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₹1.19 trillion)market, which is still less than 5% organised,” he said.He also added that Uber’s existing intercity cabs business is growing about 50% year-on-year and operating across around 3,000 routes.Only 19% of India’s intercity bus market was booked online in fiscal 2023, underscoring how under-penetrated the category still is despite the scale of demand, according to a 2023 study by travel advisory firm VIDEC Consultants.The same report estimated the overall intercity bus market at ₹539 billion ($6.7 billion) in fiscal 2023 and projected it to grow to ₹688 billion ($8.6 billion) by fiscal 2026.Within the online segment, the report said MakeMyTrip Group-owned redBus controlled about 75% of the OTA intercity bus market in fiscal 2023, with ixigo-owned AbhiBus trailing behind.When asked why Uber was not using its own capital to build a standalone bus-ticketing business, Singh said the category was still under-penetrated enough for multiple models to coexist.“The best part of the fact that, as you laid out, it’s still under-penetrated means there is such a long journey, and we believe different business models will coexist,” he added.Uber wants to retain and acquire users who prefer buses as an affordable intercity option to Uber's premium cab option.

South Korea’s 16% stock plunge this past week. In the U.S., any inflation uptick could deprive investors of more interest-rate cuts. Or perhaps worse, the Federal Reserve could cut rates later this year, and depending on the circumstances, be judged by the bond market as giving President Donald Trump what he wants, but not necessarily giving the economy what it needs.A quick and tidy exit in Iran is no sure thing.

Bengaluru: Varun Dubey, who has spent the past decade moving between India’s consumer internet and healthcare worlds, now wants to build what he calls an “honest healthcare” hospital system—starting with a membership pass that covers consultations and doctor-prescribed diagnostics for a family.“The customer has three fundamental problems when it comes to core healthcare experience today…i.e. high quality care, seamless and easy to access as possible and of course, affordable,” Dubey said in an interview.Dubey’s argument is that India’s hospital experience today is broken due to crowded outpatient departments (OPDs), long waits, opaque billing and low trust arising from one underlying issue: the cost of setting up and running a hospital.That mismatch between what patients want and how hospitals are run, Dubey says, is why he is building SuperHealth.Launched in October, SuperHealth is positioning itself not as an OPD app but as a full hospital, trying to win patients on experience and trust—less wait times, clearer pricing, and fewer incentives for doctors to overprescribe.

Mint, citing low prices, adequate strategic reserves, and the government’s ability to cushion fuel shocks from spilling into retail prices.In January, the Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation, under a revised data series, stood at around 2.75%, significantly below the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) medium-term target of 4%.With inflation currently subdued and a newly introduced CPI series indicating broadly similar trends to the old base-year data, the economists said the starting point itself provides a strong buffer against external shocks, likely preventing any immediate pressure on retail inflation or RBI's monetary policy outlook.For 2025-26, the RBI has projected CPI inflation at 2.1%, with the March quarter at 3.2%. Inflation for the June and September quarters is seen at 4% and 4.2%, respectively, suggesting the current price environment is far more benign than during previous geopolitical shocks.“I think the starting point is more comfortable for RBI at this juncture, given that inflation is more manageable now compared with the Russia-Ukraine war, when global commodity prices surged sharply,” Anubhuti Sahay, head of India economic research at Standard Chartered Bank, said.Sahay added that policymakers are unlikely to rush to revise projections or change the policy stance until there is greater clarity on how long the war will last and how significantly it will disrupt global energy markets.

BENGALURU: For most restaurant chains, the goal is to build one blockbuster brand. At IPO-bound Curefoods, the strategy is the opposite.The Bengaluru-based cloud kitchen operator is working on adding brands to its portfolio that can each reach ₹200-300 crore in revenue, spreading its bets across multiple cuisines and consumption occasions.

While most Indian households meticulously track their primary loans and repayment schedules to avoid the fallout of a default, a different category of spending often goes unnoticed. These are the ‘silent EMIs’ — recurring monthly payments that are individually small and scattered. Because they lack the immediate weight of a major loan, they are easy to overlook, yet their cumulative impact on a household's financial health is immensely powerful.Silent EMIs are the monthly payments we commit to without much thought about their impact on our household income.

India’s telecom giants and global technology firms are locked in a tussle over pricing and regulation of the country’s business internet backbone.At the centre of the clash are Domestic Leased Circuits (DLCs)—dedicated, high-security broadband lines used by banks, data centres and enterprises. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is conducting its first review of these tariffs in more than a decade, which could slash price caps that have been unchanged since 2014.The total revenue earned by service providers from DLCs in FY 2023–24 is around ₹13,300 crore, which is approximately 60% higher than the revenue earned in FY 2012–13, according to Trai.Mobile operators, including Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, are defending their turf, arguing that government intervention would amount to a subsidy for Big Tech.

₹290 crore in a Series B funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments, as the company looks to deepen its presence and expand its rural storefront network, Ankur Dahiya, co-founder and chief executive told Mint.“We started in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and we feel its the right time to expand our footprint in the same Ganges belt,” said Dahiya. “Secondly, we want to increase our penetration in the areas we're present.”The fundraise comes as Rozana scales its hybrid rural commerce model—combining neighbourhood storefronts and centralized warehouses with a network of women-led last-mile partners—at a time when relatively few startups are focused exclusively on India’s rural e-commerce opportunity.The fundraise was led by German conglomerate Bertelsmann's local venture capital arm, Bertelsmann India Investments (BII) with participation from Fireside Ventures, US-based Spark Growth Ventures, FE Securities and a few family offices.The deal was majorly a primary investment with a small component of secondaries to give early angel investors an exit.

investment funds that invest in alternative assets such as private equity, hedge funds and other non-traditional investments beyond traditional stocks and bonds, with wealthy individuals and institutions as their main investors. Regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), there are three categories of AIFs in the country, with Category III AIFs focusing on high-risk, high-return trading strategies using leverage.Tata AMC entered the Category III AIF space in 2019 with its Absolute Return Fund, a conservative long-short strategy.

