Twice cleared, still banned. The question Jane Street is putting before the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) now, asking it to force the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to hand over its internal correspondence with the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on the studies that examined the hedge fund’s trades.

The backstory. In November 2024, the NSE reviewed Jane Street’s trades and found no evidence of manipulation. A month later, in December 2024, SEBI’s own Integrated Surveillance Department did a separate review and reached the same conclusion, with no proof the hedge fund had rigged Bank Nifty to benefit its options bets. Both reports reportedly advised SEBI to drop the matter.

But that same month, December 2024, SEBI instead set up a new inter-department team to dig further into similar trades by Jane Street. Seven months later in July 2025, SEBI issued an ex-parte interim order banning Jane Street from Indian markets and ordering it to disgorge ₹4,843 crore in alleged unlawful gains.

What happened in between? Jane Street’s lawyer pointed to a complaint from a UAE-based hedge fund, one that apparently came with a personal meeting with a SEBI whole-time member. “What was so stunning about this complaint that it received?” the lawyer asked in Friday’s hearing.

The firm also flagged a gap in scope. The NSE report covered 16 of the 27 months SEBI’s final order examined, while the ISD report covered 17 months. Whether that gap justified reopening the case is exactly what Jane Street wants those documents to reveal.

The tribunal will hear the matter next on 5 October. Meanwhile, read the full report by Apoorva Ajith.

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MARKET WATCH

India’s stock market rose on Friday after declining for four straight sessions but logged weekly losses as high crude prices and bond yields earlier in the week outweighed robust domestic growth and tax-collection data.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 0.48% to 76,515.43 points even as the wider NSE Nifty 50 ended 0.1% higher at 23,897.7. Ahead of the closing auction session, the indexes were up 0.27% and 0.65%, respectively.

For the week, the benchmarks lost 1.2% and 1%, marking their fourth consecutive weekly decline and their longest losing streak in five months. Twelve of the 16 major sectors declined for the week. Small-caps gained 0.1%, while mid-caps fell 1.5%.

BEST OF MINT

• NSE clears final SEBI hurdle for long-awaited IPO

• Telcos oppose TRAI’s proposed 5G slicing service quality rules

• Adani Ports’ rising volumes, overseas push to keep growth story intact

• Hindustan Unilever to boost capex to 3% of turnover for growth

In tomorrow’s Lounge edition:

• How the changing climate is testing Indian craftspersons

• Delhi tunes into Gaggan Anand’s bold flavours with Raga

• ‘Adults’ really gets the vibe of young recklessness

• Nepal Floods: A man-made tragedy of crumbling mountains

WEEKEND RECOMMENDATIONS

What to Watch | Where to Eat

MINT MONEY

Personal Finance tips for the Gen Z

For many young Indians, financial planning begins with a simple question: Can I afford the EMI? Whether it’s a smartphone, a two-wheeler or a home, the answer is increasingly shaped by the size of the monthly instalment rather than the full financial commitment behind it. Easy access to digital lending has done something genuinely good here—it has let a much wider set of young Indians into formal credit, often for the first time in their lives. Read more.

Edited by Madhumita Sen Choudhury.

India clocked a GDP growth rate of 7.8% in April-June, beating expectations and prompting sharply different readings of what the number actually means.

The government released the data on Monday as evidence of resilience despite a tariff war and the West Asia conflict, which rattled crude oil supplies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it a “Herculean feat”. Former finance secretary Subhash Garg dismissed the figure as fiction, arguing that real growth was just 2.6%, with manufacturing and consumption shrinking.

So, who’s right?

Let’s start with what actually drove the 7.8%. Services grew 12.1%, manufacturing 9.2%, while investment jumped nearly 12%, more than twice of last year’s pace. Household spending and exports also picked up.

The final print was also stronger than the Reserve Bank of India’s August estimate of 7% and Mint’s poll of 21 economists, which had put growth at 7.4%. On that measure, the economy genuinely outperformed expectations.

Garg’s 2.6% claim, though, doesn’t hold up. He compared Q1FY26’s GDP under the old 2011-12 series at ₹86 trillion with Q1FY27’s GDP under the new 2022-23 series at ₹88 trillion, and treated the difference as growth. But growth cannot be calculated by comparing figures from two different statistical frameworks. It is like comparing your weight on two uncalibrated scales and calling the difference a diet result.

The government’s revised Q1FY26 GDP under the new series is actually ₹80 trillion, producing a growth rate much closer to the official 7.8%.

That doesn’t mean the 7.8% number is beyond question, though. The quarterly GDP estimates are provisional and get revised for up to two years as better data comes in. Q1FY26 growth, for instance, was first reported at 7.8%, revised down to 6.8%, then back up to 6.9%. So today’s 7.8% isn’t final either.

There’s a deeper concern too. Even taken at face value, 7.8% growth translates to just 6.8% growth in GDP per capita, as the gains are spread across a growing population. And measured against other economies during their own demographic dividend years, India’s 5.4% average since 2019 trails China’s 9.3%, South Korea’s 9.4%, and even Vietnam’s 6.3%. That gap is exactly why strong headline numbers keep colliding with everyday frustration over jobs and prices.

Add to that the International Monetary Fund’s ‘C’ rating for the quality of India’s GDP data last year, and the scepticism starts to look more understandable—even if Garg’s specific calculation does not.

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MARKET WATCH

India’s stock market was subdued today, as risk aversion sparked by elevated crude oil prices outweighed gains in banking stocks following the central bank’s stronger-than-expected dollar mobilisation.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 0.55% to 76,152.86 points even as the wider NSE Nifty 50 ended the day 0.17% lower at 23,873.45 points. Nine out of the 16 major sectors declined. Financial stocks climbed between 0.3% and 0.6%.

The BSE Sensex plunged as much as 2.5% during the closing auction session that’s already reshaping options trading, prompting participants to trim positions and ramp up hedges as wild swings in the final 15 minutes make closing levels increasingly difficult to call.

🔗 Key factors that drove India’s stock market today

BEST OF MINT

• Why is crude oil surging, and what does it mean for India?

• Centre plans interministerial meeting to chart ethanol feedstock strategy

• Plastic pipes makers poised to bounce back in Q2 as PVC prices recover

• India Inc’s earnings recovery hits a margin test

Get a head start on tomorrow’s Print edition:

• Banking: HDFC Bank leads perfect succession storms for private lenders

• Auto: Ather Energy’s stock has surged. Can Konarc keep it climbing?

• News: Adani seeks to borrow to refinance Ambuja Cement acquisition loan

• Legal: Why SC refused to make Edelweiss pay ₹900 crore to Anugrah investors

SNEAK A PEEK

Long Story, a much-loved Mint feature, is published every weekday. Before the next piece hits the stands, here’s your exclusive glimpse into what’s brewing on our desk. Catch the story in the morning edition.

Hidden doors, eight-seat counters, and months-long waitlists—India’s dining scene is going micro. Step inside the ultra-intimate, chef-led spaces where hyper-regional ingredients, high-margin economics and immersive storytelling are redefining the country’s luxury culinary landscape. Read more.

MINT MONEY

The ripple effect of US CLARITY Act on India

The US Senate is set to vote on the CLARITY Act, which would replace ad-hoc crypto enforcement with clear statutory rules, splitting oversight between the US SEC for securities-like tokens and CFTC for digital commodities like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

India, by contrast, continues to regulate crypto through tax, AML and reporting compliance rather than a dedicated market regulator, and experts say it’s unlikely to directly copy the US model. Still, clearer global frameworks across the US, EU and Dubai could reduce systemic risk and offer safer benchmarks. Read more.

Edited by Rashmi Sanyal.

Prime Database’s Pranav Haldea points to a familiar pattern. After any IPO lull, the first fresh batch tends to get priced conservatively, leaving more upside for investors. Add a dose of retail FOMO, subscription levels jumped from roughly 12X to nearly 33X in August alone, and you get a self-feeding momentum cycle.

But bankers are flagging a worrying trend. Grey market premiums (GMP), once just an informal tracking tool, are now allegedly being used to steer order flow, with unusual volumes emerging from Tier II cities like Rajkot and Ahmedabad. Could some of this euphoria be artificially engineered?

*****

Meanwhile, Avendus Capital’s Gaurav Sood expects India’s IPO market to cross $20 billion by the year-end, building on the $8 billion already raised by 58 companies, led by SBI Funds and Manipal Hospitals. Big-ticket offerings are surging too, with India seeing a fourfold increase in $200-million-plus listings over two years. NSE and Jio Platforms alone could add another $7 billion combined.

Sood credits part of this shift to issuers finally “leaving money on the table” for the investors, resulting in better-quality debuts at more reasonable valuations. Pre-IPO rounds are also becoming standard practice. Seven of Avendus’s last eight IPO clients ran one beforehand, often as a staged exit strategy for early investors.

Still, warning signs are already creeping in. Just weeks after August’s euphoria, September saw Skyways Air Services and Annu Projects list at steep discounts. As more issues hit the market, pricing tends to get more aggressive, and those listing pops don’t last forever.

Is this the start of a genuine IPO renaissance, or just a sugar high before valuations catch up with reality? For now, investors seem happy to keep riding the wave.

ALSO READ

PLAIN FACTS

India's economy is improving, but not the way you'd hope

India’s economic indicators show resilience driven by vehicle sales and credit growth, but persistent inflation, uneven consumption, and monsoon deficits threaten rural demand. Read more.

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THE MAIN STUFF

Auditors are no longer just number-crunchers

Who audits the bots doing your company’s bookkeeping now? Turns out, someone has to. With over 600 companies changing auditors by FY29, India’s top audit firms are stacking their teams with data scientists, cybersecurity experts, fraud specialists, because a decade ago, 95% of audit teams were just chartered accountants. Now that number’s down to 70-75%.

Businesses have gone digital, remote, and data-heavy, with AI tools like ChatGPT and RPA bots now handling reconciliations. As one partner put it, “We need to audit the bot identity as if it were a user”. Clients are getting picky too, weighing tech capability alongside traditional audit quality. Will the firms with the best AI teams end up winning the biggest mandates? Read on.

