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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The memory of the 1999 supercyclone in Odisha is as vivid as a nightmare for Bina Kandi of Biluamundali village in Puri’s Astarang block. She was pregnant and the flooding in her village was catastrophic. “The water rose up to my neck, the walls of my house were damaged and my family had to take shelter in a nearby structure to survive,” says Kandi, 55.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Tata Cliq, the flagship e-commerce platform of Tata Group, is focusing on premium brands, luxury shopping, and franchising marquee international brands in India as the size and scope of the country's e-commerce business grow rapidly.The company is betting on the upcoming India launch of the US premium athleisure brand Lululemon, expanding its luxury offerings, and introducing new categories such as supplements and other wellbeing products.This comes at a time when India’s e-commerce sector, with major players such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Meesho, continues to battle for scale while offering deep discounts. Tata Cliq is positioning itself around affluent consumers, curated offerings and premium experiences.Tata Cliq, which has been in business for ten years, is preparing to launch the first few stores of Lululemon in three months, chief executive Gopal Asthana told Mint.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Growing up, the highlight of every summer vacation in my hometown of Mangaluru was the wild mango curry. My cousins and I would abandon all dignity over plates of hot rice and the golden curry like it was our last meal.Back then these wild mangoes were deemed far too rustic for professional kitchens. But that is changing.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: In a move aimed at deepening India’s commodity derivatives market, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is holding early-stage discussions with market infrastructure institutions to allow foreign portfolio investors to trade bullion derivatives without participating in physical settlement, according to two people familiar with the matter.Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) are currently allowed to trade only in non-agri commodity derivatives that are cash settled, such as crude oil and natural gas contracts. Sebi had opened up that segment to foreign investors in June 2022.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.An underappreciated surplus of crude oil, sloshing around storage tanks and aboard ships, cushioned the global economy when the Persian Gulf closed 2½ months ago.That excess supply is now dwindling at a record pace, with oil executives and analysts predicting that a harsh reckoning is set to upend the relative calm in energy markets. Acute shortages of key fuels and soaring prices could emerge within weeks if the Strait of Hormuz remains shut.The drawdown in private storage and government strategic reserves along with a fall in demand due to the higher prices, has bought time and prevented oil prices from exploding.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The launch of ChatGPT in 2022 ignited the artificial-intelligence boom—and elicited a chorus of warnings from AI bosses of an impending jobs apocalypse. Never mind that they have reason to talk up the disruptiveness of their products, or that rich-world employment is near all-time highs—the dark message has landed. Seven in ten Americans think AI will make it harder for people to find work; nearly a third fear for their own jobs.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged higher adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and reduced fossil fuel use amid the ongoing West Asia war, the ministry of heavy industries approved ₹503.86 crore to set up 4,874 public EV chargers.The approval falls under the Centre’s ₹10,900 crore PM E-Drive electric mobility scheme. It marks the first sanction for charging infrastructure under the scheme, which has earmarked ₹2,000 crore for EV chargers and targets 72,300 units nationwide.The move comes as EV penetration rises — about 60% of three-wheelers, 4.8% of cars and 6% of two-wheelers sold in India are now electric — but charging gaps persist.Mint explains the subsidy mechanism and why public charging is critical to India’s electric mobility transition.The PM E-Drive scheme allocates ₹2,000 crore specifically to support EV charging infrastructure.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd’s FY26 earnings showed that the domestic business is firing on all cylinders, but Jaguar Land Rover’s troubles continue to overshadow the gains.The domestic business benefited from the post-GST 2.0 demand recovery, particularly in SUVs, EVs and CNG vehicles. Nexon and Punch continued to see strong traction, while recent launches such as Sierra and the refreshed Punch.ev added momentum.The result: Tata Motors clocked an industry-beating 15% year-on-year (YoY) growth in sales volumes to more than 640,000 units in FY26, making it the second-largest passenger vehicle (PV) player in H2FY26.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A few years ago, on a boat ride in Hong Kong, Nimesh Chandan, CIO of Bajaj Finserv AMC, was battling motion sickness. A friend told him: focus on the horizon.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.There are rarely any surprises these days in the world of laptops. But in 2026, that might change, thanks to Asus. It has been at the forefront of Oled panel adoption in laptops for quite some time now, and this year the brand has put two Oled panels in a single laptop, with the battery backup to justify it.Is this the laptop you’ve always dreamed of travelling with? That’s the question I put to the test, as I traversed different cafes of Delhi for this review.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mid-cap information technology (IT) services companies believe they are less vulnerable to AI-led disruption than their larger peers. This optimism is underscored by their growth as companies earning between $1-2 billion grew faster than the big six last year.Executives from these companies attribute their resilience to nimble organizational structures, domain expertise and the ability to adapt faster to AI technologies due to fewer organizational layers.Over the last two months, bosses of mid-cap IT services firms have taken a more optimistic view of new software rollouts by AI companies.