Indian banks are on a roll. The cumulative profit of government banks has soared 57% in FY 23 from the last fiscal to breach the one trillion-rupee mark. And the net profit of private lenders shot up by 23% YoY. The bad loan burden -- which had kept them down for nearly a decade - too has lightened. But, amid all this, the regulator is advising caution. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das has warned banks against hiding stress and pointed to gaps in governance at certain banks. So, why is the...

Indian economy grew by 6.1% in the final quarter of financial year 2023 -- nudging the overall growth rate to breach the 7 per cent mark. But what led to this surprise buoyancy in the GDP numbers during the March quarter? And what are the key factors which made this possible?  A positive consumer sentiment is indeed a good news for players in the FMCG sector -- where margin is thin, and competition stiff. And a player with deep pockets is continuously heating up the competition. Reliance...

IPL 2023 finally came to an end on May 29, with the Chennai Super Kings clinching its fifth win. The latest edition was remarkable for several records broken and milestones established on field. But off the field too, the massive viewership numbers for IPL 2023 seems to have given its OTT broadcaster — Jio Cinema — a big push in its race for a place among the leaders of India’s OTT-space. But, is the Reliance-owned streaming platform ready to take on giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime?    ...

It had hit a boundary on the very first ball. The Indian Premier League (IPL) became the country’s first unicorn in 2008 -- the year it was formed. And in its 15th year, just before the beginning of this year’s season, it became a decacorn, with its business value crossing the $10 billion mark. IPL has indeed brought unprecedented windfall to cricket. Its huge popularity has brought lucrative media and sponsorship deals over the years. So in today’s first story we explore if the IPL has...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new Parliament building on Sunday, May 28 - two days after completing nine years in office and just months before he faces general elections. So as the seat of power shifts from the iconic Parliament building to the new one a couple of blocks away, Tushar Verma offers a peek into exactly how it was built. Who built it? And why was it needed?  From the seat of power for the world’s largest democracy, let us turn our gaze to the world’s highest...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has completed nine years in office. Between bowing down at the steps of Parliament to stepping into a new Parliament building, these nine years were marked with several challenges-- including the once-in-a-century pandemic. But how do we judge the performance of any government? One of the ways is to find out how the predecessor performed. We analyse how the governments led by Narendra Modi and Manmohan Singh performed on select economic and social indicators...

After the Galwan Valley clash about three year ago, ties between India and China had hit a new low in decades. But trade between the two countries touched an all-time high last year. In our first story, we talk about how trade between India and China is shaping up amid strained ties. Chinese suppliers of Apple have reportedly been given preliminary clearance to form joint ventures with Indian companies. China’s popular fashion brand, Shein, is also re-entering the country. So are Chinese...

The Supreme Court has granted Sebi time till August 14th to complete its probe into the allegations of stock price manipulation by the Adani group. So how is the Sebi probe likely to proceed and what will be the challenges along the way?  Looks like the stocks of Adani group companies are back on the track. After hitting a rough patch, they now seem to be on the onward journey. Well, Delhi metro just completed 20 years of its journey. For millions of people of the national capital and its...

The 2000-rupee note has had quite a journey. It came into being seven years ago, with Narendra Modi's out-of-the-blue demonetisation move in 2016. And now, this ‘pink note’ is set to sail off into the sunset. On that note, we have a special show for you today. We talk about the myriad possible impacts of the RBI’s move to strip the 2000-rupee currency of its status as a legal tender. We start by explaining how you should exchange these notes. We take you through the best possible ways as well...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been trying to drive on to Indian roads for some years now. But, he has been hitting a speed bump of import duties. India, now the world’s third-largest vehicle market, refused to agree on Tesla Inc’s request to lower the import duty on cars, which can be as high as 100 per cent. While the government insisted Tesla to make in India, the electric carmaker wanted to test the market first with imports. With automaker changing its approach recently, the deadlock may not...

What’s in focus today is India’s economy. India’s goods exports fell by over 12% in April 2023 -- reflecting the slowing demand in the inflation-hit foreign countries. The industrial output grew just a tad above 1% in March, which was slowest in five months. Inflation numbers meanwhile offered some breather. So what do these three crucial parameters of India’s macroeconomic growth tell about its growth story?  The world economy went into a tailspin when the pandemic struck. And countries...

In our first story today, we take a peek at the road ahead for India’s electronics exports. In 2018, during the peak of the US-China trade war, Washington had imposed a 25% tariff on a slew of Chinese electronics products. While the move riled China, its smaller competitors rejoiced. They saw an opportunity. Since then, nations like Vietnam, Malaysia and Mexico, have seen a surge in their exports to the US. India, however, seems to have lagged behind. So how can it catch up in the...

A war of words has erupted between Go First and aircraft lessors -- who want their planes back from the cash-strapped airline. While the Aviation Working Group, which represents the lessors, has put India on a watch list, the Wadia group-owned airline has termed it as an attempt to influence an ongoing case in NCLAT, where lessors have challenged NCLT moratorium on the airline’s assets. The moratorium bars lessors from recovering their aircraft. So how will this tussle between Go First and...