A gold rush of deals in India’s jewellery sector

₹1,033 crore, that’s the amount GRT Jewellers paid to acquire a majority stake in TBZ. The playbook is to buy your way into markets you don’t already dominate.

• GRT gets a foothold in West India through TBZ.

• Senco Gold bought into digital retail.

• PN Gadgil grabbed a silver jewellery brand.

• Titan expanded internationally via Dubai’s Damas.

Organized retail’s share of India’s ₹8.5-trillion jewellery market has nearly doubled since FY19, helped along by mandatory hallmarking and growing consumer trust. Smaller cities are now driving store expansion, while studded and lightweight jewellery are pulling in younger buyers. Read more.

MINT LONG STORY

A sovereign credit rating is a composite measure of several elements that affect a country’s ability to service its debt obligations. Instead of treating it as a badge of national prestige, it is more useful to engage with its many dimensions. Read more.

TVS leadership team now spans four continents

Sudarshan Venu runs TVS Motor Co. Ltd.’s chairmanship from Singapore. Its next CEO is Dubai-based. Its CTO splits time between Bengaluru and Oxford. Incoming CEO Peyman Kargar, who takes over in January, has never worked with an India-based automaker before, his background is Nissan and Renault. He’ll be based in Bengaluru, but the strategic thinking increasingly happens from Singapore.

The shift comes as TVS pushes hard on exports and works to revive British brand Norton, absorbing nearly ₹2,000 crore in loss along the way. Meanwhile, TVS shares dipped 5% following the CEO announcement. Is this the blueprint for how Indian manufacturers compete worldwide? Read more.

AB InBev wants India to become a Top-5 beer market

AB InBev is pouring fresh investment into Rajasthan and Karnataka, while pulling back from Uttar Pradesh, where it hasn’t received a price hike in three years. The world’s largest brewer restarted its Rajasthan brewery last month, investing ~$20 million after shutting it seven years ago over “unfavourable taxation”.

Meanwhile, Karnataka’s revamped alcohol tax structure has boosted mild beer sales from 10% to ~20% in just three months.

The bigger ambition is that AB InBev wants India to become the world’s second-largest beer market. With 22 million people turning legal drinking age yearly, and premiumisation already a fifth of the market, the growth runway looks real. But as President Kartikeya Sharma bluntly puts it, “If states don’t allow companies to take price increases, how do we make an investment even when we want to?” Read on.

AROUND THE WORLD

• New Google AI model said to narrow gap on coding ability

• G-20 squabbling overshadows summit as global bond markets strain

• A war that won’t end is complicating the Fed’s next move

• Why Kevin Warsh might spark a gold rush. How to play it.

• IPO booms can spell trouble for the markets

CHART OF THE DAY

LOUNGE RECOMMENDS

How to hit your diet goals

What’s cooking for breakfast? What’s for lunch? What’s the dinner menu tonight? These questions consume all of us several times a day, each and every day of our adult lives. And very often they are not easy to answer satisfactorily. Just ask the parent, spouse or flatmate whose carefully cooked meal evoked a frowning “not again” from someone on the dining table.

There is a very practical and simple solution to this daily dilemma: eat the same food every single day. “Many people enjoy the comfort of eating the same meal each day as it saves time in decision making, makes prepping and cooking easier and is also convenient,” says Madhura Paroolkar Behki, a nutrition expert at CultFit. Read more.

WHAT THE FACT

Viking 2 lands on Mars

On this day in 1976, NASA's robotic spacecraft Viking 2 touched down on Mars after a nearly yearlong journey. It soon began relaying data on the planet's atmosphere and soil, along with colour photographs of its rocky surface.

Edited by Ranjana Chauhan.

The disconnect reflects a deliberate shift: Adani is moving labour-intensive roles such as factory work and driving to third-party vendors, allowing the group to focus its employees on strategy, finance and capital allocation.

Flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd. saw its workforce nearly halve, while Adani Green Energy Ltd.’s headcount plunged more than 75%.

The move comes as Adani ramps up investment, spending a record ₹1.53 trillion on expansion in FY26. Founder Gautam Adani has called the outsourcing push a “change in mindset” aimed at conserving capital and management bandwidth while relying on larger vendors to run operations more efficiently. Read more.

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MARKET WATCH

India’s stock markets fell alongside peers as renewed US-Iran strikes heightened the risk of disruptions to oil flows, reviving inflation concerns amid a global bond rout that pushed borrowing costs to multi-decade highs.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 0.49% to 76,570.35 points, even as the broader NSE Nifty 50 ended the day 0.59% lower at 23,914.45. The indexes have fallen 5% since the Iran war broke out more than six months ago.

Eleven of the 16 major sectors declined. The broader small-caps and mid-caps lost 0.4% and 0.5%, respectively.

BEST OF MINT

• Non-banks seek clarity, exemption for supply-chain finance from RBI

• India’s data-centre operators had a strong FY26 as capacity filled up

• Can NITI Aayog clear the bottlenecks for India’s deeptech startups?

• How India plans to curb the diversion of chemicals into illicit drugs

Get a head start on tomorrow’s Print edition:

• Plain Facts: India’s surprise GDP print masks underlying risks to the economy

• Explainer: Why India’s jewellery giants are racing to consolidate

• M2M: Will a ₹300-crore buyback put PVR Inox on comeback path?

• HR: Auditors reboot teams, tap data scientists, AI sleuths

SNEAK A PEEK

Long Story, a much-loved Mint feature, is published every weekday. Before the next piece hits the stands, here’s your exclusive glimpse into what’s brewing on our desk. Catch the story in the morning edition.

A sovereign credit rating is a composite measure of several elements that affect a country’s ability to service its debt obligations. Instead of treating it as a badge of national prestige, it is more useful to engage with its many dimensions. Read more.

MINT MONEY

Is your portfolio too much of one thing?

Indian equities may be in a “time correction”, but that doesn’t make an equity-heavy portfolio risk free. For DIY investors, chasing recent winners can quietly create concentration risk. A diversified mix of equity, fixed income, gold and other assets may offer a smoother ride through market cycles.

The key is understanding drawdowns, or how much an asset can fall from its peak, before deciding how much of it belongs in your portfolio. If you have a 10-year horizon and can stomach sharp corrections, staying invested may work. Otherwise, a “balanced diet” could be wiser. Read more.

Edited by Rashmi Sanyal.

Yet domestic mutual funds more than doubled their stake in what is arguably India’s most influential stock, from 13.36% to 30.62%—the third-largest increase among peer banks. Why did domestic institutions keep buying a stock that had lagged its peers so badly?

Much of the answer lies in HDFC Bank’s 2023 merger with HDFC Ltd., which reshaped the bank’s shareholder base and triggered index-linked flows given its heavy weightage in benchmark indices. Fund manager Rajesh Singla said that the underperformance largely reflects the market “digesting an extraordinarily large merger” rather than reassessing the quality of the franchise.

Foreign investors, meanwhile, took a different view. Their ownership fell by more than 10 percentage points after the merger, as domestic funds stepped in to fill the gap. Analyst Prasenjit Paul said FPIs are likely waiting for clearer signs that the post-merger growth pressures are easing.

Jefferies, for its part, expects near-term turbulence around the leadership change, trimming its share price target while still keeping a ‘buy’ rating. Read the full report by Mayur Bhalerao.

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MARKET WATCH

India’s stock market edged lower today as escalating West Asia tensions pushed oil prices and bond yields higher, while heavyweight banks reversed Monday’s closing auction gains.

The Nifty 50 fell 0.1% to 24,055.8 and the BSE Sensex shed 0.02% to 76,944.28. The indexes were down 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively, at 3:15 pm ahead of the beginning of closing auction session.

Heavyweights Reliance Industries Ltd. extended gains to 2.5% from 2% ahead of CAS window, while ICICI Bank pared losses to 1.1% as against 1.8% before CAS.

Twelve of the 16 major sectors logged losses. The Nifty Bank index fell 1.1%, reversing the roughly 500-point gain it recorded in the CAS on Monday. The broader small-caps and mid-caps lost 0.2% and 1.4%, respectively.

🔗 Key factors that drove India’s stock market today

BEST OF MINT

• Cognizant bets on managed office deal with WeWork in Chennai

• India Manufacturing PMI at 5-year low: Is more pain in store?

• India’s deeptech boom puts growth investors to the test

• Yuma raises $35 million to scale battery-swapping network

Get a head start on tomorrow’s Print edition:

• Mint Primer: How ‘local’ is India’s defence infrastructure, really?

• F&B: UBL expects premium beer to grow 3x faster than market

• M2M: OMCs set for earnings recovery in Q2 despite uncertainty

• Mint Explainer: Inside Irdai’s insurance registry

MINT MONEY

Why more retirees are choosing to sell property

More Indian retirees are letting go of extra real estate, selling secondary homes, downsizing from large family houses, or opting for redevelopment, as children settle elsewhere and upkeep becomes a burden.

The shift simplifies life and eases the succession burden on heirs. Advisors suggest retirees keep the home they live in, reconsider holding additional property with low rental yields, and carefully plan how sale proceeds are allocated, balancing tax, emergencies, and future income needs, rather than dumping everything into one instrument. Read more.

Edited by Rashmi Sanyal.

There was a time when the worst thing that could happen to an ad was that nobody noticed it. Now, the real danger is being noticed by the wrong people. Giva, the direct-to-consumer jewellery brand, has just demonstrated why. It withdrew its Raksha Bandhan ad featuring actor Kriti Sanon after criticism of the outfit she wore in it.

Actor and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kangana Ranaut called the ad “intentionally creepy” and questioned why anyone would tie a rakhi “in your bikini/undergarments”. Kriti Sanon defended the ad, arguing that culture lives in sentiment rather than in a neckline. Giva nevertheless pulled it, accompanied by the now-customary assurance that it has the highest regard for Indian culture and never intended to hurt anyone’s sentiments. The irony is that the ad was not really about religion or modesty at all. Giva said it was trying to extend Raksha Bandhan to pets.

