The CII Business Summit 2025's inaugural session witnessed a rousing standing ovation and a felicitation ceremony for the defence top brass sending a strong message about India's rising military industrial complex and hghlghting that security is a top-of-the-mind issue for India Inc.
'We remain in touch with the Chinese side, in Beijing as well as in Delhi, to bring predictability in the supply chain.'
The IPO wave of 2025 is here, and it's bigger than ever. From fintech unicorns to financial powerhouses and infrastructure giants, some of India's biggest names are all set to make their stock market debut. PhonePe, Zepto, Tata Capital, NSE, NSDL, and JSW Cement are just a few of the highly awaited listings that have investors and analysts buzzing with excitement.
In the hottest sector of AI, where most global VC funding is going currently, the country's record has not been anything to write home about.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday accused the government of misleading the nation on the India-Pakistan conflict and demanded holding a special session of Parliament immediately, following Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan's acknowledgement of aircraft loss in the hostilities.
The government has set up an inter-ministerial group to monitor a possible surge in imports from countries like China, Vietnam and Thailand, fearing a surge in inbound shipments following the imposition of high reciprocal tariffs by the US on these countries, sources said. The product categories that may see an upsurge in diversion of imports from the US to India include consumer goods, electronics, chemicals and steel.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and (the then) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson launched an 'Enhanced Trade Partnership' (ETP) to unleash the trade potential between the two economies. As part of the ETP, they agreed on a roadmap to negotiate a comprehensive and balanced FTA.
Industry associations and companies in the United States, including the US Chamber of Commerce, Coalition of Services Industries and the iconic bike company Harley Davidson have called on the Donald Trump dispensation to push India to reduce tariffs, non-tariffs, and regulatory barriers to boost American exports.
Among urban users, 57 per cent mentioned a preference for accessing Internet content in vernacular languages.
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor welcomed the revival of long-stalled India-UK FTA negotiations, posting a selfie with Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and the UK's Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds. Tharoor's post comes amid a row over his recent article praising the Kerala government's investment climate, which drew criticism from some Congress leaders.
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal's scathing remarks on Indian startup ecosystem and its innovation priorities have drawn sharp reaction from the industry, with Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha putting up a strong defence citing the company's contribution to jobs, FDI and terming it a "miracle in Indian innovation".
'That way you're not hostage just to US sort of exports to India.'
'If you align your ambition with India's rise, the peak of your careers will unfold alongside the peak of India's power.'
'The next decade will be even more transformative,' says Prime Minister Modi. 'We are moving from digital governance to global digital leadership.'
The 17 rare earth elements that are at the centre of the current crisis are critical components of everyday products -- from cars to jet engines to electronics like smartphones and flat-screen TVs.
Billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani described his 2016 return to the telecom industry with Reliance Jio as the "biggest risk" of his life, saying that even if analysts' predictions of financial failure had come true, it would still have been worth it for the role it played in transforming India digitally.
Data centres are increasingly becoming a key part of the real estate landscape, as reality firms - with rich expertise in land acquisition, construction and dealing with government approvals - are seeing them as opportunities to build long-term assets with continuous revenue flow.
Bollywood has come out in full support and shown solidarity to Indian army by postponing film releases and several events post the deadly Pahalgam attack and India's Operation Sindoor
India and the US desire to give preferential market access to each other's businesses and teams of both the countries are working together on the proposed bilateral trade agreement, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has said. In February, US President Donald J Trump and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi announced plans to negotiate the first tranche or phase of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by fall (September-October) of 2025.
India on Thursday said the issue of trade did not come up at all in talks between Indian and American leaders during its military clashes with Pakistan, virtually rejecting Washington's repeated claims that its offer of trade stopped the confrontation.
The US is expected to push for sweeping changes in India's policies, ranging from tariff reductions to regulatory overhauls, that could benefit American firms and exporters, under the proposed bilateral trade agreement with India, think tank GTRI said on Sunday.
Indian and US officials will begin deliberations on the proposed bilateral trade agreement in Washington from Wednesday with an aim to iron out issues and give an impetus to the negotiations.
The Karnataka high court on Tuesday strongly criticised actor and filmmaker Kamal Haasan for his recent remark suggesting that "Kannada was born out of Tamil", and observed that a "single apology could have resolved the situation."
Finding solutions to address non-tariff barriers would be important for the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union (EU) and both sides are actively working on resolving these issues, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday. He said the two sides are "pretty" close to finalising the talks for the proposed free trade pact.
'I don't know how long cinema will survive.'
Kamal Haasan stoked a controversy during the audio launch event for his film Thug Life in Chennai, by remarking that Kannada was born out of Tamil.
The commerce ministry is working on different scenarios to assess the possible fallout of reciprocal tariffs to be imposed by the US administration on April 2 on its key trading partners including India, sources said. US President Donald Trump has said that April 2 will be 'Liberation Day' as he plans to announce tariffs or import duties to bring down America's trade deficit, and promote the country's manufacturing.
The Indian exporting community is "very" concerned about the possible reciprocal tariffs of the US as it could severely hurt MSME shipments to America in the short run, Federation of Indian Export Organisations President SC Ralhan said on Wednesday. He suggested that the government should come forward and support exporters to deal with these tariffs.
rediffGURU Patrick Dsouza, founder of Patrick100 counsels students, and aspiring professionals about the scope of an MBA degree.
Live commerce, quick commerce, group buying, WhatsApp commerce, dukaantech have made their mark.
A team of senior officials from India will again visit Washington this month to hold discussions with their US counterparts on the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA), government sources said on Thursday. To give impetus to the talks, India's chief negotiator Rajesh Agrawal, special secretary in the Department of Commerce, and Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch had last month held three-day talks in Washington.
Today, says Ajit Menon, CEO, PGIM India Mutual Fund, he's pretty much cruising on the parenting highway but that wasn't always the case.
An Indian official team is likely to visit Washington next week to iron out differences on certain issues before formally launching negotiations for the proposed India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA), an official said. The visit, which comes within weeks of a high-level US team visiting India, indicates that the talks for the BTA are gaining momentum.
Where does Kamal Haasan stand on the issue of imposition of Hindi in the south? "I stand with Punjab. I stand with Karnataka. I stand with Andhra," is his quick reply.
Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) said on Thursday its operations are unaffected by the global rare earth magnet shortage, but added that the situation is "uncertain and evolving". The firm said it is exploring multiple solutions to maintain continuity in operations and will notify stakeholders in case of material impact.
Digipin promises to revolutionise location-based services in India with safeguards.
Many industry executives have said the draft e-commerce policy is being perceived as nationalistic but not overly protectionist and it is providing preference to Indian players against foreign companies. This might have an impact on investment by large players such as Walmart and Amazon in the country, said the executives. They said e-commerce was a very small portion of the retail industry and at a nascent stage and did not require heavy hammer regulations. Though the policy talks about being equally applicable to foreign and domestic players, it mentions that foreign direct investment (FDI) takes precedence over the e-commerce policy in any area of overlap.
The Quad grouping has called for bringing the perpetrators, organisers and financiers of the Pahalgam terror attack to justice without any delay and urged UN member nations to extend cooperation for it.
India's trade deficit with China neared $100 billion in FY25, amid escalating concerns of dumping, data released by the commerce department on Wednesday showed. Chinese imports rose by 11.5 per cent to $113.45 billion, while outbound shipments to the neighbouring country saw 14.5 per cent contraction to $14.2 billion.
