War Financial News

New Delhi: India plans to float a fresh tender for over 3,000 electric buses by June, according to people aware of the development. This is set to be launched just six months after closing of the country's largest e-bus tender for over 10,000 units.The move aims to sharpen the country's push to electrify public transport and reduce fuel dependence, as oil supply risks from the West Asia war continue to weigh on costs.According to two executives in the know, the tender will be rolled out under the PM e-bus seva scheme, which aims to subsidize purchase of 10,000 e-buses across the country.

war drags on, reducing the availability of fuel for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and forcing the government to allow oil marketing companies (OMCs) to raise fuel prices.The running cost of EVs is relatively cheaper than ICE vehicles. The only two pure-play EV companies in India – Ola Electric Mobility Ltd and Ather Energy Ltd – present a contrast.

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New Delhi: Telecom gear maker Nokia said that supply chain pressures due to the West Asia war, with component shortages such as memory chips, are increasing costs for devices, including wireless access equipment and network infrastructure.“We started seeing the cost creeps happening. As soon as the supply shortage starts, the first thing is the cost changes, and that is what is happening right now,” Vibha Mehra, country manager - designate for India at Nokia, told reporters on Tuesday.Mehra, who will take charge as Nokia’s country manager in India on 1 April, said discussions about the cost increases have also begun with telecom operators.To be sure, memory chip prices had already been increasing before the war, as manufacturing capacity shifted from consumer electronics toward high-margin memory solutions for AI.

A leading stockbrokers' association plans to ask the government to defer the increase in the securities transaction tax (STT) on equity futures and options after the Reserve Bank of India postponed implementation of rules on bank funding of capital market intermediaries amid the Iran war-induced rout in the stock markets."The RBI deferment comes as a major reprieve, given the doldrums the market is in because of the West Asia crisis," said K Suresh, national president of the Association of NSE Members of India (ANMI). "Now, we will request the ministry of finance to temporarily hold back imposition of the hike in securities transaction tax on equity futures and options, given the drop in volumes it could lead to, given the extant conditions."In the FY27 budget presented on 1 February, the government proposed to increase the STT on equity futures to 0.05% from 0.02% and on options premium and exercise of options to 0.15% from 0.1% and 0.125%, respectively, from 1 April.

National Grid UK Ltd has outlined plans to spend up to $400 million to establish a tech facility in India, joining several global companies setting up back-end centres in the country even as the war in West Asia threatens power supply.The energy company, among the 10 largest utilities in the UK, first floated a tender on 15 December last year, inviting bids to set up a global capability centre (GCC) in India, according to twopeople privy to the development and tender documents reviewed by Mint.The company is “looking for a supplier to establish, grow and deliver engineering services capability at pace during the Build & Operate phase”, read the tender.It aims to start work on the facility next year and finish it by 2032, with a possible extension up to 2035, according to the tender document. The people quoted earlier, who didn’t want to be identified, said the GCC will employ about 1,000 employees when fully operational.Queries emailed to National Grid went unanswered until press time.The UK's electricity transmission network operator will join global power and energy sector peers, including ABB, GE Vernova, Hitachi Energy, and ExxonMobil, which have their GCCs in Bengaluru.India currently hosts over 1,760 GCCs, with Bengaluru and Hyderabad hosting 875 and 355 centres, respectively, according to the IT industry lobby Nasscom.

Mint India Investment Summit 2026, held in Mumbai last week.Shaji Varghese, chief executive officer of Muthoot Fincorp, said that of India’s 60 million small businesses, only 20–30% have access to credit, underscoring the critical role NBFCs play in bridging the gap. “That relevance is only further pronounced now.

₹25,000. By late February, as war broke out across West Asia, it had nearly doubled to ₹45,000.

The dollar has been winning against gold. Since the start of the Iran war on 28 February, the dollar has strengthened against most major currencies. In an earlier oped in Mint on 9 March (bit.ly/413F9Ry), I delved into the anomalous trend of the dollar strengthening by 1.5% and gold weakening by 1%.

New Delhi: Farmer lobbies have raised concerns about the strict implementation of curbs on the sale of diesel in portable containers amid the West Asia war, citing increased usage to operate agricultural equipment during the upcoming harvest season in April.Farmers say the ban on loose fuel sales—introduced to curb illegal storage and misuse—has heightened uncertainty over whether adequate supplies will be available during the peak season, particularly in rural areas where access to fuel stations remains limited.The Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, Kirti Kisan Union, and Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, and farmers across northern states such as Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh are now planning to raise the issue with authorities to seek to ease supply."Any disruption in harvesting will not only impact crop quality but also delay procurement, affecting overall farm incomes,” said Bhanu Pratap Singh, a farmer based in Uttar Pradesh. With the wheat harvest window being narrow and weather-sensitive, stakeholders warn that ensuring an uninterrupted diesel supply will be crucial to avoid operational bottlenecks and safeguard output in the country’s key grain-producing regions.Demand for diesel for harvesters and tractors surges as farmers begin to reap wheat around 10 April.