Evidently, a company can now be forced into a public apology over an idea that was, at worst, twee. Nor is this the first time an Indian brand has blinked. In 2020, Tanishq withdrew an ad showing a pregnant Hindu woman whose Muslim in-laws organised her godh bharaai, a traditional baby shower. As #BoycottTanishq trended amidst accusations it was promoting “love jihad”, Tanishq chose to backtrack.

The debate following the Giva ad has centred around whether such ads are wise or tasteful. But the more relevant question is, when did brands become so frightened of people who may not even be their customers.

Sure, companies have to listen to their customers. But social media has distorted that relationship. Those offended are highly visible; the millions who watched an ad and simply moved on, are not. In 1974, the German sociologist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann described this as the “spiral of silence”: people who think their views are unpopular stay quiet, while those who believe they speak for the majority grow louder. The result is a badly skewed sense of what most people actually think. We can see that clearly in this case: a few thousand angry posts, a trending hashtag, an opportunistic politician, and suddenly an ad is treated as a threat to the nation’s soul.

Sadly, what companies in such situations miss is the far larger number of people who watched the Giva ad and forgot about it within the hour. That asymmetry leads to a particular kind of corporate cowardice. After all, nobody can get fired for a boring advertisement, but someone might get sacked for a controversial one. Faced with choosing between a little creative upside and career-threatening backlash, the rational choice is to back off.

Except that a brand cannot differentiate itself by ensuring nobody is ever offended. In the 1990s, Benetton built campaigns around an AIDS patient dying, a priest kissing a nun, war and the death penalty. It faced strident criticism and endured boycotts, but refused to back down because it understood that a brand with a point of view will always have detractors.

Indian advertising, too, once had some of that nerve. Kamasutra condoms were not built by worrying whether uncles and aunties would approve. Liril's Karen Lunel, cavorting under a waterfall in the 1980s, sold freedom and a kind of female independence that was hardly conventional at the time. More recently, Surf Excel’s 2019 Holi ad, showing a Hindu girl getting drenched in colour so her Muslim friend could stay clean for prayers, survived a #BoycottSurfExcel campaign because Hindustan Unilever refused to pull it.

None of this means a brand should deliberately provoke consumers. But it should be able to withstand disagreement. What gets lost in the panic following the outrage is a key distinction: an ad that has annoyed actual customers versus one that has ruffled the feathers of a very visible minority which wasn’t going to buy its products anyway. Companies in such situations declare a crisis without anyone checking whether potential sales had actually been affected, or whether it was just the flavour of the hour on social media. Trending is being allowed to pass itself off as a business metric.

The irony is that companies spend millions trying to get consumers to notice them, hiring celebrities and agencies to provoke exactly the emotional response they later apologise for. The old retail maxim says the customer is always right. Corporate India might rediscover the part that was never written down: the customer can also be wrong. If nobody is ever offended by an ad, it is more likely nobody is paying attention either.

The Real GDP rose to ₹81.36 trillion from ₹75.46 trillion a year earlier, while nominal GDP grew 10.3%. Growth did slow from 8.6% in Q4 but remained well above the 6.8% recorded a year earlier. It also beat the Reserve Bank of India’s 7% projection for the April-June quarter.

Services led the expansion, even as indicators such as e-way bills and Manufacturing PMI pointed to some softening. Global agencies remain more cautious: the World Bank and Asian Development Bank both expect full-year growth of around 6.6%.

The stronger-than-expected growth comes with a catch. India’s retail inflation hit a 19-month high of 4.45% in July, while volatile energy prices and lingering monsoon risks could complicate the RBI’s rate decisions.

On the fiscal front, the government’s fiscal deficit came in at ₹4.55 trillion, or 26.8% of the full-year target, and lower than last year’s ₹4.7 trillion, helped by stronger tax collections.

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MARKET WATCH

Indian shares fell on Monday as higher crude prices and fears of U.S. rate hikes hurt investor appetite, with an MSCI index rejig combined with a new stock closing mechanism triggering sharp stock-specific swings.

The country's Nifty 50 fell 0.39% to 24,080.40 points and the BSE Sensex shed 0.4% to 76.957.27. The indexes fell 1.2% and 1.5% in August. Eight of the 16 major sectors fell. Small-caps fell 0.7% while mid-caps gained 0.2%.

BEST OF MINT

• Hallmarking silver jewellery may become mandatory from October

• Sterlite Tech has surged 7X. Is the rally running ahead of earnings?

• NCLAT to hear plea challenging Subhash Chandra’s repayment plan

• Tata Agratas details role of China-owned firm in battery play for first time

Get a head start on tomorrow’s Print edition:

• Explainer: Can foreign investment in e-commerce take India’s small manufacturers global?

• Plain Facts: How Indian banks can do a Revolut to attract the Gen Z

• Deals: Spark Capital Group steps up focus on high-growth firms

• M2M: A cog in the wheel for office leasing

SNEAK A PEEK

Long Story, a much-loved Mint feature, is published every weekday. Before the next piece hits the stands, here’s your exclusive glimpse into what’s brewing on our desk. Catch the story in the morning edition.

A US chip restriction jolted India into developing an AI chip that could give the country a sovereign alternative to Nvidia. But can a government-funded effort help India catch up with the world’s best? Read more.

MINT MONEY

What online will platforms won’t tell you

Online will-making platforms like Yellow, Aasan Will, and KustodianLife are making estate planning more accessible, with prices ranging from ₹499 DIY options to end-to-end services costing ₹15,000-30,000. But experts caution that DIY works only for simple, uncomplicated asset distributions—complications like NRI status, multiple properties, or unequal distribution among heirs still need expert review. Registration, while optional, adds authenticity but costs far more through platforms than the government’s modest ₹100-200 fee. Read more.

Edited by Rashmi Sanyal.

Six years after taking the CEO job nobody expected him to get, Sashidhar Jagdishan is walking away from HDFC Bank Ltd., and this time, he’s not looking back.

His decision not to seek a third term, announced Saturday, comes barely five months after chairman Atanu Chakraborty’s abrupt resignation over unspecified “governance” concerns, plunging India’s largest private lender into fresh leadership uncertainty just as it was trying to move past the last one.

Jagdishan’s journey is a classic insider story. A finance manager in 1996 who spent three decades climbing to CFO and finally CEO in 2020, inheriting the position mid-pandemic. Colleagues describe him as thoughtful and willing to listen, unlike his predecessor Aditya Puri’s more directive style—some believe that same openness may have worked against him internally. Away from banking, he’s known for Carnatic music, cycling, and preparing curd rice for family on weekends.

But his final stretch was loud. A Dubai regulatory ban, terminated executives, a board penalty over “business overreach” on deposit rates, and now a looming US securities lawsuit. The board reportedly wanted him to reconsider the exit, but people aware of the matter say Jagdishan didn’t want the risk of a truncated term or RBI rejection, something the bank has denied.

Deputy MD Kaizad Bharucha, a 31-year veteran, is the frontrunner for interim CEO, though RBI’s 15-year cap on whole-time directors limits how long he could eventually serve in the top role. Adding to the churn, another senior executive’s term ends in November.

The stock market, interestingly, seem unbothered—even relieved. HDFC Bank’s ADR jumped 2.76% before the announcement, while domestic shares rebounded from a 52-week low, suggesting the Street had already priced in the exit. Analysts point to depressed valuations, 1.84 times book value, well below ICICI Bank Ltd. and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., as reason for optimism once fresh leadership arrives. Mutual funds have been increasing their stake even as foreign investors pull back.

As one advisor put it, this is “the season of early resignations”, following similar exits at Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd. and Kotak Mahindra Bank. But for HDFC Bank specifically, the question that lingers is whether his successor can restore both performance and investor trust. Will the next chief be a steady hand from within, or does the bank need a fresh outsider’s perspective?

🔗 HDFC Bank may turn to Plan B with just two months to find its next CEO

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PLAIN FACTS

The math behind India’s next wave of airport privatisation

After six airports in 2020-21, India plans to privatise 11 smaller airports next. Here's how the public-private partnership model has transformed India’s aviation market, and what lies ahead. Read more.

THE MAIN STUFF

The search for new Tata Sons chairman is stuck

Three weeks after N. Chandrasekaran announced he won’t seek a third term, Tata Sons still can’t officially start hunting for his replacement. The holdup is a charity commissioner’s order barring Sir Ratan Tata Trust, one of Tata Trusts’ key entities, from holding board meetings.

Noel Tata has now written directly to the commissioner, seeking permission to jointly nominate a selection committee member, approve last year’s accounts, and clear the trust’s budget. Without this, the five-member panel that’s supposed to pick the next Tata Sons chair simply can’t form.

Legal experts suggest a writ petition could speed things up, but Tata executives are wary—court battles bring their own delays. “We remain hopeful that the charity commissioner will consider our request,” one executive said.

TAFE breaks a 29-year pause to build a new plant

After nearly three decades without a new plant, India’s second-largest tractor maker is expanding again, and this time, exports are the driving force. TAFE will invest ₹1,250 crore in a 60,000-tractor Rajasthan facility, coming up within 18 months.

“We’re confident of growing internationally, and that’s why we’re putting in capacity,” Chairperson Mallika Srinivasan told Mint in a rare interview, following a breakout year with revenue up 25% to ₹16,000 crore.

Good monsoons, a GST cut, and farmer-friendly state policies all played a part, Vice Chair Lakshmi Venu said, pulling in a wave of first-time buyers upgrading to premium tractors. TAFE has also grown its share in the popular 41-50 HP segment from under 50% to 63% in five years. Read more.

MINT LONG STORY

As youth migrate and palatial homes stand silent, Keralam is crafting a new blueprint for elderly care. From vibrant daycare centres to innovative “time banks”, explore how the rapidly ageing state is transforming loneliness into companionship. Read more.

