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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mumbai: For Mumbai-based tech professional Ketan Madhav, weekends are reserved for a subject he pursues with almost religious zeal—food. Every Saturday, he and his friends pick a newly opened restaurant and work their way through a smorgasbord of options, ranging from coastal Indian fare to exotic cuisines from faraway lands.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In April, the Chinese government issued a notification—Decree 834, which imposed restrictions on multinational companies operating in the country. Mint examines what this decree is all about, its motivation, its implications for India, and what the Indian government should do to counter it.Decree 834 is China’s first comprehensive regulation on industrial and supply chain security. While not entirely new, it creates a unified national security-driven regulatory framework for supply chain oversight.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The democratization of programming has arrived—as an artificial intelligence (AI) model prompt. The ability to command a machine was a specialized art, restricted to a class of engineers fluent in cryptic computer languages. No longer.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Just as online brokers have made stock investing possible with a click, several applications now allow users to invest in fixed deposits (FDs) from multiple banks online without needing savings accounts with those banks.In April, low-cost broker Zerodha joined the bandwagon by launching such digital FDs on its investment platform Coin. Other apps that facilitate digital FD investments include Stable Money, SuperMoney, Jiraaf, and GoldenPiThe main advertising pitch for digital FDs is higher interest rates than those offered by traditional banks and the convenience of a one-stop shop.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Even though Indian gold retailers sold less jewellery in the March quarter as soaring prices forced shoppers to cut back on purchases, higher rates helped prop up their revenues.Jewellery buyers typically stick to fixed budgets, buying smaller quantities when prices are high, executives said. “When prices are low, the volume will be higher.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Earlier in May, the Lakshmi Mittal family and vaccine-maker Adar Poonawalla successfully bid for Indian Premier League team Rajasthan Royals at a valuation of $1.65 billion, or over ₹15,600 crore. In March, the Birla family, along with Blackstone PE, Bolt Ventures and The Times of India Group, acquired rival IPL team Royal Challengers Bengaluru for a $1.78 billion valuation, or more than ₹16,000 crore.At these valuations, cricket teams are selling for 30x their last reported annual revenue from operations.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Indian business rarely does exactly what the government wants it to. For the past decade or so, for example, it has obdurately refused to invest as much as officials think it should.Last week, chief economic advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran said that profits for the 500 largest publicly traded companies had grown by over 30% a year since the pandemic, “but still, our overall capital formation rates from the private sector have been disappointing.”Nageswaran is not the only one complaining.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s unemployment debate is missing a crucial dimension: time. Time spent waiting is a loss at any age, but especially so in one’s youth. For both the individual and the country, it is a loss of prime productive years.Last year, 11.6 million Indians in their 20s were unemployed and about 6.8 million of them had been job hunting for over a year.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.BENGALURU: Small Indian IT services firms are increasingly diverging in performance, as weak deal momentum and sharper competition reshape growth patterns across the sub-$1 billion revenue cohort.Within the segment, revenue growth slowed in fiscal year 2026 (FY26) compared with the previous year, underscoring a widening gap between outperformers and laggards even as one company entered the $100 million revenue club.Save for Sasken Technologies Ltd, which doubled its revenue last fiscal year on the back of its largest acquisition, Birlasoft Ltd and Cyient DET reported their second straight year of revenue decline. Mastek Ltd and Zensar Technologies Ltd grew at 3.1% each in FY26, slower than the 10.9% and 5.4% growth, respectively, in the previous year.The divergence reflects intensifying competition among smaller IT firms as they defend market share against larger peers, while also adjusting to rapid artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shifts in demand and client priorities.At the same time, the ranking within the segment is shifting.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The space race is heating up ahead of SpaceX’s initial public offering. And no, we’re not talking about competition for Elon Musk’s company from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, the United Launch Alliance joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, or Rocket Labs.Fund companies are gearing up to promote their space-themed exchange-traded funds.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.For years, climate campaigners have claimed that our food supply is under grave threat from climate change caused by excessive fossil fuel use. Ironically, the war in West Asia is highlighting that the much bigger food challenge for the world is not having enough access to fossil fuels.Today, half of all the calories we consume are only possible because they are produced with artificial fertilizers, overwhelmingly from natural gas.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.More than a decade into Xi Jinping’s rule, China’s military has grown more formidable, its factories dominate global manufacturing and its technology pioneers are closing the gap with Silicon Valley.Yet big parts of its economy are a mess. A colossal property bust has destroyed trillions of dollars in wealth, consumer confidence has been gutted and the job market has grown bleak.The disconnect shows how Xi has made China’s security a priority over its economy.