India's mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity cooled in the second quarter of 2025-26 (Q2FY26), with deal value falling to $26.26 billion from $29.04 billion a year ago, according to Bloomberg data.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized the strong partnership between India and the UK, highlighting its importance for global stability and economic progress amidst global uncertainty. Discussions covered trade, defense cooperation, and geopolitical issues.
Since February 2025, the RBI has reduced the policy rate by 100 basis points. In its previous policy review in April, it had also trimmed the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6 per cent.
Auto parts exports from India may see a slight slowdown as US President Donald Trump's 25 per cent tariff could increase car prices for buyers by 8-25 per cent, thereby affecting demand, experts believe.
In a significant change to regulations, oil and gas regulator PNGRB has proposed a new policy of how tariffs for pipelines carrying gas to users will be determined, and proposed charging city gas entities selling CNG and piped cooking gas to households at the lowest rates.
India and the United States will finalize the contours, schedule of negotiations, and terms of reference for a proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) during a three-day meeting beginning Tuesday. The agreement is expected to be finalized in two tranches, with the first phase focusing on goods trade. The US team, led by Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch, will be in India from March 25-29 to discuss the agreement. Both countries are aiming to conclude the first phase of the agreement by fall 2025.
'India has the potential to grow at more than 7%, with the monetary policy providing a supportive hand.'
As a protege of Shinzo Abe, Takaichi is expected to scale bilateral ties much higher. Trade and investment shall grow. People-to-people contacts shall be scaled up, points out Dr Rajaram Panda.
For the time being, the RBI is done with the cuts. A cut in October, which many are still predicting, is not certain. Of course, if growth nosedives, the script will be different, expects Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
If cashless services are suspended, AHPI said, its member hospitals will continue to treat Star Health policyholders, but patients will have to pay upfront and later seek reimbursements directly from the insurer.
On Friday, during the weekly media briefing, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, when asked about media reports that some Indian oil companies have stopped taking oil from Russia, had said India has made clear its approach on the issue.
'Geopolitically and diplomatically it's a very difficult situation for India.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Elon Musk, discussing the potential for collaboration in technology and innovation. Modi highlighted India's commitment to advancing partnerships with the US in these areas. The conversation follows a previous meeting between the two leaders in Washington D.C. earlier this year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Keir Starmer discussed the need to prevent the misuse of democratic freedoms by extremist ideologies. They also addressed terrorism and trade ties.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will accompany Prime Minister Narendra Modi to London for the signing of the free trade agreement between India and the UK on July 24, an official said on Monday. The two countries announced the conclusion of the negotiations for the trade agreement on May 6.
By threatening to punish India with high tariff, Trump is actually planting a tantalising thought in the Indian mind that the Modi government should suitably 'incentivise' him, explains Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The next many decades belong to India as the global economic powerhouse, and it will be essential to continue demonstrating policy stability, as the country aspires to be the world's manufacturing hub, Maruti Suzuki India MD and CEO Hisashi Takeuchi said on Friday.
India would neither succumb to the Americans on issues of national security, such as its defence ties with Russia, nor cede ground on its domestic interests in the agriculture and dairy sectors.
'We have created massive infrastructure in the past six years.'
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's sudden resignation after only a year in office has thrown Japan into political turmoil, raising doubts about how the country will handle economic and regional challenges, observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
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.
'The current strain in the relationship is serious and likely to be long lasting.' 'Even if Trump suddenly changes his attitude toward India -- which he is entirely capable of doing -- it is unlikely that New Delhi will be able to pick up the pieces and respond as if nothing has happened.'
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.
Senior officials of India and the US will begin three-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement in New Delhi on Wednesday amid threats of reciprocal tariffs from the Trump-administration, an official said. To formally start the negotiations on the pact, Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch, along with a team of officials, is in New Delhi.
Starlink's application for offering satcom services in India had been held up for the company's inability to comply with mandatory ownership disclosure norms.
Global brokerage firm CLSA has reversed its early tactical shift from Indian equities to Chinese stocks, and has decided to raise India allocation while cutting exposure to China. In its report titled 'Pouncing Tiger, Prevaricating Dragon', CLSA cited challenges facing Chinese markets in the aftermath of Donald Trump's victory in the US elections as the reason for the move. "Misfortune can happen in threes. So it has played out for Chinese equities over the past week.
Ahead of the visit, officials from key government departments held intense discussions to identify key trade-related proposals.
...the DMK chief minister's campaign -- which includes criticism of the BJP's 'pro-Hindutva, anti-Tamil, anti-federal' policies and building on his own government's social welfare programmes targeting especially women and youth -- appeals to Tamil Nadu's voters in next year's assembly election, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
'...the auto industry to get back to 7% to 8% annual growth.' 'High growth in the SUV segment alone will not achieve this, as it is a small market.'
The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) $10 billion US dollar-rupee buy-sell swap auction for three years received bids worth $16.23 billion on Friday, reflecting robust demand amid persistent liquidity deficit in the banking system. This was the second swap auction by the central bank after it infused $5 billion via six month-swap on January 31.
'The touchstone is reciprocity which will be applied to friends and foes alike.' 'It will be a bitter pill to swallow.'
Customers may lose freebies or have to pay a little more for mobile services in the days ahead as operators try to make up for Rs 61,100 crore they have committed to government in the latest spectrum auction.
'... that it once again shies away from renewing its commitment to strategic divestment,' points out A K Bhattacharya.
It will be the second Budget of the Modi 3.0 government and eighth straight Budget for Nirmala Sitharaman, rare in Indian polity.
'Our attempt to honour the taxpayer has been since 2014 and more actively since 2019-2020 onwards.'
'The bull market cycle ran for five years. It's the end of that cycle.' 'The next cycle is a down cycle, and in that down cycle, you will see the Sensex falling from their highs of around 68,000 to maybe 40,000-50,000 at the bottom of the cycle.'
In a major development, India and the US have agreed to end six trade disputes at the WTO through mutually agreed solutions, while New Delhi will remove retaliatory customs duties on certain American products such as almonds, walnuts, and apples.
Approved by the State Council, or China's cabinet, the move was taken to honour China's tariff reduction commitment upon its accession to the World Trade Organisation, the Customs Tariff Commission said in a statement.
India's gold and silver imports from its free trade agreement (FTA) partner UAE have skyrocketed 210 per cent to $10.7 billion in 2023-24 and there is a need to potentially revise the concessional customs duty rates under the pact to mitigate the arbitrage driving this surge, a report said on Monday. Economic think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said this sharp rise in gold and silver imports is primarily driven by import duty concessions granted by India to the UAE under the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
With the new government taking charge in Britain, senior officials of India and the UK will hold the next round of talks this month for the proposed free trade agreement to resolve the pending issues and close the negotiations, an official said. The India-UK talks for the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) began in January 2022. The 14th round of talks stalled as the two nations stepped into their general election cycles.
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