Business
New Bank Group Norms Strengthen Lenders Balance-Sheets: Crisil
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank’s final guidelines on the non-banking financial services businesses of banks provide flexibility on overlapping lending activities within major bank groups, helping as many 12 bank groups not radically restructure their lending businesses. The October 2024 draft guidelines had proposed that only one bank group entity...
PE/VC Investment Volumes Reach A Decadal High, Value Soars 54% To $34 Billion Till November
MUMBAI: Despite the lingering funding winter, private equity and venture capital (PE/VC) investments have surged to their highest levels in a decade in terms of number of deals at 1,761 between January and November this year, surpassing the previous record of 1,726 deals in 2021 while in value terms...
Nose-Diving Rupee Set To Make Wide Range Of Consumer Goods More Expensive
MUMBAI: A nose-diving rupee is set to make a wide range of consumer products costlier, from white goods to smartphones and cars, as most companies will have no option but to pass on higher import costs to buyers. The rupee declined to 90.47 versus the US dollar on Thursday,...
NITI Aayog Recommends Special Accounts, Tax Incentives For Corporate Bond Investments
NEW DELHI: Niti Aayog, the government think tank, has recommended special bond accounts, demat trading of listed bonds, facilitating purchases through mobile and internet banking, and tax incentives for investments in corporate bonds to boost retail participation in the bond market. A report by Niti Aayog on deepening the...
Manufacturing To Contribute 25 Per Cent Of GDP By 2047: Report
NEW DELHI: The manufacturing sector’s share in the Indian GDP will rise to 25 per cent from approximately 17 per cent at present, and the country is poised to become a global industrial powerhouse by then, said a joint report from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Z47. Flagship...
Mexico Imposes Up To 50 Per Cent Tariff On Imports From India And China
NEW DELHI: Mexico on Thursday imposed a tariff of up to 50 per cent on imports from its non-preferential trade partners, including India, a move that might hit New Delhi’s annual $5.75 billion shipments to its third-largest car export market. The escalation by the North American country comes at...
Bank Credit To Micro, Small Enterprises Grows 27 Per Cent
MUMBAI: Bank lending to the micro and small sector (MSEs) has taken off sharply since March 2025. According to data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), credit to the MSE segment at Rs 9.54 lakh crore has risen 20.45% between March and October. On the year-on-year (y-o-y) basis,...
US Trade Team May Press India On Greater Market Access In Agri Products
NEW DELHI: The visiting US trade delegation is expected to push India for greater market access in agricultural products, with the United States Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer on Wednesday highlighting New Delhi’s resistance to certain row crops such as corn and soybeans, as well as meat products. The...
ADB Revises Upward India’s GDP Growth To 7.2 Per Cent For FY26
NEW DELHI: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday upped India’s growth forecast for FY26 to 7.2 per cent from 6.5 per cent driven primarily by robust domestic consumption supported by recent tax cuts. The sharp upgrade of 0.7 percentage points of the Indian economy will help Asia to...
Help Local Kirana Stores With Dedicated Tech Platform: FRAI
NEW DELHI: Small and medium retailers, facing heat from intense competition from e-commerce and quick-commerce platforms, through their association FRAI, have urged the government to create a dedicated technology platform, which will help them to compete with hyperlocal delivery platforms on an equal footing. The Federation of Retailer Association...
CPSE Dividends Reach 60 Per Cent Of FY26 Target
NEW DELHI: The Centre’s dividend receipts from the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) have fetched Rs 41,378 crore so far in the current financial year, or 60% of the annual target of Rs 69,000 crore. However, the dividend receipts are trailing the previous year’s achievement during the corresponding period....
TRAI Recommends Backhaul Spectrum Charge At 0.1% Of AGR; Costs May Halve
NEW DELHI: In a move that is set to slash the cost of backhaul spectrum charges by more than half, India’s telecom regulator has recommended that 0.1 per cent of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) be charged for the airwaves that connect towers to the core network. The Telecom Regulatory...
Microsoft Bets $17.5 Billion On India’s AI-First Future With Cloud, AI Infra
NEW DELHI: Software giant Microsoft on Tuesday said it would invest $17.5 billion in India between 2026 and 2029 to advance India’s Cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, skilling, and ongoing operations. This will be in addition to the $3 billion the company announced in January this year for...
India’s IPO Engine Enters A New Era: $20 Billion A Year Is The ‘New Normal’, Says JP Morgan
CHENNAI: India’s equity markets may be entering a new phase of maturity, with global investment banking giant J P Morgan stating that annual initial public offerings worth around 20 billion dollars have become the country’s “new normal.” It noted that the scale and consistency of recent issuances indicate a...
Ministerial Meet Gives ‘Strategic Push’ To India-EU FTA
NEW DELHI: A two-day intensive discussion between European Union’s Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic and India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal concluded here on Tuesday, providing strategic guidance to the teams negotiating a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The agreement could be concluded “at the...
CPSEs Meet 64 Per Cent Of FY26 Capex Target In April-November
NEW DELHI: Capital expenditure by Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), Indian Railways and the National Highways Authority of India reached Rs 5.04 lakh crore in the first eight months of FY26, achieving 64% of the annual target. This marks a 14% on-year growth in spending during April–November 2025, signalling...
Centre Resumes MGNREGA Works In West Bengal But With Stringent Riders
NEW DELHI: After a gap of more than three years, the Central government has agreed to resume MGNREGA works in West Bengal with immediate effect but subject to mandatory adherence to stringent conditions that include prohibition of any work which is valued more than Rs 20 lakh, compulsory 100...
TRAI, DoT At Loggerheads Over Charges For Satcom Spectrum
NEW DELHI: Telecom regulator Trai and the department of telecom (DoT) are at loggerheads over fixation of satcom spectrum charges for the companies and other critical matters at a time when satcom players, such as Elon Musk’s Starlink and Sunil Mittal’s Bharti group-backed Eutelsat OneWeb wait for regulatory clarity...