Adani Enterprises valuation faces a reality check

Brokerages see roughly 20% more upside for Adani Enterprises Ltd., but they are already valuing its businesses at premium multiples. Airports are priced more than double GMR’s valuation, its new-energy arm trades way above solar peers, and its data-centre business sits well ahead of global comparables.

With little room left for multiples to expand further, future gains will need to come from actual earnings growth—think airport non-aero revenue, Adani New Industries Ltd.’s renewable capacity ramp-up, or AdaniConnex scaling toward 3,000 MW by 2030.

None of Adani Enterprises’s businesses are listed yet, so today’s valuation carries no holding-company discount. Once spin-offs begin between 2027 and 2031, that could change, much like what’s happening with Reliance Industries Ltd.’s Jio Platforms.

YouTube’s new view metric may kill the clickbait era

Starting 24 August, watching the first frame of a video counts as a view, but hitting pause a second later won’t hide anymore. YouTube’s new “engaged view” tracking is shifting the game from chasing headline numbers to actually holding attention.

For creators, that means the thumbnail-and-first-two-seconds trick, what one founder calls “hook arbitrage”, loses its edge. Retention, watch time and audience quality now matter more than raw view counts, especially for brands chasing real business outcomes, not vanity metrics.

With Netflix poaching top YouTube creators like Samay Raina, YouTube is reportedly dangling million-dollar exclusivity deals to keep its biggest names in-house. But is chasing platform money the smart move, or does it just trade independence for a short-term payout? Read on.

AROUND THE WORLD

• Kevin Warsh makes the case for higher rates and raises the bar for standing pat

• Inside Trump’s plan to give the Pentagon a stake in Venezuela’s oil riches

• Nvidia wants to run the world’s robots. China is an eager customer.

• How China’s AI policies avoid painful past tech crackdown

• The economic costs of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown

CHART OF THE DAY

LOUNGE RECOMMENDS

Elon Musk: A visionary genius or evil billionaire?

Eric Jorgenson’s The Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success is not really a book in any conventional sense. It is an organised scrap-heap of things Elon Musk has said, written, or tweeted over the years, given a thin veneer of coherence by leading questions that defy any obvious chronology.

In his opening note, the author admits to spending thousands of hours “collecting, curating, and editing” Musk’s most useful ideas. With that out of the way, let us get to the man whom the book labours to eulogise. Read more.

WHAT THE FACT

The death of a Princess

On this day in 1997, Princess Diana Spencer died in a Paris car crash initially blamed on pursuing paparazzi, though investigations later attributed it to the driver. The accident also claimed the lives of her companion Dodi Fayed and the driver himself.

Edited by James Mathew.

Their reasoning is striking. The loans were secured, and via SARFAESI enforcement and sale of pledged shares, Sammaan Capital says it has already recovered “an amount materially exceeding the amount originally disbursed”. In other words, the NCLT order barely dents their actual recovery. That’s a contrast to HDFC Bank that expects to recoup just 3.2% of its claim and voted against the plan alongside Axis Bank, Canara Bank, RBL Bank and Union Bank.

Meanwhile, Chandra broke his silence with a detailed video message, pushing back hard against the headline numbers being thrown around. He disputes the widely cited ₹3,900-crore claim figure, arguing that roughly ₹2,000 crore of it comes from lenders who had already been repaid in full but still filed claims. “I don’t know why,” he said, “but some lenders’ entire money was also repaid. But they also entered their claim in NCLT”.

He also revisited the bigger picture. His group originally borrowed ~₹45,000 crore, of which ₹43,000 crore has been repaid, he claims, leaving ~₹2,000 crore outstanding from companies with mismatched assets and liabilities.

Perhaps the most pointed moment was when Chandra rejected his net worth. He pointed to his 2016 Rajya Sabha wealth declaration, ₹39.7 crore, and asked, “So, in 2017, how will it become ₹45,000 crore?” calling the bigger figure a “myth”.

As for where things stand now, Chandra says he has just ₹6.5 crore left, managing expenses from renting out part of his own house. Yet the tone wasn’t defeated. “I will earn again,” he said. “I am a pioneer.” He even revealed plans to meet an investor contact in Switzerland in the coming weeks, hoping to rebuild through fresh ventures, possibly starting with a small loan from family.

So where does that leave things? On one side, Sammaan walking away satisfied with its actual recoveries. On the other, HDFC Bank is preparing to fight in NCLAT. And at the centre, a businessman insisting the real story is far more layered than what some headlines suggest.

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MARKET WATCH

India’s stock market inched higher on Friday, but posted a third straight weekly loss, their longest falling streak in five months, on concerns over a new closing-auction mechanism and caution ahead of the US Federal Reserve Chair’s speech.

On Friday, the Nifty 50 rose 0.35% to 24,175.65 points, while the BSE Sensex added 0.43% to 77,264.51. The IT index jumped 3.5%, supported by upbeat quarterly results from U.S. chipmaker Nvidia.

For the week, the Nifty 50 and Sensex fell 0.3% and 0.4%, respectively.

🔗 Key factors that drove India’s stock market today

BEST OF MINT

• SEBI approves ₹35,000-crore Jio Platforms IPO for biggest listing in India

• India draws up financing framework to kick-start next investment cycle

• Instamart’s new bet: Make quick-commerce products harder to copy

• China’s red lines for India’s auto industry emerge despite hopes of thaw

• KTM clocks first operating profit since takeover by Bajaj Auto

In tomorrow’s Lounge edition:

• Gulzar’s Mumbai: A poet in partnership with the city

• Curious about India’s wild foods? Here’s how you can try them out

• ‘I don’t want Sabyasachi to be a fashion brand’

• Google Pixel 11 review: Does the flagship offer anything new?

WEEKEND RECOMMENDATIONS

What to Watch | Where to Eat

MINT LONG STORY, UNLOCKED

Long Story, a much-loved Mint feature, is published every weekday. Here’s a selection of those long-reads that you can read for free on the Mint app over the weekend. Download the Mint app to read, and support, the best of long-form journalism.

• The unenviable inheritance of Noel Tata

• A student protest—and a reckoning for Bar Council of India

• Behind Meta’s tumultuous week in India after Modi video takedown

• Why Dr Reddy’s may be doing much more in its laboratories

• Hybe Machine | Inside the Korean music giant’s quest to win India

MINT MONEY

Where Passive > Active

Groww AMC’s Anupam Tiwari says narrow sectors like defence suit passive investing far better than active management, given how thin the stock universe is. Thematic bets on EVs, defence and healthcare should stay capped at 5-10% of a portfolio, reserved mainly for evolved investors.

On small caps, he flags rising valuations but backs a QGAR approach for those with an 8-10 year horizon. His four long-term sector bets are premium consumption, niche manufacturing exports, financials, and power transmission capex. For moderate-risk investors, he recommends capping equity at 50-60%, starting with flexi-cap funds before venturing into small caps. Read more.

Edited by Madhumita Sen Choudhury.

Would you jump into a trading session where prices swing wildly and you can barely predict where they’ll land? Most retail investors are refusing to, and brokers say that’s unlikely to change soon.

Since SEBI’s closing auction session launched on 3 August for 213 derivative-traded stocks, retail participation has stayed stubbornly below 10%, with some brokers pegging it closer to 3-5%. There’s little incentive, and plenty of uncertainty.

The volatility hasn’t helped either. On 26 August, the Nifty crashed 271 points within 30 seconds of the auction opening, before recovering most of the loss by close. A similar wild swing marked CAS’s very first day too. Both episodes left market participants scratching their heads over how prices were settling.

“There is no particular reason why they would be interested in participating in an auction,” one broking official said. Most traders, retail included, are simply placing orders before 3:15 pm to sidestep the unpredictability altogether.

SEBI has tried nudging things along, asking brokers to display reference auction prices upfront, but so far, trading value in the closing auction has actually fallen 15% since debut, alongside a 23.7% drop in volumes.

The regulator remains optimistic, betting that awareness (and eventually liquidity) will improve participation over time. But brokers aren’t so sure. Read the full story by Apoorva Ajith.

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MARKET WATCH

India’s equity benchmarks fell today, lagging broader Asian gains, as losses in HDFC Bank Ltd. after report of a possible US class-action lawsuit outweighed support from falling oil prices on hopes of easing Middle East tensions.

The Nifty 50 fell 0.48% to 24,090.85 and the BSE Sensex slipped 0.7% to 76,933.59.

The Sensex’s indicative close pointed to a sharp 3.3% decline during the closing auction session. Before the auction, the Nifty 50 and Sensex were down 0.31% and 0.37%, respectively. The indexes are down about 0.7% and 0.8% this week, and are staring at a third straight weekly loss.

🔗 Key factors that drove India’s stock market today

BEST OF MINT

• HDFC Bank to challenge Subhash Chandra’s repayment plan

• India may extend bitumen relief amid cost squeeze for roadmakers

• Indian Hotels on a simplification journey amid bright prospects

• Adani, GMR increase bets on non-aero revenue to drive growth

In tomorrow’s print edition:

• Explainer: Crop loss or diversion for ethanol: what’s driving sugar prices?

• Markets: Sensex weekly options gaining traction on non-expiry days

• M2M: Hindustan Zinc rises on commodity tailwinds, but for how long?

• Metals: Lloyds Metals weighs bigger steel bet with Maharashtra unit

SNEAK A PEEK

Long Story, a much-loved Mint feature, is published every weekday. Before the next piece hits the stands, here’s your exclusive glimpse into what’s brewing on our desk. Catch the story in the morning edition.

While production-linked incentive schemes have proven to be game changer for electronics manufacturing in India, the hard part—upgrading factories to manufacture what goes deep inside those products—starts now. Read more.

MINT MONEY

RBI’s loan pricing reset

The Reserve Bank of India has proposed a common framework to make loan pricing more transparent and easier for borrowers to compare across banks and NBFCs.

From April 2027, non-credit-risk components of floating-loan spreads could be locked for three years, while benchmark rate changes must be passed on within three months. For small personal loans up to ₹50,000, lenders may need board-approved APR ceilings, while NBFCs could be barred from revolving BNPL-style credit lines. The rules may squeeze lender margins and push up upfront rates or fees, but could make borrowing costs far easier to understand. Read more.