Doug McMillon, the chief executive officer of the biggest retail company of the world, Walmart, was in India recently. During this time, in a conversation with Business Standard, he indicated that the retail giant’s aspiration for multi-brand retail might be a thing of the past. What then is Walmart’s future Indian strategy?  Like the retail giant Walmart, WhatsApp too has been eyeing the large Indian market. In a matter of few years, it has become part of daily lives of over 480 million...

Dust over the campaign trails in Karnataka has settled now. Loudspeakers have fallen silent and EVMs are back in store rooms. Over three crore voters have elected 224 MLAs, and the suspense over the results is now over. So what next for Karnataka?  Both the BJP and Congress had made a host of promises for the state’s young population. While the BJP had vowed 10 lakh new jobs, the Congress had announced a monthly allowance to unemployed graduates and diploma holders. But why is a large...

Cash-strapped Go First has now been granted bankruptcy protection. The airline wants a “comprehensive debt restructuring” and its planes may well hit the runways soon. But will the future bring clear skies or more turbulence for Go First? And, what do the latest developments mean for the Indian civil aviation sector?  Bengaluru’s airport, meanwhile, has been ranked among the most punctual airports in the world in 2022. It bagged 20th spot in the list by Cirium -- an aviation data analytics...

At the f*g-end of January this year, when Adani group stocks were falling like house of cards, heads had started turning towards another highly-leveraged conglomerate: Vedanta Resources Ltd. But, during the last three months, both the companies have trimmed their debt, and some skepticism too. So can we safely say that Adani and Vedanta have come out of the woods?  Experts, meanwhile, point out that better planning and foresight may have saved the two big groups the hassle they have just...

Slowly but surely, Paytm became part of our lives. But the company, which spearheaded digital payments in India, has been reporting losses for quite some time now. But, it seems, things are looking up for its parent company One97 Communications now. It has been cutting down losses, slowly but steadily. It further dropped in the recent Q4 results. And for its CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the next milestone is to make Paytm cash flow positive. Is it possible?  Innovations, experts believe, were...

Nothing should come between you and your favorite restaurant. Those who believe in this idea must be a happy lot as government-operated ONDC, it seems, is picking up. And the prices of your favourite dishes are coming down. Those ordering food on it are unable to hide their excitement, and are hitting the social media platforms to express it. With delivery fees and some other charges gone, the food they say is now 20 to 30% cheaper when compared to established food delivery platforms. So...

Your food order on Swiggy will now cost two-rupee more in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. But why? Because the food and grocery delivery company has started levying a platform fee on every order -- no matter what the cart value is. And it comes days after the company laid-off 380 employees and shut down its meat delivery business. So what is behind the new platform fee? And what does it say about the unit economics of India’s online food aggregator platforms? And, what does this mean for foodies...

Artificial intelligence appears all set to shake the tech world. Old jobs will go, and new ones will come up. A recent World Economic Forum report claimed that over 14 million jobs will disappear due to the adoption of new technologies like AI in the next five years. India too cannot remain unaffected. So is the Indian youth ready for this churn in the IT sector? Is the industry ready?  Indian cricket too, it seems, is going through a churn. Virat Kohli’s on-field spat with Gautam Gambhir...

Low-cost carrier Go First has run out of runway. Its entire fleet is grounded, and the company is at the doors of the bankruptcy court. The sudden development has not just shocked the flyers, but the regulator too which is now scrambling for answers. But why did the airline come to a grinding halt? And what does it mean for the flyers and for the aviation industry? But, it looks like electric vehicles have hit a smooth runway, and are ready to take off in India. The competition is heating...

India’s largest household goods maker, HUL, believes that rural slowdown is finally bottoming out. But the largest car maker of the country, Maruti Suzuki, has sounded a note of caution saying it has witnessed a decline in bookings in April. The reason? Elevated inflation and weakening consumer sentiments in rural areas due to uncertainty around monsoon. So as the companies with rural presence are coming out with results for last quarter of FY 23, what do they suggest about rural demand? Is...

BYJU’s is in the news again. The Enforcement Directorate has carried out searches at three premises linked to it in Bengaluru. The agency later claimed to have found some “incriminating” documents related to its probe into alleged foreign exchange violations done by the edtech major. The company is now facing greater regulatory scrutiny than it has ever before. So, is this the end of the road for BYJU’S? Or is it just another bump in its eventful journey?  Notwithstanding the ongoing woes,...

India is planning to take on China through its Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. This is what Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said during her visit to the US last month. The government had rolled out the ambitious scheme in 2020 with an outlay of about ₹2 lakh crore to make India a manufacturing powerhouse. But in the last fiscal year, it disbursed only 2,874 crore rupees, or only about 1.4 per cent of the total outlay. So should it be a cause of worry? Maybe not. As the...