Budget 2026 sticks to fiscal discipline, shuns populist measures despite five key state elections coming up, but ends up rattling stock markets with a higher transaction tax on derivatives trading.
Cigarette-to-soap conglomerate ITC on Thursday reported a consolidated net profit (attributable to owners) of Rs 4,931.19 crore for the third quarter (October-December/Q3) of 2025-26 (FY26), affected by a one-time provision related to the new labour codes and a base effect from an exceptional item in Q3 of 2024-25. In the year-ago period, net profit had stood at Rs 4,934.8 crore.
Taxpayers should consider ITR-U if they omitted income, wrongly claimed deductions or exemptions, or made reporting errors that led to a shortfall in tax payment.
'The trade deficit in some sectors is huge and that is an area of opportunity to localise.'
India's new national accounts will leverage new data sources and surveys to enhance the measurement of the country's informal economy, and introduce double deflation methods across sectors, replacing the current system that relies on a single deflation mechanism in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) calculations.
The government on Monday appointed R Doraiswamy as head of state-owned insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation of India
As he is laid to rest, Indian cricket bids farewell to one of its greatest administrators -- a visionary who understood that breaking monopolies and building stadiums were about the same thing: Giving millions of cricket-loving Indians the infrastructure worthy of their passion.
'Sebi's move to cap brokerage charges will help investors by lowering the overall cost of investments.'
The key question is how much of the latest growth record represents recovery from the 2020-2021 downturn, and what is the sustainable growth rate now, asks T N Ninan.
Banks are depending more heavily on the market for certificates of deposit (CDs), whose worth climbed to a record Rs 5.75 trillion in the fortnight to January 15, owing to deposit tightness in the system.
'Once the 60-plus population hits 20 to 30 per cent of the country, the demand for elderly-care treatments will surge -- cardiac, metabolic, neurological, and musculoskeletal medicines are going to dominate the market for the next several decades.'
These losses increase insurance premiums for customers and reduce insurer margins on the other.
Usually, in the western view, corporate success is attributed to efficiency, organisational structure, and scale. R Gopalakrishnan and Harish Bhat argue that philosophy, culture, and the transmission of values are more important for sustaining growth and profitability of an enterprise over a period of time.
Equity markets fell on Monday, with benchmark indices recording their worst session in over two months amid caution ahead of the US Federal Reserve's (Fed's) policy announcement and renewed uncertainty over the US-India trade deal. Sustained selling by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) also weighed on sentiment.
The domestic cigarette industry is expected to see a 6-8 per cent volume contraction next fiscal following the imposition of additional excise duties and increase in goods and services tax (GST) rates from February 1, Crisil Ratings said on Wednesday.
IT company Infosys on Thursday posted 13.2 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 7,364 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2025.
Benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty dived sharply by nearly 2 per cent on Sunday after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a hike in the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on derivatives. Reversing the early gains, the 30-share BSE Sensex plunged sharply by 2,370.36 points or 2.88 per cent to slide below the 80,000-mark at 79,899.42 in afternoon trade as the finance minister announced a hike in STT on futures contracts to 0.05 per cent from the current 0.02 per cent.
The Citi deal should help Wipro beef up its presence in the banking and financial services (BFSI) space. The target company does work in the technology infrastructure services space as also application development and maintenance and the Rs 19,957 crore (Rs 199.57 billion) Wipro should be able to leverage these services with other clients. The assured revenues of $500 million will come in handy at a difficult time.
Domestic PMI data, US Federal Reserve meeting minutes and the progress on India-US trade deal negotiations are likely to influence movement in the equity market in the week ahead, according to analysts. Moreover, the trading activity of foreign investors would also influence the equity market trends.
The Supreme Court on Friday issued fresh notices to Anil Ambani and the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) on a PIL seeking a court-monitored probe into alleged massive banking and corporate fraud involving the firm and its group companies.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday asked fintech firms to focus on risk management at a time when criminals are using AI to mimic voices, clone identities and create lifelike videos to manipulate people.
Here are the key numbers to watch out for in the Union Budget for 2025-26:
'Given that India underperformed emerging markets by 28 per cent in 2025, the worst performance in over 30 years, the timing of the sharp STT hike could have been better.'
The Rajya Sabha currently has 19 government Bills pending, with the oldest dating back to 1992. These bills cover a range of issues including population control, rent control, seed quality, migrant workers, and tribal autonomy.
'Our focus would be to onboard top 100 merchants in top 10 different segments.'
In a world fractured by uncertainty, India stands out for its policy consistency, paired with sustained ambition, points out Pritam Banerjee.
'Companies will need to revisit compensation structures, contracts, staffing models, and human resources system.'
'Solutions developed in India are being commercialised and offered globally because we're executing at scale, creating new markets and revenue streams.'
Moving beyond digital payments, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the operator of Unified Payments Interface, is planning to add more muscle to the country's digital infrastructure by setting up a fourth subsidiary, NPCI Tech Solutions Ltd (NTSL).
The Sensodyne IDA Shining Star Scholarship Programme 2025-26 is open to students in the first year of their Bachelor of Dental Surgery programme.
In 2023-2024, 95 scheduled commercial banks received over 10 million complaints from their customers. The process of KYC at many banks has become 'HYC' -- harass your customer, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
India's housing finance sector is riding a wave of post-pandemic revival, driven by policy support, digital innovation, and growing demand from younger homebuyers in emerging cities.
The first day of the year 2026 was positive for the debt market with foreign investors buying a net domestic debt of Rs 7,524 crore, the highest single-day inflow since May 29 last year.
The government on Wednesday approved two schemes worth Rs 45,000 crore to help exporters tide over the impact of high tariffs imposed by the US on Indian shipments.
Supported by strong buoyancy in public sector capital expenditure (capex), growth in infrastructure investment is expected to accelerate in 2025-26 (FY26) compared to 2024-25 (FY25), according to the First Advance Estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) for FY26 released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Wednesday.
India's $280-billion IT industry heads into 2026, balancing visa-related headwinds and global trade uncertainty against its biggest-ever push into artificial intelligence and the rapid expansion of global capability centres (GCCs). Heightened scrutiny of the US H-1B visa programme - including a proposed $100,000 fee for new visas and concerns over a potential 25 per cent outsourcing tax - has complicated cross-border delivery for Indian firms, even as companies accelerate efforts to reduce reliance on onsite staffing.
Ask rediffGURU Naveenn Kummar your insurance mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
'Stopping now would defeat the core purpose of an SIP, which is to average out the purchase cost over market cycles.'
This is the first Budget in my memory of Budgets over the last half a century which has embraced upfront, enthusiastically and emphatically, technology, modernity and fiscal sobriety, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
The Indian Premier League's overall brand value declined by 20 per cent to $9.6 billion in 2025 due to lost momentum in the league caused by tensions between India and Pakistan, and teams adjusting to their squad composition post the auction.