Edited by Madhumita Sen Choudhury.

A Mint poll of 21 economists sees India’s GDP growth rate anywhere between 6.8% and 8.0%—the median at 7.4%—in April-June, with nearly everyone betting on a dip compared to the previous quarter. The official stats land 31 August.

So what’s dragging things down? Industry stayed sturdy, services kept humming, but agriculture likely lagged as the monsoon arrived late. IDFC First Bank Ltd.’s Gaura Sengupta points to rising input costs squeezing margins, especially in petroleum and manufacturing, plus that deflator effect nudging things lower. Societe Generale SA’s Kunal Kundu adds that some of this slowing is just last year’s unusually weak base normalising.

Inflation tells its own story. Retail prices averaged 3.93% this quarter versus 2.89% a year ago, while wholesale inflation leapt to 9.37% from almost nothing. Higher inflation eats into real growth once you adjust nominal GDP for it.

Yet despite war-related disruptions, economic growth held up better than expected. ICICI Securities’s Abhishek Upadhyay says companies absorbed much of the shock themselves rather than passing it all to consumers, keeping demand, and sentiment, surprisingly upbeat. If the poll proves right, it’ll even beat the Reserve Bank of India’s 7.0% estimate for the quarter.

But don’t get too comfortable. CareEdge Ratings warns momentum could soften further in Q2 and Q3 as those external shocks work their way through the economy. The RBI has flagged energy prices, supply chains and trade uncertainty as key risks ahead, projecting 6.4% for Q2, 6.5% for Q3, and 6.8% for Q4, averaging 6.7% for the year. Read the full story by Manjul Paul.

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MARKET WATCH

India’s stock market fell on Wednesday, as losses in IT stocks and Reliance Industries Ltd. countered gains in heavyweight financials and optimism from a dip in oil prices. The decline deepened in the closing auction session, with the Nifty 50’s indicative close down by as much as 1.4%.

At the close, the Nifty 50 was 0.52% lower at 24,207.75 and the BSE Sensex 0.24% lower at 77,472.94. They were marginally down at 0.24% and 0.05%, ahead of CAS.

Ten of the 16 major sectors fell. IT stocks led losses with a 1.5% drop, with analysts attributing the slide to concerns over higher costs from US visa curbs and caution ahead of Nvidia Corp. earnings.

🔗 Key factors that drove India’s stock market today

BEST OF MINT

• India ticks all the boxes for long-term investors: CPPIB

• Textile firms spin smart comeback in Q1, eye strong FY27

• Retail investors return to stocks as IPO appetite cools in FY27

• Avaada Electro cuts IPO size to ₹7,600 crore amid valuation concerns

In tomorrow’s print edition:

• Explainer: Will the new H-1B rules reshape the Indian IT strategy?

• Plain Facts: How India’s import dependence is spilling beyond oil, in charts

• News: Indian Railways wants to unlock a ₹2.62-trillion revenue pipeline

• M2M: TCS revs up M&As with Porsche deal, but fails to wow

SNEAK A PEEK

Long Story, a much-loved Mint feature, is published every weekday. Before the next piece hits the stands, here’s your exclusive glimpse into what’s brewing on our desk. Catch the story in the morning edition.

From high-tech scans to continuous AI monitoring, new-age clinics are turning your body into a living data stream. But as healthcare shifts from treating sickness to predicting it, are we truly getting healthier—or just handing over our most intimate biology? Read more.

MINT MONEY

Gen Z is spending on memories

Gen Z is increasingly swapping shopping and material purchases for concerts, travel, adventure sports, workshops and immersive experiences. A BookMyShow-EY-Parthenon report says 78% of Indian consumers prefer experiences over products, while 44% make unplanned experiential purchases.

Social media and FOMO are fuelling the trend, but young spenders are also setting budgets and prioritising savings before splurging. Financial experts say that there’s nothing wrong with living in the moment, as long as experiences don’t come at the cost of debt or long-term financial goals. Read more.

Edited by Madhumita Sen Choudhury.

First telecom, then retail, and now, aluminium? Reliance Industries Ltd. is reportedly exploring an entry into aluminium production, months after rival Adani Enterprises Ltd. committed $11.5 billion to the same sector.

The interesting bit here is the coal connection. Reliance is planning a massive coal gasification project in Andhra Pradesh, and insiders suggest aluminium could help make that fuel commercially viable. It even bid for Odisha’s Karlapat bauxite block, though Vedanta Ltd. ultimately won it.

Should this move forward, Reliance would become the fourth major player in India’s aluminium space, alongside Vedanta, Hindalco Industries Ltd. and Adani. And that creates an intrigue: Are Ambani and Adani’s business empires slowly starting to collide more often?

The timing makes sense, too. India’s aluminium demand could jump from 6 million tonnes to 28 million tonnes by FY47, and current expansion plans still leave a supply gap. As one analyst put it, that gap “creates significant room for new investments”.

Is this just about coal-linked synergy, or a bigger strategic bet on India’s next commodity boom? Read the full report by Dipali Banka.

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PLAIN FACTS | 10 years of UPI

India’s Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, has completed 10 years since launch and continues to transform the digital payment ecosystem of the world’s most populous nation, growing at 20-30% even after a decade.

In June 2026, UPI accounted for nearly 84% of all retail payment transactions by volume and 58% by value. Against that backdrop, here’s a look at the UPI journey so far, and what lies ahead. Read more.

THE MAIN STUFF

FPIs are buying Indian stocks again

Foreign investors just pumped over ₹25,000 crore into Indian equities in August, the strongest inflow since September 2024. Sounds like renewed confidence. But not quite. India still ranks as Asia’s least-preferred stock market in a recent BofA survey.

FPIs are being selective, favouring financial services, autos and consumer stocks, sectors where valuations have cooled below their five-year averages. At the same time, they are pulling out of capital goods, power and telecom, businesses more sensitive to rising global borrowing costs.

Strong Q1 earnings and a stable rupee helped, too but experts caution this isn’t a broad bet on India’s growth. With limited AI exposure remaining a key concern, is this genuine confidence, or just smart value-hunting? Read on.

Why you can’t call your bank back yet

Ever gotten a call from your bank, missed it, and tried calling back, only to fail? That’s a gap TRAI is now trying to fix. Banks want callback functionality on the 1600-number series used for transaction alerts, but telecom operators are hesitant, worried it could eat into their lucrative 1800 toll-free business.

Interestingly, this comes amid growing frustration too. Truecaller recently pushed back against TRAI’s rule barring these numbers from being flagged as spam, arguing genuine complaints are being ignored.

With over 1.15 billion calls originating from the 1600 series last quarter alone, the stakes are hardly small. Can convenience and commercial interests find a middle ground here? Read more.

Behind Vishal Mega Mart’s volatile week

A single leadership decision can shift an entire stock’s narrative. Vishal Mega Mart surged 10% after reappointing CEO Gunender Kapur through 2031, easing “key-man risk” concerns, before slipping 2% the next day.

Beyond leadership, fundamentals look genuinely strong: Q1 revenue jumped 19%, same-store sales grew 10%, and the company added 24 new stores in April-June. Margins held steady despite wage hikes, and its private-label portfolio, now 75% of sales, continues driving growth.

Still, questions linger. Promoter stake sales have cut holdings sharply, even as mutual funds and FPIs stepped in. With valuations now at 42X FY28 earnings, is this rally justified, or getting ahead of itself? Read on.

Hero MotoCorp bets on outsiders for growth

Why would a two-wheeler giant hire its CEO from a lighting company? Hero MotoCorp Ltd. did the same, bringing in five senior leaders from outside the industry over the past year, its biggest leadership shake-up since 2023.

From EY-Parthenon to Volvo-Eicher to Mahindra’s EV unit, the new hires clearly signal one thing: Hero wants outside expertise for its EV and premium motorcycle push.

“It’s a deliberate move to import a capability the sector can’t yet grow from within,” noted analyst Amit Dakshini.

The bet seems to be paying off early: EV sales surged 196% in FY26, and exports grew 39%. Unlike rivals TVS Motor Co. Ltd. and Bajaj Auto Ltd., who have relied on decades-long leadership continuity, Hero MotoCorp is betting on fresh perspectives instead. Read more.

The growth shortcut Indian IT keeps reusing

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. just bought its own client Porsche’s IT arm—for $373 million, while landing a $1.45 billion IT contract. Turns out, this isn’t new. Wipro Ltd. did it with Olam, Infosys Ltd. with Telstra, even TCS itself did something similar with Citigroup back in 2008.

The pattern is to buy growth where organic expansion has slowed. And growth has genuinely slowed. TCS posted its first-ever revenue decline last fiscal, while Wipro logged its third straight down year. “These deals show desperation to buy growth,” HDFC Securities’ Amit Chandra said. Is this genuine AI-era strategy, or simply a shortcut dressed up in transformation language? Read on.

AROUND THE WORLD

• The warnings that came before a war now reaching the six-month mark

• Amazon’s toaster-shaped robotaxis are hitting the road

• Why your boss wants to make sure AI can read your Slack messages

• AI can’t solve retirement anxiety. That’s a job for financial advisors.

• How Shein came crashing down

CHART OF THE DAY

LOUNGE RECOMMENDS

Want a healthy gut? Opt for kanji and chaas instead of kombucha

A weak gut has entered wellness conversations as the root cause for a number of health issues. Bloating? Heal the gut. Acne? Heal the gut. Low energy, poor mood, inflammation? Heal the gut.

Inevitably, packaged solutions have boomed: kombucha in sleek glass, kefir in pretty pours, sauerkraut in neat jars, probiotic powders and “microbiome-friendly” snacks that make good digestion feel like something one can outsource. Still, it will be wise to look into the Indian kitchen for traditional fermented food options Read more.