Mint's queries.The launch of Mounjaro by Eli Lilly in March 2025, followed by Wegovy and Ozempic from Novo Nordisk, has pushed India’s GLP-1 drug market past ₹1,000 crore within a year, according to pharma intelligence platform Pharmarack. Yet, awareness among the broader population remains limited.

West Asia conflict could ease.The benchmark Nifty50 index recovered close to half of its recent losses in the last hour on Thursday, as reports emerged that Iran had reached out to the US for talks to end the war, improving risk appetite. The news coincided with the weekly expiry of Sensex options on Thursday, which also forced the traders to square off their positions in panic.The US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on Saturday that killed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, triggering retaliation and fuelling a wider regional conflict in West Asia, dragging stock markets around the world lower.Over two trading sessions starting Monday, the Nifty50 had fallen 695 points, of which 285 points—about 41%—were recouped on Thursday.

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The Iran-US conflict has sent shockwaves through Indian markets, pushing the rupee to a record low of 92.32 and driving crude oil past $80 per barrel. As the Nifty 50 shed 2.1% in just four days, foreign investors pulled out over ₹11,700 crore, seeking safety in a strengthening dollar.With the Strait of Hormuz blockade threatening energy supplies and squeezing margins for oil and chemical firms, investors are caught between gold's safe-haven appeal and rising macroeconomic headwinds.Mintexplains what this nascent war and the resulting supply shocks mean for your portfolio and the road ahead for Indian equities.Since the Iran-US war began on 28 February, equity markets worldwide have fallen.The Nifty 50 index declined 2.1% between 28 February and 4 March, while the Nikkei fell 5.5%, the Hang Seng 4.5%, and the Kospi 8.9% over the same period.

₹10-20 per megawatt-hour to ₹40-50, they remain below the ₹60-70 levels seen a year ago, said Aditya Malpani, senior director and regional business development head for west at Ampin Energy Transition, a renewable energy company that also trades I-RECs.Prices of RECs have remained steady around ₹350, as abundant supply has prevented a price increase despite high demand from industries and utilities looking to meet their renewable consumption obligations (RCOs) for FY26.“This increase happens generally at this time of year because corporates want to meet the 31 March target of sustainability,” Malpani said. “Both RECs and IRECs see an increase in demand at this point.”RECs are domestic instruments issued by the National Load Despatch Centre, typically used by state discoms and industrial power users to meet RCO targets.

NEW DELHI: The heavy industries ministry has begun assessing proposals from state governments and state-run oil marketing companies to install charging infrastructure for electric vehicles (EV) under the ₹10,900 crore PM E-Drive scheme, with the aim of disbursing about ₹80 crore by the end of FY26, according to two people aware of the development.The government has allocated ₹2,000 crore of the scheme’s overall outlay towards supporting the installation of over 72,000 EV chargers. It will cover 70-100% of the upstream costs of setting up charging stations in state-owned premises in cities and on highways, including bringing adequate grid power to the site, and 70% of the cost of actual chargers.The government roughly halved the benchmark costs of setting up public EV charging stations in 2025 from the 2022 estimates to ₹1.6 lakh for a 12-kW charger, ₹3.4 lakh for a 60-kW charger, ₹5 lakh for a 120-kW charger, ₹8 lakh for a 240-kW charger, and ₹12.5 lakh for a 360-kW charger.

A new wave of affluent buyers in their twenties and early thirties is driving growth in India’s luxury watch market, forcing global brands to reposition for a more aspirational consumer.The shift comes at a time when rising disposable incomes, a swelling base of high-net-worth individuals and easing import duties under India’s trade pact with the European Union are reshaping the premium timepiece landscape. Lower tariffs on Swiss watches are expected to narrow price gaps, intensify competition and accelerate premiumisation in a market that executives say is expanding rapidly.The luxury watch market is poised for strong expansion, with annual growth estimated at 11-12%, supported by the country's rising affluent base and growing wealth among high-net-worth individuals (HNIs), according to an October 2025 report by SOIC Research.The share of luxury and high-end watch sales has jumped from 48% in FY20 to 70% in FY25, indicating that Indian buyers are gravitating toward more exclusive, higher-value brands.

₹25 lakh or accumulating ₹1 crore on retirement. Deciding what to do with such a lump sum can be overwhelming. Investing it all at once feels risky, and drawing regular income without depleting savings can be confusing.Two quiet yet powerful mutual fund tools address both problems: the systematic transfer plan (STP) and the systematic withdrawal plan (SWP).

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Those who view President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran as a blow to China should think again. Beijing will manage any potential leadership change in Tehran as long as the oil keeps flowing, a summit with Trump and President Xi Jinping stays on track, and Washington handles Taiwan—China’s most sensitive red line—with care. Xi’s strategy is closer to the ancient Chinese phrase that notes the benefit of sitting on the mountain and watching the tigers fight: conserve strength while others exhaust themselves, and intervene only if core interests are directly threatened.Beijing doesn’t think of alliances the way the US does.

two land acquisitions. It bought 11.36 acres in Gurugram, Haryana, with an estimated revenue potential of more than ₹4,500 crore, strengthening its exposure to the National Capital Region (NCR).

Companies Act requires every listed company to appoint independent directors constituting at least one-third of its board. The report shows that the highest number of independent directors on a single board in the last four years (FY22-FY25) was eight in FY22, a level seen in three listed companies. The number is down to five, seen in a single company.Gender diversity on boards also remained skewed.