Assamese was, of course, his mother tongue, the language in which he thought and dreamed, the linguistic landscape that felt like home. But the Northeast’s complex demographics meant that multilingualism was practical necessity as much as cultural richness.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: Youngsters riding bikes at high speed without hands on the handlebars and performing stunts have long been a common sight in India, raising serious safety concerns for both riders and other motorists and even pedestrians.This could soon change.The government is planning a three-layer “hands-free” safety system for two-wheelers, requiring manufacturers to install technology that can detect whether riders have both hands on the handlebars and step in if they do not, amid rising road accidents in the country.According to an internal draft of the proposal, reviewed by Mint, the planned safety standards would require bikes and scooters to prevent ignition without both hands on the grip, issue audio and visual alerts if hands are removed while riding, and gradually slow down the vehicle in such cases.The introduction of new standards will lead to additional costs for automakers, which are typically passed on to consumers, with the proposed measures expected to increase prices by ₹800-1,000 per unit for installing sensors on handlebars, at least two industry executives said. The move marks a fresh push by the Centre to tighten two-wheeler safety norms even as its attempt to mandate anti-lock braking systems (ABS) across all categories of two-wheelers irrespective of engine capacity remains stuck amid industry resistance and cost concerns.