WHAT THE FACT

A teenager accidentally invents purple

On this day in 1856, 18-year-old chemist William Henry Perkin patented the world’s first synthetic dye while attempting to create a malaria treatment. The accidental discovery, later named mauveine, made purple clothing affordable for the masses, sparked a “mauve mania”, and laid the foundation for the modern synthetic dye and chemical industries.

Edited by Alokesh Bhattacharyya.

The world’s largest coal miner plans to spend nearly ₹48,000 crore on rail links and mechanised evacuation to help lift annual production to 1 billion tonnes by FY30. It is also committing ₹50,000 crore with partners to three coal-gasification projects and exploring more. At the same time, Coal India is diversifying into critical minerals, with five domestic assets and potential lithium investments across Chile, Argentina and Australia.

The expansion comes with a cost headache. Industrial diesel prices has surged to ₹155 a litre amid the Iran war, while ammonium nitrate is up 60-70%. Coal India has absorbed the price hikes, and Sairam says that there is no proposal to raise coal prices, just yet.

Coal India is therefore lining up a trillion-rupee-plus capex plan across coal evacuation, gasification and diversification. The spending is designed not just to expand its traditional coal business, but also to position the company for the next phase of India’s energy demand.

That means building out logistics to support higher coal production, investing in gasification and developing a critical-minerals portfolio, including overseas lithium and rare-earth opportunities. Coal India is also expanding renewables to 9.5 GW by FY30 and plans to integrate battery storage into new solar projects.

The message from the spending is clear: as India’s energy mix changes, Coal India is betting it can straddle both the old and new energy economies.

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MARKET WATCH

India’s stock market reversed losses as crude oil fell to a one-week low, while volatility persisted ahead of the first monthly F&O expiry under the new so-called closing-auction system.

The benchmark Nifty 50 rose 0.48% to 24,334.55 and the BSE Sensex added 0.37% to 77,656.09. They were up 0.2% each ahead of the closing auction. Twelve of the 16 major sectors logged gains.

The broader small-caps fell 0.1%, while mid-caps gained 0.5%. Financials and IT rose 0.3% and 0.6%, reversing losses in the final hour of trade.

🔗 Key factors that drove India’s stock market today

BEST OF MINT

• Indian IT firms are buying growth, one client at a time

• Why has India barred certain cold medicines for children under 4?

• FPIs are back in India. Their bets show they’re still not sold

• Navin Fluorine’s new refrigerant capacity is building momentum

In tomorrow’s print edition:

• Metals: Ambani sets up potential Adani showdown with aluminium entry

• Explainer: What SC’s ‘industry’ ruling means for workers, employers

• Retail: Vishal Mega Mart gets a five-year vote of confidence

• Aviation: Govt weighs annual random drug tests for airline pilots

MINT MONEY

SEBI F&O data shows why traders keep coming back

SEBI’s latest study on retail F&O traders goes beyond losses to reveal the behavioural traps keeping them in the game.

The data points to overconfidence, lottery-like option buying and loss-chasing—91% of traders active for one year lost money, rising to 96.5% among those active for four years. Only 0.5% traders active across five years were profitable every year. Options buyers, who made up 93% of the sample, suffered particularly steep losses.

Yet big winners and big losers were equally likely to keep trading. The lesson: regulation may need to target behaviour, not just risk. Read more.

Edited by Rashmi Sanyal.

Two of the biggest IPOs this year, at opposite ends of the world and equally dissimilar in nature, point to the contrast between the corporate ecosystems of India and the US.

The National Stock Exchange is expected to hit the market in September in what could be India’s largest-ever IPO, potentially raising around ₹30,000 crore. In the US, Anthropic PBC, the AI company behind Claude, is reportedly considering an IPO that could value it at around $2 trillion, which would make it the largest IPO in US history.

NSE, India’s largest exchange, is a three-decade-old institution whose fortunes have grown with the extraordinary expansion of India’s capital markets. Highly profitable, its IPO is essentially the final step in a successful privately held institution turning into a public company. With the exchange hardly in need of fresh capital, its main objective seems to be to give existing shareholders an opportunity to cash out. A potential NSE investor in its IPO is therefore being offered a highly profitable business whose future is, broadly, an extension of its past.

An Anthropic investor, on the other hand, is being asked to value a company whose ultimate market, and indeed the economic impact of the technology it is developing, is still uncertain. That says something about corporate ambition as much as investor appetite. Capital in America seems to be comfortable financing companies whose great attraction lies in what they might become rather than what they are. Anthropic is just one such. The pipeline also includes SpaceX, already valued at around $2 trillion, CoreWeave and other businesses whose valuations depend heavily on technological possibilities that have yet to be fully realised.

This is possible because America has built an extraordinarily deep ecosystem of venture capital and private equity that takes risky bets. Take SpaceX, which, besides being a very efficient rocket manufacturer, is a company built around the ambition of enabling human life beyond Earth. At its fundamental level, it is one man’s audacious ride and investors are being invited to join.

India’s IPO market tells a rather different story.

Mostly, it has been dominated by businesses like financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, consumer goods, logistics and energy, which serve existing markets. Thus, Tata Capital, LG Electronics India and Dhoot Transmission are established businesses that were brought to public investors after reaching a certain scale.

NSE is not asking investors to finance the creation of a new market but to buy into the dominant institution of an existing one. Even the potential Jio IPO, which could be among India’s largest, would essentially be of a business that is already mature.

This is evidence of a corporate sector becoming broader and more institutionalised, but it also reveals something about India’s much-lauded startup ecosystem.

For all its success, much of Indian startup capitalism is still about making existing services cheaper, faster or more convenient. Food delivery, quick commerce, digital payments, online retail, mobility, lending and logistics are substantial businesses and some of the entrants have deployed technology at impressive scale. But they are largely businesses of the present. The important distinction is between using technology to improve an existing market and building a company around a technology that could create an entirely new one.

That’s because the Indian ecosystem has become very good at scaling solutions to today’s problems. It is less successful at persuading capital to finance a bet on what tomorrow’s problems, or opportunities, might be. A Bernstein research report of October 2025 on India’s IPO wave noted:

Countries that repeatedly produce companies operating on the frontiers of new technologies build intellectual property, foster talent, research capabilities and supply chains that ultimately reinforce their position in the next generation of industries. This is one reason the US continues to dominate so many technology sectors.

The current IPO boom represents an important stage in the evolution of Indian capitalism: successful businesses are becoming durable institutions with dispersed ownership. But in the next stage, it needs to go much further. When a company that aspires to take humans to Mars and beyond goes public, its dream becomes a shared one, raising society’s aspirations for itself. That is what the next big Indian IPO should be about.

New entrants fell 39% to 2.08 million, while exits surged to 4.57 million. For the first time, the trader base shrank overall. The market is also becoming more experienced: repeat traders now account for roughly three-fourths of participants, compared with two-fifths in FY22.

The shift suggests SEBI’s crackdown is curbing speculative participation, but analysts warn that activity could return when volatility picks up. The bigger question is whether traders will return with better habits, or simply resume old ones. Read more.

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MARKET WATCH

India’s stock market fell today, tracking subdued global markets, as investors stayed cautious ahead of the release of details about likely US sanctions on Iran.

The Nifty 50 fell 0.14% to 24,219.05 and the Sensex lost 0.22% to 77,369.11. Eleven of the 16 major sectors fell in India, with the broader small-caps dropping 0.3% and mid-caps rising 0.1%. Heavyweight financials fell 0.4%, while IT stocks rose 0.2% in a mixed session.

🔗 Key factors that drove India’s stock market today

BEST OF MINT

• LIC’s record OFS stirs the ‘near-zero’ deal advisor fee debate again

• DIPAM has assets to sell. This time, they’re from its own office

• Nomura sees strong public market momentum, global buyout interest in India

• Third Wave Coffee raises ₹408 crore to take its coffee to more cities

In tomorrow’s print edition:

• Plain Facts: How globalisation isn’t dying—it’s evolving

• M2M: Investor euphoria over Welspun’s US order comes with risks

• Explainer: Can India build a homegrown smartphone brand?

• M2M: Crompton Greaves’ ambitions come with margin dilution risk

SNEAK A PEEK

Long Story, a much-loved Mint feature, is published every weekday. Before the next piece hits the stands, here’s your exclusive glimpse into what’s brewing on our desk. Catch the story in the morning edition.

Inside Dr Reddy’s laboratories

The pharmaceutical company rode one copycat drug to record profits. Now, co-chairman G.V. Prasad has to prove the company can grow without it. Biosimilars and innovation may hold the answer. Read more.

MINT MONEY

Going abroad? Your EPF rules may change

Moving abroad for work can turn your familiar EPF rules upside down. Indian employees posted to countries with social-security agreements, and foreign nationals working in India, are classified as international workers, with different contribution and withdrawal rules. There is no wage ceiling for their PF contributions, while a certificate of coverage can help avoid paying social security in both countries.

But what happens to EPF after you leave India depends on whether your destination has an SSA. The rules also differ for pension benefits, withdrawals and even keeping your account active. Read more.

Edited by Zaheer Merchant.

This week’s report is by Soumya Gupta, our consumer economy editor, who shares her experience while reporting on her long read on Hybe Corp., the South Korean music company behind BTS, and its quest to win India.

Nothing makes you feel your age and growing irrelevance like chasing stories on the business of culture. I am a ‘90s kid and the cornerstone of music in my childhood is sneaking out of the house after school to blast my favourite songs on a mixtape on a Sony Walkman. You could tell what someone’s favourite album or artist was by examining just how much you had damaged their tape from nonstop rewinding and fast-forwarding, perhaps enough to have to use a pen to rewind it all the way and put the tape carefully back in its place.

That was a different era of music, where listeners waited months for an upcoming album, discovered a new artist in music stores, and cassettes (and later CDs) were treasured and sampled over and over again.

Now, music is being discovered and heard in brand new ways.

Not only is the era of physical media over, younger Indians are hopping between artists, albums, and genres all the time. They are growing up with brand new genres, especially Korean music and bands that are slowly dominating the business of music and culture, worldwide.