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RBI measure will bring some temporary relief to the rupee, but appreciation will be limited because fundamentals remain unfavourable, treasury officials said.“Currency appreciation may be limited to the extent of unwinding of these current leveraged positions. But once that is settled, I think the currency will again follow the fundamentals, and as long as this crisis continues, rupee will depreciate,” Reddy of Karur Vysya Bank said.Following the central bank move, the rupee gained 1.3% to touch a one-week high of 93.59 per dollar on Monday, before shedding gains to hit a new low of 95.1250. Likely RBI intervention lifted it to 94.83 at close, little changed from ⁠its previous close.

For foreign investors backing Indian equities, the financial year 2026 was one they would rather forget. It was a period dotted with global disruptions, starting with US-led tariff uncertainties and ending amid the US-Israel-Iran war.

India’s retail brokers are bracing for a sharp erosion in active clients and revenue as the escalating West Asia war threatens to further dampen market sentiment and trading activity.The active retail client base of brokerages has already shrunk over the past year due to muted, rangebound markets and the impact of regulatory curbs on derivatives trading. The outflow of active clients is set to intensify from March as the US-Iran war increases the risk of more retail investors stepping away from the stock market.“Broker revenues are down 20-30% across the industry year on year.

New Delhi: India’s electronics manufacturing services (EMS) firms are in wait-and-watch mode as the West Asia war disrupts the tech component supply chain and pushes commodity prices upward. While Dixon Technologies and Syrma SGS aren’t factoring pricing and supply chain disruptions into account right away, top executives believe the next few quarters will be key for users, brands and shareholders alike.In an interview with Mint, Sunil Vachani, cofounder and executive chairman of Dixon, said that industry bodies are currently evaluating “at a broad industry level how long it will take for capacities of commodities and components, which are destroyed in the war, to come back up.”“The gas supply chain disruption wouldn’t be affecting us, but it will likely hit air conditioner manufacturers directly,” Vachani said.

Mumbai: The cement industry is bracing for a sharp price increase in April as the fallout from the war in West Asia drives up production costs. UltraTech Cement Ltd, India’s largest producer, is set to be the first to increase its price, according to an executive in the know.A price hike by the market leader is likely to trigger similar moves by other cement makers, who are under even greater pressure from higher costs, given their relatively smaller scale.“Nobody will increase cement prices now as they need to meet the year-end targets, but price increase will be seen in the month of April, and cost will be passed on to the consumers,” said the executive quoted above, requesting anonymity, discussing business strategy.Emails sent to UltraTech did not elicit a response till press time.The rise in cement prices is expected to marginally increase construction and infrastructure costs, as cement typically accounts for around 5% of total construction cost, according to Satyadeep Jain, lead analyst for cement, metals, mining and utilities at Ambit Capital.“Cement companies will need ₹20/bag price hike to fully offset cost Inflation vs typical ₹7-8/bag hike in April.

trade deficit and high gold imports.The impact of the war-led disruptions—built on top of the calibrated depreciation—pushed the rupee towards a level not previously anticipated. Even then, economists believe that the RBI should not defend the rupee too much as it may provide temporary relief, but could stoke sharper depreciation later."If this is a long-drawn-out crisis, you want to preserve your forex reserves because when we got into trouble in 2013, our reserves went down, then the taper tantrum made it worse," said Gaura Sengupta, chief economist at IDFCFirst Bank.Forex reserves declined 3.4% and 0.6% in FY12 and FY13, but failed to arrest the rupee’s decline.

Mint, he said such corrections often create compelling entry points for long-term investors.Markets tend to react sharply to geopolitical events, especially in the early stages. However, over time, volatility usually stabilizes as markets adjust. What makes the current situation more complex for India is its dependence on energy imports.

The Iran war has laid bare a paradox: Gulf money is helping underwrite America’s effort to win the artificial intelligence race, and now the US has started a conflict that could destabilize those investments. Some estimates have projected $2 trillion in long-term pledges from Middle Eastern nations to the AI boom, money that now looks precarious.

Engineering and construction company Kalpataru Projects International Ltd is bracing for the adverse impact of the Middle East conflict on its March quarter (Q4FY26) earnings. During a recent analyst meet, management noted that the Middle East accounts for 10-11% of its ₹63,300-crore order book. The power transmission & distribution (T&D) business is expected to see a potential revenue impact of ₹200-300 crore due to supply-related challenges.

Amid the US-Israel war with Iran, concerns are growing about the safety of subsea cables in West Asia—the hidden network that carries most of the world’s internet. A large part of India’s data travels through these cables, many of which pass through regions now at risk of conflict.