With winter holidays approaching, some Indian travellers will venture abroad. Many will be underprepared for medical and other travel-related risks. Trip disruptions, missed connections, and steep medical costs in developed countries can leave travellers exposed if they underestimate the coverage they need.
'It is not looking at valuation, but investment, growth and ultimately better profit for stakeholders.'
After two years of strong gains, smallcap stocks fell sharply in 2025, but the correction may be setting up opportunities for long-term investors.
This marks a 67% increase from the Rs 2,537 crore lost in scams in 2022-2023.
Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood announced the installation of air purifiers in 10,000 classrooms to combat pollution and ensure clean air for students, criticizing the previous government's approach.
Non-banking entities such as fintech firms will have to tap into use cases beyond peer-to-peer (P2P) and peer-to-merchant (P2M) transactions to scale up the presence of the retail version of the central bank digital currency (CBDC), which is also known as the e, said industry players. These use cases will enable programmable transactions across domains, including the government's direct benefit transfer (DBT) schemes, with subsidies restricted to specific purposes such as food coupons, hospital bills, fertilisers, pesticides, and cross-border remittances.
Trai has ordered BFSI firms to move service and transaction calls to the 1600 series from 2026 to reduce spam, financial fraud, and rising digital arrest scams.
To digitise Customs processes, the Union finance ministry is planning to integrate the Indian Customs Electronic Gateway (ICEGATE), Risk Management System (RMS), and Indian Customs Electronic Data Interchange System (ICES) into a single unified national Customs platform, according to government sources.
Former IPS officer Amar Singh Chahal allegedly shot himself after claiming he was duped of Rs 8.10 crore by cyber thugs. He was one of the accused in the 2015 police firing cases related to anti-sacrilege protests in Faridkot.
President Droupadi Murmu has given her assent to the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, which aims to replace MGNREGA and guarantee 125 days of wage employment per rural household.
Companies are primarily using funds raised through fresh equity issuance to repay existing debt, followed by allocation for capital expenditure, according to a study by Bank of Baroda of over 200 filings with the market regulator between April and October 2025. The report stated that of these filings with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) - covering both funds already raised in FY26 and future intent - 189 companies provided clear data on the purpose of the fund-raising.
India and Russia have agreed to encourage joint manufacturing of military hardware and spare parts in India, aiming to improve maintenance of Russian-origin defence equipment and boost overall bilateral defence cooperation.
Edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah on Thursday fixed a price band of Rs 103-109 per share for its upcoming initial public offering (IPO), aiming for a valuation of over Rs 31,500 crore at the upper end. The company's Rs 3,480-crore maiden public offering will open on November 11 and conclude on November 13 and anchor investors will be allocated shares on November 10, according to its public announcement.
While UIDAI has given a nod for face authentication, banks need to join the process.
'I do believe there will be a resolution in the next couple of months on the penal tariff and hopefully on the reciprocal tariff also.'
Paytm, the country's leading fintech player which had to shut its payment bank business following regulatory action, is revisiting its business strategy including partnership with lenders. Also, the company's founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Vijay Shekhar Sharma has decided to oversee the day-to-day operations with all the major verticals reporting directly to him now. "The thing on top of everyone's agenda is getting the core businesses back on track," a person in the know said.
The Reserve Bank on Thursday affirmed its commitment to continue with its supervisory measures aimed at early identification of risks and vulnerabilities. The central bank would also focus on enhancing cyber resilience and capabilities of Supervised Entities (SEs) by implementing the recommendations of the inter-regulatory Working Group, which has uniform baseline cybersecurity guidelines for financial entities, it said in its annual report.
'The first time India has seen two consecutive blockbuster IPO years.'
India's sprawling digital public infrastructure received a glowing endorsement from billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates on Wednesday as he praised the country's "great" digital network, reliable and low-cost connectivity, and said this will be the cheapest 5G market. Under the G20 presidency of India, a session on 'Building resilient and inclusive economies- the Promise of Digital Public Infrastructure' was held on Wednesday in New Delhi, where the Microsoft co-founder spoke of India's digital identity Aadhaar, its payment infrastructure, and rapid strides that the country has taken in bringing more people into formal banking system. "India in particular, by laying the groundwork for digital public infrastucture starting with identity system, allows people to build on top of that.