That is why when I found out HYBE Corp. had set up an office in Mumbai, I knew this was a story we had to do. BTS, arguably Hybe’s most famous band, is universally recognised among under-25s in India. And this multi-billion dollar corporation was in the process of setting up India’s first ever all-girl band built on the principles of K-pop.

Fan search

Doing a story on the entry of a multinational company in India is fairly straightforward. But to make the story shine, I knew I had to trace the underlying changes in Indian pop culture and music to show why Hybe’s India entry is so important.

That was going to be a challenge. I am over 30, so most K-pop fans I know are children of friends and colleagues. I looked in these circles for K-pop devotees in their 20s but could not find the right people who could tell me the experience of growing up listening to this music. People of my age were repeating hits from their bygone teenage years and the parents were mostly bewildered by what their children were listening to and why.

For instance, when I visit my friends Vaibhav and Shreya, their sons Shanay (5) and Vihaan (3) insist on dancing to the latest K-pop hit before going to bed. Last time I visited them, they were kicking around to the BTS song Mic Drop on loop before finally agreeing to go to bed and letting their parents have some free time.

Finally, I hit a breakthrough. My colleague Christalle Fernandes at sister publication Hindustan Times got me in touch with Aditya Mhaske, a Mumbai-based professional in his 20s who is locally well-known for his K-pop meetups and fan events. Aditya spoke about his childhood spent discovering Korean bands of the 2000s; he also very kindly connected me to Payal Chaudhary, who is a performer and actually part of Hybe India’s auditions.

Music study

With Aditya and Payal, I had gotten a taste of the world of K-pop—how fandoms are built, how meetups happen, what makes people fiercely loyal to their favourite band and idol, and most importantly, why the young in our country identify with K-pop music and performers so much.

But that was only one half of the job done. I needed to study the Korean music industry a lot more so that—(a) I could be prepared for an interview with Dahae Lee, the chief operating officer of Hybe India and a longtime music executive; and (b) I could explain to Mint’s readers exactly how India’s music industry was changing because of K-pop’s influence.

I spoke with as many K-pop fans (and parents of fans) as I could, and eventually, a bright, pink book in a basement book store in Delhi caught my eye. Called K-Pop Idols Fan Book and published by children’s imprint Scholastic, it was a complete, easy-to-follow history of Korean music, from the first popular bands of the 1990s to the gradual world domination of BTS in the 2010s. I did not use the book directly in my story, but it was no less than an encyclopedia for a complete novice like me! Never thought a kids’ book would come in so handy in this job!

I also got a chance to talk to Shreya Lenka, who goes by Sriya, now a K-pop idol with the band BLACKSWAN. Shreya’s journey from Jharsuguda to Seoul is incredible, and well-documented. But talking to her made me realise that the Korean music industry operates on an entirely different level. She walked me through the details of her training, an average work day in her life, the difference in her experience working in India vs Korea, and why Korean music labels are seemingly able to “churn out” critically acclaimed and insanely popular bands again and again.

Shreya is 22, but I had much to learn from her depth of understanding of how culture, authenticity, and business come together.

Learning Zoom features

Finally, I had reached the last piece of my puzzle—an interview with the people in-charge at Hybe Corp India. The company had not talked much about their business plans in India, so I was excited to finally get a chance to dig into it with Dahae. There was just one catch—she couldn’t speak much English and I knew not one word of Korean. Hybe arranged a Zoom call and a translator and for the first time I learned that Zoom has a feature that allows translators to switch between channels while translating between two people.

I prepared much more than usual for this interview because I feared that translating back and forth might eat into my limited time with Dahae, and she was gracious enough to listen to my questions and follow-ups patiently first from me, and then from our translator. I have a habit of breaking into small talk and tiny anecdotes while interviewing people—it helps turn a Q&A into a conversation—but I wasn’t sure if I could do that with a translator in the middle.

Somehow, we managed! Dahae and I were able to swap stories of what young girls in India want in the music they listen to and the performers they idolise.

After weeks of reporting and a very long 3,000-word copy that my editors were unhappy to chop up to make it within our word limit, the story was out.

By the end of it, my YouTube algorithm was absolutely dominated by the latest K-pop recommendations. But that weekend I found myself playing the debut album of the girl group that I grew up listening to—Viva!—and singing along to Hum Naye Geet Sunaaye. I couldn’t find the cassette that I had patiently lined up to buy in 2002, but 24 years later, I was happy to know that I still remembered all the lyrics perfectly.

Edited by Feroze Ahmed Jamali

Analysts say the pattern suggests buyers are increasingly willing to enter at higher levels, pointing to an improving medium-term trend. A similar structure emerged in 2012 and 2018, both followed by strong gains, although with intermittent corrections.

The resilience is notable given the challenging backdrop. Foreign investors have net sold ₹1.09 trillion in Indian equities since April, while domestic institutional investors have bought ₹2.8 trillion. Retail and domestic liquidity have helped cushion the stock market.

Still, analysts caution that it is too early to call this a sustained uptrend. With crude oil prices, bond yields and geopolitical risks still elevated, the Nifty 50’s ability to hold higher support levels will be key to determining whether this recovery can turn into a longer-term rally.

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MARKET WATCH

India’s stock market ended flat today and posted weekly loss, as elevated crude oil prices and pressure in global bond markets kept investors cautious.

The Nifty 50 settled 0.08% higher at 24,252 points, while the BSE Sensex closed flat at 77,540.83. Both indexes fell 0.5% and 0.6%, respectively, for the week. Twelve of the 16 major sectors logged weekly losses. The small caps gained 1.2% while midcaps fell 0.1%.

🔗 Key factors that drove India’s stock market today

BEST OF MINT

• PM Modi’s ‘Sapt Dhara’: India’s farm-to-food strategy and why it matters

• Saint-Gobain wants to change how Indians build homes and offices

• For city gas distributors, policy support is short-term relief, at best

• Physicswallah’s next test: Turning NEET recovery into growth

• JSW Steel aims to eliminate iron ore imports as local supply improves

In tomorrow’s Lounge edition:

• Luxury pieces that could become modern heirlooms

• The past comes home in Gurvinder Singh’s ‘Rehmat’

• How independent streamers are fuelling India’s Formula 1 boom

• Cockroach Janta Party and India’s culture of blame and shame

WEEKEND RECOMMENDATIONS

What to watch | Where to eat

MINT MONEY

These financial benefits can cushion your retirement

Turning 60 in India doesn’t just mark retirement. It can also unlock a bundle of financial perks, from higher fixed-deposit rates and tax deductions to cheaper travel and utility services.

The government-backed Senior Citizens’ Savings Scheme, for instance, currently offers 8.2% interest, while seniors can get additional deductions under the old tax regime. But these benefits are no substitute for a retirement corpus.

Unlike welfare states with generous pensions and subsidised healthcare, India expects individuals to largely fund their own retirement. That makes starting early, investing for growth and planning withdrawals just as important as knowing what concessions become available after 60. Read more.

Edited by Rashmi Sanyal.

India’s biggest IT services firms are rethinking the traditional employee pyramid as AI and automation change what skills they need. Since FY27 began, seven of the top 10 IT companies have announced changes, but there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

Cognizant, Tech Mahindra and Sonata Software are looking to widen the base by hiring more junior employees, while Wipro, LTM and Coforge are building up their middle-management ranks. TCS is taking a different route, focusing on skills rather than years of experience.

The shift reflects a broader change in how IT projects are delivered. IT companies increasingly want engineers who can combine technical expertise with consulting and client-facing skills. AI is also making some junior roles more productive, potentially allowing companies to get more output from freshers.

For graduates, however, the message is clear: simply getting hired may no longer be enough. They will need to become productive faster and build skills that keep pace with rapidly evolving AI tools. At the same time, experienced professionals remain crucial for handling complex work and spotting errors AI cannot.

The result could be a workforce that is either wider at the bottom or heavier in the middle, depending on the company. Either way, the old pyramid is being reshaped, and margins could come under pressure as firms pay a premium for both AI-ready freshers and experienced talent.

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THE MAIN STUFF

E20 concerns push demand for high-octane fuel

Worries about E20 petrol’s impact on mileage and engine life are pushing Indian consumers towards premium, high-octane fuels. Their share of petrol sales has jumped to 12-15% from about 4% in March, even though premium variants also contain 20% ethanol and cost ₹110-115 a litre versus roughly ₹102 for regular petrol.

Dealers say consumers believe higher-octane ratings and additives can offset E20-related concerns. Demand for ethanol-free Octane 100 is also rising, although its ₹160-170 price limits sales. Industry groups are calling for E10 or ethanol-free options, while the government maintains E20 is safe.

Space is cheap, a rocket launch isn’t

India may be known for frugal space missions, but launching satellites from the country remains costly. A peer-reviewed study puts India’s launch cost at $13,302/kg, more than four times the US figure and higher than those of Europe, Russia, China and Japan.

Limited launch frequency, smaller rockets and high fixed costs are key reasons. Even Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 could cost about $11,000 per kg at full capacity. That could hinder India’s ambition to capture up to 8% of the global space market. For private players, scaling launches and cutting costs will be crucial to compete globally.

MINT LONG STORY

A convocation controversy at Nalsar has sparked a backlash that has widened into a debate over the Bar Council of India’s powers, accountability and functioning. Read more.

Banks now have a problem of dollar aplenty

Indian banks are racing to raise funds before the RBI’s early closure of its FCNR(B) deposit scheme, but deploying those dollars could prove difficult.

Lenders including ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and IDFC First Bank have tapped offshore markets, compressing weeks of planned fundraising into days. The resulting rupee liquidity could flow into government securities, pushing bond yields higher.

Some banks may also face “negative carry” if their funding costs exceed returns on investments. Foreign banks can disrupt short-term deposit pricing, while mismatched hedges and compressed timelines may leave some public-sector lenders abandoning planned overseas fundraising altogether.

