India is slowly expanding its share as the third-largest market for smartphones globally in terms of value, even as countries like China, at the top, and the UK, at fifth, have seen declines, according to global data from Counterpoint Research.
Last fortnight, State Bank of India Chairman C S Setty lifted the veil on a subject long spoken of in corporate corridors: Why can't our banks finance mergers and acquisitions (M&As)? Change is in the air: Indian Banks' Association (of which Setty is the chairman) is to "make a formal request" to Mint Road to make way for it. Thus far the exclusive turf of foreign banks even though its funding remains offshore - as in, it's not on these entities rupee-book (and a few select shadow banks) - a most lucrative segment in the investment banking suite, M&As, will be homeward-bound.
'We are increasing our footprint, but other markets also compete - like Indonesia or Vietnam.'
After a subdued first quarter of 2025-26 (Q1FY26), banks are now betting big on the festive season, rolling out attractive loan offers to boost credit growth in the second half of the current financial year (H2FY26) - a trend likely to be further accentuated by the second-order effects of the good services tax (GST) cuts.
'GST reduction will help larger and high-end cars too.'
India has become Apple's main export hub to the US, which consumes over $40 billion worth of iPhones annually.
'The world now realises that semiconductors are not just important for national security, but also for economic prosperity.'
Challans worth Rs 10,298 crore were issued, but collections have been a weak 20 per cent.
...on par with oil, power, and defence, and to restrict its storage under foreign control.
India Inc, which is sitting on cash balances of 13.5 trillion, is using the funds to meet capital expenditure as well as brownfield expansion, resulting in 'anaemic' demand for bank loans, State Bank of India (SBI) chairman CS Setty said at an event on Monday. He added that a slowdown in corporate credit is mainly due to lack of demand.
Some public sector banks, including State Bank of India (SBI), Union Bank of India, Canara Bank, and Bank of India, are increasing the spread on home loans for new customers to protect margins.
Fresher hiring grew by 8 per cent driven by non-IT services oil and gas, real estate, and education sectors.
Commercial banks in India reported 26 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth in slippages at Rs 63,000 crore during the first quarter ended June 2025 (Q1FY26). This was predominantly due to stress in microfinance and unsecured retail portfolios of select lenders.
It has charted an ambitious target. Japanese premium sports goods giant Asics - which sells 75 per cent of its shoes in the country at over ~12,000 a pair - wants to be the No. 1 running shoe player in the $90-a-pair organised market in India, currently dominated by Nike, Adidas and Puma. To do so, it is making an aggressive push into Tier-II and Tier-III cities, where customers are ready to lap them up - as well as setting up company-owned stores in four to five locations across key metros.
'Just as we cannot surrender the interests of our farmers and dairy industry, Trump is also looking for markets for the produce of the farmers in the Midwest, which are his support base.'
But the respite may not last long.
Among fresher job seekers, one in three believes AI will create more jobs.
Country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) is looking to be among 10 top global banks in market capitalisation terms in the next five years, chairman CS Setty said on Wednesday. "The scope for value creation for the stakeholders is potentially very high. So the larger ambition is if the market supports whether we can be part of the top 10 global banks in terms of the market capitalisation (five years)," he said after listing of shares issued under Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) at NSE.
The famous 'tareekh pe tareekh' dialogue from the Hindi movie Damini captures where we are now.
State Bank of India (SBI), the largest lender in the country, has launched a share sale to institutional investors to raise upto Rs 25,000 crore, the biggest qualified institutional placement (QIP) so far by an Indian firm, and has set a floor price of Rs 811.05, which is at a 2.5 per cent discount on Wednesday's closing price.
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