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.ON MARCH 11TH the 32 members of the International Energy Agency (IEA), a club of large oil-consuming countries, agreed to sell 400m barrels of crude from their emergency reserves. The release, equivalent to one-third of the group’s combined strategic stash, is the biggest ever co-ordinated by the IEA, which was founded in 1974 after the first Arab oil embargo. Its historical significance failed to impress oil markets, which have been shaken by the Middle Eastern crisis provoked by America and Israel’s war on Iran.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In a world beset by uncertainty, a 14% plus year-on-year growth in bank credit during December 2025 to February 2026 is reason for cheer. To be sure, part of this reflects a normalization of the credit cycle which saw brief disruption in mid-2025 triggered by US President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The government is exploring an initial public offering for the country's largest container port, managed by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority, and has engaged state-backed investment banks to initiate the regulatory processes for the share sale, two people aware of the matter told Mint.The process remains in the earliest stages, with no valuation discussions yet and no timeline set, the people said, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. The focus is on preparing JNPA for the compliance and reporting standards required of a publicly listed organization—this is something that is needed before pricing or deal structuring can commence."The process is in the preliminary stages and involves multiple layers of departmental approvals," said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The University of California, Berkeley had almost 6,500 students on its wait list last year. It ended up admitting none of them.The only thing harder than getting into college, it seems, is getting off the wait list. At some schools, the wait list is far more selective than the college’s overall acceptance rate.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: India’s electronics companies are getting more time, but not price revisions, to execute government procurement contracts as geopolitical conflicts and supply-chain disruptions raise costs for suppliers of smartphones, tablets and laptops.In a 29 April notice, the department of expenditure in the finance ministry said global economic and supply-chain disruptions triggered by the Iran conflict and preceding geopolitical tensions qualify as force majeure, allowing companies executing government contracts to seek delivery extensions of up to four months without penalty.The move offers some relief to companies such as Acer, Lava and Samsung India, which had sought price revisions for ongoing contracts amid rising component and logistics costs but have so far failed to secure them. Instead, the Centre has allowed extensions of “not less than two months and not more than four months.”The order said the Centre “recognizes delays in delivery in completion of contractual obligations on account of force majeure event for which the supplier, consultant, service provider and contractor is not at fault.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Farm goods that have long remained shut out of cash settlements may be in for a pivotal shift, potentially deepening derivatives trading in India's vital commodities sector. A regulatory panel formed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has greenlit cash settlements up to fixed thresholds in select agriculture commodities, two people aware of the discussions said, balancing the need to deepen the sector while minimizing the risks.Currently, physical delivery is mandatory for all farm derivatives, meaning traders must hand over or take receipt of the physical goods once the futures or options contract expires.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s retail inflation likely rose to 3.8% in April from 3.4% in March, moving closer to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) medium-term target of 4% as food prices firmed up across key categories and favourable base effects continued to fade, according to the median estimate of 20 economists polled by Mint. Official data is due on 12 May.Economists expect Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation for April to print between 3.5% and 4.2%, with all respondents anticipating further firming under the revised CPI series with 2024 as the base year.India’s retail inflation had risen to 3.4% in March from 3.21% in February, driven by higher food and energy prices amid tensions in West Asia.“CPI inflation is expected to rise in April 2026 from March, largely on account of hardening food and beverages inflation led by edible oils, vegetables, and readymade food segments,” said Aditi Nayar, chief economist at ratings agency Icra Ltd.Economists at Societe Generale said simultaneous increases in vegetable and edible oil prices tend to broaden food inflation pressures, raising the risk of spillovers into headline inflation.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Aerospace and defence major Rolls-Royce Plc is borrowing from the India playbook of British energy giant BP Plc as it pursues billions of dollars worth of opportunities across defence, civil aviation and nuclear energy in the country.To lead that push, Rolls-Royce has turned to Sashi Mukundan, the former head of BP’s India business, who spent 24 years building the energy company’s partnerships in the country across gas, fuel retail and mobility ventures.The man who recruited him: Rolls-Royce chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic, who himself spent two decades at BP, including five years leading its downstream business.“Tufan was also with BP before. He’s seen how BP built the relationship in India,” Mukundan, now executive vice president Transformation India at Rolls-Royce, told Mint.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.When 35-year-old Rooma Sinha listed her studio apartment in Goa’s Arpora village on Airbnb two years ago, she wasn’t sure about how things would play out. Renting the apartment out would assure her of a steady income, but the AirBnB listing had the potential to help her earn much more.