Swiggy’s Instamart gamble gets a boost

Swiggy’s shares rose 3% in two sessions after shareholders approved a move to make the company Indian-owned and controlled. The change allows Instamart to own inventory, potentially improving margins by capturing the full product margin rather than earning seller commissions. Foreign ownership has been capped at 49.5%, while foreign investors have given up board nomination rights.

The move could trigger short-term outflows from foreign index funds, but analysts see longer-term benefits if Instamart’s finances improve. Its losses narrowed 13% year-on-year to ₹778 crore in Q1FY27, even as net order value rose 39% to ₹5,817 crore. Read more.

India Inc.’s earnings recovery has a catch

India Inc. delivered a stronger-than-expected June quarter, but the recovery is far from even. Nifty 50 profits grew nearly 18% year-on-year, twice the Street’s estimate, helped by commodities, credit growth, exports, a weaker rupee and stronger volumes.

The midsized companies pulled ahead, with net profits rising 24%. Smaller firms, however, saw just 5% profit growth as higher input costs and weaker pricing power squeezed margins. The financial and IT stocks remained key profit drivers, while commodity companies added a boost. The big question now is whether these tailwinds can last, or if Q1 marked the peak of earnings acceleration. Read more.

AROUND THE WORLD

• How to outsmart AI when it’s tracking your workday

• Bessent leans into his role as America’s bond trader in chief

• Meta’s blockbuster trial draws parallels to big tobacco

• US debt just topped $40 trillion: How we got here

• Trump’s plan to squeeze Iran’s economy will live or die in Dubai

CHART OF THE DAY

LOUNGE RECOMMENDS

Do great shows make us wait too long now?

Television isn’t merely about telling a story well. It’s about maintaining a relationship with an audience. And relationships, even very good ones, can go cold. Read more.

WHAT THE FACT

The disappearance of an icon

On this day in 1911, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa vanished from the Louvre in Paris, setting off one of history’s most famous art heists. The thief was Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian employee of the museum who believed the painting belonged in Italy. He hid it under his clothes and walked out of the Louvre.

The theft sparked a global frenzy, with newspapers publishing theories about the painting’s whereabouts. Peruggia was eventually caught in 1913 while trying to sell the masterpiece, which was returned to the Louvre.

Edited by Alokesh Bhattacharyya.

Foreign investors, meanwhile, pulled back sharply across the board, cutting large-cap holdings the most. “Domestic flows set the floor, while foreign flows set the multiple,” noted Anand Rathi’s Tanvi Kanchan, hinting India has stability, but perhaps not yet the momentum for a real re-rating.

Interestingly, retail investors showed early signs of shifting toward large-caps too, though the trend remains tentative and could reverse. Are households simply booking profits from richly valued small caps, or genuinely rotating strategy? Probably a bit of both.

With equity mutual funds pulling in ₹1.5 trillion between April and July, domestic money continues to provide support. But as experts note, that support alone may not be enough; foreign conviction still seems key to unlocking the next big re-rating. Read the full report by Mayur Bhalerao.

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MARKET WATCH

India’s stock market snapped a losing streak today, led by IT and financial stocks and tracking a global rebound after the US Treasury took steps to stem a bond market rout. The Nifty 50 rose 0.64% to 24,231.85, ending a seven-session losing streak, while the BSE Sensex gained 0.82% to 77,537.72 after four sessions of loss.

The rally was broad-based—aided by short covering after the recent correction—a weaker dollar and falling US bond yields, and steady FPI buying worth ₹23,320 crore in August so far.

The media and realty stocks led sectoral gains, while Nifty Bank, FMCG and IT also rose. HDFC Bank Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd. and Reliance Industries Ltd. were the top contributors, with Eternal Ltd. and Kotak Mahindra Bank among the biggest gainers.

The rupee strengthened slightly to 95.71/$ from 95.75/$.

🔗 Key factors that drove India’s stock market today

BEST OF MINT

• High valuation and rising cost drag leave MRF on a slippery slope

• India Inc.’s June quarter earnings beat masks a widening divide

• D2C’s easy growth is raising the bar for startup funding

• Legacy fashion brands stitch new labels for Gen Z

In tomorrow’s print edition:

• Explainer: Why RBI’s draft rules could change how fintechs offer small loans

• M2M: What does an ‘Indian’ Swiggy mean for Instamart’s valuation?

• Aviation: IndiGo’s new CEO flags A350 induction as key to global growth

• Markets: Why Sebi’s CAS order is a strong message to future violators

MINT MONEY

SEBI wants to make NRI investing fully remote

SEBI has proposed letting NRIs, OCIs and eligible foreign nationals from FATF-compliant countries complete KYC entirely online, without needing to visit India, using video verification, e-signatures and GPS-matched address checks.

The move could cut account activation time to just a couple of days, enable portable KYC across multiple intermediaries, and ease estate settlements for overseas heirs. Experts welcome the proposal but suggest further simplification, such as replacing mandatory PAN requirements, could make the process even smoother. Read more.

Edited by Rashmi Sanyal.

Noel Tata finds himself at the centre of the Tata Group at a particularly awkward moment. The first sign of trouble came when Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd.’s annual general meeting had to be adjourned for lack of quorum, as Sir Ratan Tata Trust could not nominate a representative because of regulatory restrictions.

But the bigger challenge is what he inherits from N. Chandrasekaran. After taking charge of Tata Sons in 2017, Chandrasekaran built a more centralised and ambitious group, backing big bets in areas such as digital to electronics and aviation. The result is a more powerful Tata Sons, but also unfinished and capital-intensive bets.

Noel Tata, who took over as chairman of Tata Trusts after Ratan Tata’s death, increasingly found himself at odds with Chandrasekaran over how the group was being run. The core disagreement was less about individual investments and more about how decisions were being made, with the trusts feeling they were not sufficiently consulted.

Now, with Chandrasekaran not seeking a third term, Noel has to manage succession, repair relations between the trusts and Tata Sons, and decide what to do with the group’s sprawling investment agenda. He has run Trent successfully, but running one company is very different from steering the ₹23-trillion Tata empire. Read more.

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THE MAIN STUFF

Hired, but still waiting

India’s engineering freshers are increasingly stuck in a hiring limbo. Cognizant, Wipro and LTM have delayed onboarding, with some graduates waiting more than a year after receiving letters of intent.

The shift reflects cautious IT spending, geopolitical uncertainty and AI-driven automation, which is making companies align hiring more closely with actual project demand. The companies say they remain committed to honouring offers, but fresher hiring is slowing. Cognizant expects to hire about 20,000 freshers this year, while Wipro and LTM are also planning fewer recruits. For graduates, an offer letter increasingly means “wait and see”.

The economics of India’s toll landscape

India’s highways are turning into a bigger, smarter toll business. Toll collections rose 12% to ₹67,400 crore in FY26, while transactions increased 14% to 3.81 billion, powered by the spread of FASTag and a growing highway network. Private vehicles made up 62% of transactions but only 23% of revenue, while commercial vehicles generated far more per trip.

Private concessionaires operated just 27% of toll plazas but accounted for half of collections, showing how much revenue is concentrated on busy corridors.

The Golden Quadrilateral dominates the top earners, with nine of the 15 highest-grossing plazas on the Delhi-Mumbai corridor. Read more.

Passive funds face a numbers game

India’s market regulator is weighing whether to limit the number of passive mutual funds in each category, as asset managers roll out a growing number of similar index funds and ETFs. The idea could make the crowded passive-fund space easier for retail investors to navigate, though discussions are still at an early stage.

Over 130 passive funds launched in the past year, compared with 86 active funds. Passive assets have also grown sharply, reaching ₹15.5 trillion, or 18% of mutual fund assets, in July. But experts argue that capping fund numbers may simply encourage narrower, more inventive indices rather than solve the underlying problem.

KKR & Co. buys into BookMyShow

KKR & Co. is buying a minority stake in BookMyShow as the entertainment platform looks to scale its live-events business and move further beyond movie tickets. Funds managed by private equity firm will acquire about 6% of the company at a valuation of $650-750 million, according to a person familiar with the deal.

The investment will support BookMyShow Live, which spans concerts, sports and theatrical productions, as well as talent and event production.

The company operates across more than 700 Indian cities and has evolved into a broader entertainment platform. Its revenue rose 31% to ₹1,869 crore in FY25, while profit jumped 77% to ₹192 crore.

Satellite internet in India is stuck, again

The rollout of satellite internet in India remains stuck more than four years after the first licence was issued, with security concerns around foreign-controlled satellite networks delaying commercial launches.

The government worries operators could bypass Indian gateways and route traffic overseas, despite Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio Satellite completing security trials and offering compliance assurances.

The delay is significant as Jio is planning a sovereign 1,600-satellite constellation, potentially reshaping the market. But the standoff could also leave Indian consumers waiting for services already available in several countries.

AROUND THE WORLD

• OpenAI’s Q2 sales show tepid growth compared with Anthropic

• How Trump assistant Natalie Harp became the talk of Washington

• Inside Big Tech’s frantic race to quell the growing backlash to AI

• Meta’s blockbuster trial draws parallels to big tobacco

• Stock indices no longer reflect equity reality

CHART OF THE DAY

LOUNGE RECOMMENDS

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 review

Over seven consecutive generations, Samsung’s book-style foldables have chased a fairly predictable goal: get thinner, get lighter, make the crease a little more subtle, and marry the futuristic phone-meets-tablet idea with something that makes perfect sense in the present.

With the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Samsung has turned an interesting corner, splitting the line into two devices—a taller Z Fold 8 Ultra, and the base Z Fold 8 ( ₹179,999 onwards).

WHAT THE FACT

Evolution goes public

On this day in 1858, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace jointly presented their groundbreaking ideas on evolution by natural selection to London’s Linnean Society. Darwin had spent years developing his theory, while Wallace independently reached a remarkably similar conclusion after studying species in the Malay Archipelago.

Their work proposed that organisms better adapted to their environments were more likely to survive and reproduce, gradually shaping species over generations. It was the first public presentation of a theory that would fundamentally transform our understanding of life on Earth.

Edited by Alokesh Bhattacharyya.