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Although retail prices stayed largely cool, inflation at the wholesale level ran hot last month in a sign that supply shortages caused by the war in West Asia have started to feed price pressures. The wholesale inflation rate for April more than doubled to 8.3% from a year earlier, compared to 3.9% in March, according to government data issued on Thursday. April’s reading was the highest in three-and-a-half years.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Honda Motor managed to stay profitable through a global financial meltdown, natural disasters, a safety crisis and the pandemic. Then came America’s electric-vehicle whiplash.The Japanese company, the fifth-largest automaker in the U.S. by sales, is confronting some of the steepest challenges it has faced in its nearly seven decades as a public company.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Consumer goods makers are raising prices and bracing for weaker demand as commodity inflation spreads across fuel, packaging and food inputs.Large listed fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, including Hindustan Unilever, Britannia Industries, and Dabur India, have started hiking prices across parts of their portfolios and warned in recent earnings calls that inflationary pressures are likely to persist.The conflict in West Asia has pushed up crude-linked input and freight costs while also driving a rise in global edible oil prices, increasing pressure on FMCG companies that rely on imported commodities.The cost pressures are now spreading beyond fuel and packaging into food commodities.On Wednesday, milk cooperative brands, Amul and Mother Dairy, raised milk prices by ₹2 a litre. Smaller regional cooperatives, including Indore-based Sanchi Milk and Kerala-based Milma, have either raised prices or are planning hikes, according to media reports.Industry executives said higher prices of milk, wheat and edible oils are squeezing margins, forcing FMCG companies to pass on costs through price hikes and lower grammage packs, a move that could weigh on demand recovery.India’s wholesale price index rose 8.3% year-on-year in April, driven largely by higher prices of mineral oil, crude, natural gas and metals, according to government data.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Insuretech startup OneAssist Consumer Solutions Pvt. Ltd is opening new lines of business as it seeks to de-risk its revenue from reliance on smartphones.“While new phones continue to be the major portion of our revenue, growth in that overall market is slowing, which is why we're expanding and growing in other directions,” said co-founder Subrat Pani in an interview with Mint.In 2025-26, the PeakXV-backed startup entered the used-car segment, marking its entry into the automobile segment.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Bengaluru: Realty major DLF Ltd has set a sales target of ₹20,000 crore for FY27, unchanged from last year, as it prioritises margins and cash flows over aggressive pre-sales growth.“We are comfortable in the ₹20,000 crore sales trajectory. If we want, we can do sales of ₹50,000 crore in a year also,” DLF managing director Ashok Tyagi said during an analyst call on Thursday.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Now that everyone has said their piece about the absence of galouti kebab, Awadhi biryani and nihari from the Uttar Pradesh government’s new One District One Cuisine (ODOC) list, let me tell you what is truly missing: purpose and context.Any cuisine is defined by a region’s geographical and cultural makeup, its terroir, local produce, cooking methods and consumption patterns, and not a quick list of street foods. And for a state as diverse as Uttar Pradesh, spanning Himalayan foothills, rich Terai forest, the Gangetic plain and the Vindhya hills and plateau, the range of cuisines is wide.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.“We are thinking of moving to Dubai. Know any good brokers?” That question used to pop up regularly in 2025 on cross-Arabian Sea phone calls to residents of the city-state from India.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Street keenly awaited Bharti Airtel’s board meeting outcome on Wednesday, more for its agenda of Africa telecom business ownership restructuring rather than the March quarter (Q4FY26) results announcement. Investors heaved a sigh of relief as the exercise simplifies the holding structure of Africa telecom business.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mumbai: ASK Alternates, part of the Blackstone-backed ASK Asset & Wealth Management Group, has launched its second private credit fund with a target corpus of ₹2,500 crore, including a ₹1,500 crore greenshoe option, a top executive at the company said.The new fund will continue ASK’s performing credit strategy, targeting 14-16% gross internal rate of return (IRR) by investing in market-leading businesses backed by reputed Indian promoters, global private equity, and sovereign wealth firms, Shantanu Sahai, head of private credit at ASK Alternates, told Mint.It is expected to invest in 12-15 transactions spread across infrastructure, healthcare, manufacturing, industrials, renewables, specialty chemicals, auto components and financial services – sectors that are considered high priority by the government. “This gives us a favourable policy environment as well as interest from offshore capital pools,” Sahai noted.The company's second fund will follow a similar strategy to the first.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Bitcoin die-hards think they’ve found the hot new thing.Some longtime crypto enthusiasts are souring on bitcoin as it goes mainstream, frustrated that it no longer provides the privacy they value. Others are disenchanted with how politicians and celebrities are suddenly embracing bitcoin—or they’re just fed up with the token’s slumping price.Now, bitcoin’s early evangelists are getting behind another digital token: Zcash.Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are among the bitcoin pioneers betting big on the so-called privacy token, which lets users shield their transaction details.Zcash’s emphasis on anonymity reminds some of crypto’s early days, when privacy was championed as a ticket to personal freedom.“It feels like bitcoin circa 2013,” said Barry Silbert, founder of Digital Currency Group and Grayscale Investments, which set up the first publicly traded bitcoin fund.Catch all the Technology News and Updates on Live Mint.