If TVK MLAs and ministers are perceived as clean, or demonstrably cleaner than their predecessors, the credibility dividend will be enormous. The voter will feel rewarded, points out Ramesh Menon.
The conflict may disrupt Budget 2026-2027 projections, squeezing revenues and raising subsidies, prompting fiscal adjustments and potential reforms, echoing lessons from the Covid-era shock, points out A K Bhattacharya.
A new report suggests that blending 20 per cent dimethyl ether (DME) with LPG could significantly reduce India's LPG imports, leading to substantial savings in foreign exchange.
Chinese leaders, including its generals, will have to weigh whether they can win a war if they ever attack Taiwan and if at all, can they sustain the subsequent devastation, notes Rup Narayan Das.
'...especially pressure on the rupee, the current account deficit, and foreign exchange outflows.' 'The key question over the next several months is whether the government can prevent external turbulence from feeding into domestic economic pessimism.'
Brokerage Bernstein has warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India risks squandering recent economic gains unless it accelerates structural reforms, particularly in jobs, manufacturing and innovation.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that raising the FDI limit to 100 per cent in the insurance sector will help attract more capital, improve competition and increase insurance penetration by making policies more affordable.
Delhi Police have dismantled a major international cyber fraud syndicate, arresting the alleged mastermind and 10 others. The syndicate is linked to over 2,000 complaints and scams worth over Rs 300 crore, with connections to international cyber fraud operations in Cambodia.
Global brokerage Bernstein has issued a cautionary note, stating that India risks 'under-delivering on its potential' unless it addresses key policy bottlenecks and structural risks, including employment challenges from AI, limited manufacturing gains, and rising welfare spending.
Here's what Indian investors diversifying into equities, ETFs, and real estate abroad to manage risk, returns, and currency exposure must watch out for.
'For those in for the long haul, this is a God-given opportunity.' 'Your market is falling despite strong fundamentals, and such a clear roadmap has been announced.'
Analysts predict that developments in West Asia and their impact on crude oil prices will heavily influence investor sentiment in the upcoming week. Global market trends, foreign investor activity, and rupee-dollar movement will also play a role.
E-commerce giant Amazon plans to make a mega-investment of $35 billion, over Rs 3.14 lakh crore, in India by 2030 across its businesses with a focus on AI-driven digitization, export growth and job creation, a senior company official said on Wednesday.
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has revealed that a significant majority of synthetic tracks in the country are substandard, raising concerns about athlete performance and track longevity. The AFI is now working with World Athletics to improve track certification and vendor quality.
'The trade deficit in some sectors is huge and that is an area of opportunity to localise.'
For India, much is at stake: Crucial energy supplies traversing the Strait of Hormuz, the fate of its 10 million citizens living and working in West Asia -- who send generous remittances home -- and its major trade links with the region.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met with his counterparts from Egypt and Turkiye in Islamabad ahead of a quadrilateral summit, including Saudi Arabia, to discuss the ongoing conflict in West Asia and explore avenues for peace.
'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.'
Enforcement agencies have highlighted risks related to money laundering and terror financing, prompting closer scrutiny of crypto platforms operating in India.
India has been on an FTA-signing spree of late. Since 2021, it has signed eight trade agreements, three of which -- with the UK, Oman and New Zealand -- were finalised in 2025 alone.
Kerala's voters are sophisticated, educated, and unforgiving. They have once again made it clear that no government is entitled to remain in power. The Congress would do well to remember this, points out Ramesh Menon.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday took a ride in a Tesla car outside the state assembly Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai, a day after the electric vehicle maker marked its official entry into the Indian market with the launch of its first showroom in Mumbai.
The deal shifts the US posture towards India from hostile to neutral, and that matters for growth, points out T T Ram Mohan.
In the present hyper-connected world, there are many domestic and global factors that affect financial markets. Of them, the most powerful and often least predictable are geopolitical events, which often boil down to one diplomatic headline.
The Union Cabinet on Friday approved 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the insurance sector, a move that was welcomed by industry as it would help attract more capital and global expertise, while boosting insurance coverage in the country. A bill to amend the insurance law is likely to be tabled on Monday in Parliament, whose winter session is slated to conclude on December 19.
India's real gross domestic product (GDP) is likely to grow at 7.5 per cent in FY26 and moderate to 7 per cent in the subsequent fiscal year, a domestic rating agency said on Wednesday.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra is now confronting the classic growth-inflation tradeoff, a situation exacerbated by the West Asia war, which threatens to end the 'goldilocks period' of low inflation and robust growth.
The Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet against former Reliance Communications president Punit Garg and another individual in connection with a money laundering probe linked to an alleged Rs 40,000 crore bank loan fraud.
Insurance intermediaries who receive disproportionately high commissions are likely to see a decline in their payouts, post the new Insurance Amendment Bill. The new Bill gives the Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority of India (Irdai) the power to disgorge unlawful gains made by insurers and intermediaries as well as the right to limit commissions paid to intermediaries.
The Enforcement Directorate has registered a FEMA case against Myntra and related entities for allegedly violating FDI guidelines, with contravention amounting to over Rs 1,654 crore.
'We are profoundly energy-dependent on the Gulf. That dependency must now be redirected towards the United States, because we require American permission to procure oil.' 'We additionally require Iranian permission to acquire oil from that source. So India now has to seek two separate permissions merely to secure its energy supply.' 'Should we be compelled to source from America, or from Venezuela -- which is, in effect, American-controlled supply -- that will inevitably carry a price premium, an elevated shipping cost, and a considerably extended delivery timeline, given the distances involved.'
'It was diminishing even before Trump came to power.' 'The US was at the centre of the global economy. That position is going to become less and less important and less central.'
The Centre is regularly holding consultations with stakeholders to streamline foreign direct investments (FDIs) and foreign institutional investments (FIIs) related processes to enable faster and more efficient investment flows into the country, said Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, adding one such meeting with stakeholders was held on Tuesday.
The Reserve Bank of India on Friday proposed to allow banks to lend to Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) with certain prudential safeguards to deepen the financing pool for the real estate sector.
The recent policies that have been announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will allow banks to fully use its capital, funding profile to keep business at an equilibrium level, which otherwise was getting skewed towards retail, said K V Kamath, chairman, Jio Financial Services.
The Income Tax department will start sending SMS/emails to about 25,000 individuals, who are part of the "high-risk" cases identified for non-disclosure of foreign assets in the income tax returns (ITRs) filed for Assessment Year (AY) 2025-26, sources said.
The big question is whether Trump is any longer in command of the situation. For all practical purposes, the war seems set to cascade as the US is preparing for a potential ground operation in Iran and threatens to destroy 'bridges next, then electric power plants', points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Leading non-banking financial company (NBFC) Shriram Finance on Friday said Japan-based MUFG Bank would invest Rs 39,618 crore, or $4.4 billion, to acquire a 20 per cent stake on a fully diluted basis through a preferential issue of equity shares.
The Bombay High Court has denied bail to a man accused of trafficking educated youth on the pretext of providing them jobs abroad, only to coerce them to carry out cyber fraud activities.
India's leading agriculture commodity exchange, the National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), has decided to acquire around a 20 per cent stake in a new commodities and financial derivatives exchange being set up in Sri Lanka, subject to regulatory and governmental approvals. The move aims to deepen NCDEX's footprint in the financial ecosystem of its neighbouring country.
