The 2026-27 Budget, seeking to harmonise the government's imperative to grant certainty while ensuring a rational tax policy, had several notable announcements to usher in halcyon days, says Mukesh Butani.
'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.'
India and the European Union have finalized a comprehensive mobility pact that will create new opportunities for Indian students and professionals in Europe. The agreement was reached during summit talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and top EU officials.
'The impact will be minimal and it will only increase compliance cost on consent, data flows, localisation timelines, internal audits, data mapping, and new tooling.'
Since the first Reit listing in 2019, the sector has grown to a market capitalisation of about $18 billion as of August 2025, and is projected to cross $25 billion by 2030.
The Nifty 50 index could rise around 24 per cent from current levels to 32,032 by December 2026 in a bull-case scenario, Kotak Securities said in a recent note. "We value Nifty at a 10 per cent premium (at 22x) to the 10-year average price-to-earnings of 20x on 2027-28 estimated (E) earnings per share (EPS) of Rs 1,456, and arrive at a December 2026 Nifty target of 32,032," the analysts wrote.
India should resist knee-jerk responses to tariff volatility in the US and instead use the current geopolitical churn to build manufacturing scale at home, former G20 Sherpa and former chief executive officer of NITI Aayog Amitabh Kant said on Wednesday.
Indian-American executive Srini Gopalan has been appointed chief executive officer of telecom operator T-Mobile, amid ongoing debates over H-1B visa policies. Gopalan's appointment, effective from November 1, 2025, comes as US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation imposing a staggering $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, triggering widespread panic, concern and fear among Indian professionals on work visa.
'The additional Rafales will be from a vastly improved version compared to the 36 acquired for the IAF under the 2016 deal.'
The US remains the largest market for IT outsourcing, and for Indian giants TCS, Infosys and Wipro, it contributes around 40 per cent of their top line.
The move follows a quiet visit by National Security Advisor Ajit Kumar Doval to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.
Companies are squeezing more profits from their operations relative to the capital they put to work, the highest now since 2011. Profit after tax relative to capital employed came in at 10.47 per cent in September, shows data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), higher than the 8.41 per cent seen in September last year. This is the highest since March 2010.
'What the government is doing would be a drop in the ocean. It has to be matched by investments by industry.'
The US has replaced random H-1B selection with a wage-weighted lottery and a new $100,000 fee for applications, raising uncertainty for students and junior hires.
Among the Sensex shares, Infosys, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, Adani Ports, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel, BEL and Power Grid were among the lead gainers. Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finserv, and Titan were the among the laggards.
Taming the animal called AI in its many avatars will clearly remain a work in progress.
India's information technology (IT) spend is projected to touch $176.3 billion in 2026, rising 10.6 per cent from 2025, and outpacing the 9.8 per cent growth expected globally, according to the latest forecast by Gartner Inc., a business and technology insights company.
Betting big on India's AI potential, Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday announced new subsea cable routes to boost AI connectivity between India and the US, alongside major skilling initiatives, including training 20 million public servants and supporting 11 million students
'Companies will need to revisit compensation structures, contracts, staffing models, and human resources system.'
'Artificial Intelligence-assisted surgery is expected to shape the future of operating theatres in India.'
US lawmakers have urged President Donald Trump to reconsider his proclamation on H1-B visas, including the USD 100,000 fee, asserting that Indian nationals are central to American leadership in IT and AI, and the restrictions will negatively impact US-India ties.
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.
Sarvam's LLM will have more than 17 trillion tokens with 17 to 20 per cent coming from Indian data
Indian information technology (IT) services companies reported lacklustre growth in the second quarter, at a time when the macroeconomic environment did not deteriorate further. HCLTech emerged the best performer among India's top six IT services firms with a constant-currency growth rate of 4.6 per cent, even though uncertainties continued to persist.
These upcoming launches carry added significance in light of setbacks suffered in recent years.
The average Indian worker must labour for an extraordinary 160 full working days to afford Apple's latest iPhone 17 Pro.
HCLTech reported flat net income of Rs 4,235 crore in the second quarter of 2025-26 (Q2FY26) compared to last year, even as its revenue was up 10.7 per cent to Rs 31,492 crore helped by financial services and technology business verticals.
The services sector employs 188 million people but remains highly informal, trapping most workers in low-wage jobs without social protection.
Over 50 per cent, or 660 stocks, from the BSE 1000 index recorded negative returns during CY25.
Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi emphasized the importance of indigenous equipment for the Indian Army, highlighting the force's modernization efforts and readiness for future warfare.
Bhagwat said India's concept of 'rashtra' is ancient, organic and fundamentally different from the Western idea of a nation.
This Budget positions India's taxation ideology as not merely a revenue source but as a strategic catalyst for growth, inclusion and long-term confidence.
Around 100 artistes heralded the parade, on the theme 'Vividata Mein Ekta (Unity in Diversity) that featured a grand presentation of musical instruments, demonstrating the nation's unity and rich cultural diversity.
Ravi Kaushik has sold 70,000 units of air filters through his start-up Airth and aims to sell 10 lakh units in the next five years.
Goldman Sachs is bullish about Indian aerospace and defence, preferring private companies over public sector units (PSUs) as the country ramps up its export target for the sector to Rs 50,000 crore by FY29 from Rs 23,600 crore last year. The American investment bank's top 'buy' recommendations include Solar Industries, Bharat Electronics, Data Patterns and PTC Industries, while Bharat Dynamics is rated 'sell'.
The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, is inviting applications for its newly launched executive programme in brand management.
What we are watching is something different: A fog manufactured and maintained by the people who started the war, so that the question of why it was started never has to be answered, observes Prem Panicker in his must read blog on the war in the Middle East.
'Only four or five original companies remain; the rest have been replaced every decade as sectors evolve or leadership shifts.' 'Companies that fail to adapt -- like many textile mills from the 1970s and shipping firms from the 1980s -- disappear.' 'Benchmark indices reward those who reinvent themselves in line with economic demands.'
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 application process for Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) 2026 will begin on August 25.