'The only solution is for the government to allow us to charge a low controlled MDR of 25 bps on UPI P2M transactions only for merchants with more than a Rs 40 lakh turnover.'
Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra on Wednesday exhorted the fledgling fintech ecosystem to focus on the underserved sections of the society to deepen financial inclusion. Speaking at the annual Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, Malhotra accepted that serving the "privileged" will be a lucrative business, but urged the smaller companies to focus on the underserved.
State-owned banks have received guidance from the government to close Jan Dhan accounts whose beneficiaries are unwilling to keep them active, amid rising instances of such accounts being misused by fraudsters as mule accounts to defraud people, people aware of the development said.
'The Digital Rupee will be equal to the Indian rupee in value and backed by the full faith and credit of the RBI/Indian government.'
'Illegal gambling operators are systematically exploiting India's advertising and payment infrastructure, siphoning off crores of rupees from outside the country.'
Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra on Wednesday said there is no proposal to levy any charge on UPI transactions.
'The real story of 2025 is that India officially stopped being a 'market of the future' and started acting as the world's primary economic engine.'
A merchant using the bank's merchant App, QR code, PoS or Payment gateways, across all segments, including electronics, apparel, grocery, stand to win assured cashback and prizes on volume build-up, EMI or digital transactions.
Let's work flat out and create a policy framework that fosters the growth of Indian non-family business VC and private equity firms. This will allow our Indian startups' dreams to flourish, explains Ajit Balakrishnan.
Reliance Jio, India's biggest telecom operator, is planning to launch an initial public offering (IPO) and listing on bourses in the first half of 2026, billionaire Mukesh Ambani said on Friday. Jio is currently a unit of Reliance Industries Ltd, India's most valuable company.
Delhi Police have invoked Section 356 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita for the first time, allowing the trial of an absconding accused in a murder case to proceed.
Gujarat police arrest a woman allegedly involved in trafficking job aspirants to Myanmar and Thailand for cyber slavery. The accused lured people with promises of high-paying jobs and forced them to work for international cyber crime syndicates.
Lacking basic safeguards and regulations, India is fast emerging as a hub for illegal online betting and gambling market, with the top 15 such unauthorised platforms logging an alarming over 5.4 billion visits in FY25, according to a report by public policy think-tank on consumer sovereignty.
Nearly 7 out of every 10 P2M UPI transactions take place in high frequency categories like groceries, restaurants, pharmacies, fuel service stations, bakeries and utility services such as electricity, gas, water and sanitation.
'Other sectors that manage the savings pools of Indians are giving tough competition to life insurance companies.'
'The government will carefully regulate and monitor the Digital Rupee, and because the currency is supposed to be tied to INR or supported by reserves, we should expect little fluctuation in pricing.'
'This marks a turning point for Paytm, with the regulatory environment looking much clearer than it has been in the last two years.'
Cyber fraudsters have duped Delhi residents of nearly Rs 1,000 crore so far this year, with investment scams, digital arrests and boss scams emerging as the most common cybercrimes.
OMCs' Digital India move is likely to have an impact on more than 80.3 million Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana consumers, majority of whom are not exposed to digital transact.
'I will not be surprised if there is a 7 per cent handle in front of the decimal place for the full financial year.'
Amid increasing popularity of virtual currencies in various parts of the world, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday said it is open to exploring the possibility of a digital version of fiat currency. Host of private digital currencies, virtual currencies and cryptocurrencies have gained popularity in recent years, though Indian authorities continue to remain sceptical about them. "In India, the regulators and governments have been sceptical about these currencies and are apprehensive about the associated risks. "Nevertheless, the RBI is exploring the possibility as to whether there is a need for a digital version of fiat currency and in case there is, then how to operationalise it," the RBI said in its booklet on 'Payment Systems in India -- Journey in the Second Decade of the Millennium'.
