The merger process of HDFC and HDFC Bank is well underway, with the BSE, NSE already giving clearance. The RBI too gave its no objection certificate for the merger on July 4th subject to certain conditions. What is the merger all about? How will this merger impact you? Here is all you need to know. Hamsini Karthik and Surabhi explain.

Nearly 21 years after stock broker Harshad Mehta died of a heart attack in prison, his wife, Jyoti, has claimed he died of medical negligence as jail authorities denied him treatment for nearly four hours. What was the 1992 securities scam and what are the latest developments? Palak Shah explains. Read the full story here

June 30, 2022 will be remembered for its fast-paced political developments in Maharashtra. Political pundits expected the BJP's Devendra Fadnavis to be the next CM, but Eknath Shinde was given the responsibility. There are many questions that remain unanswered — what will be the dynamics of this new govt? What will happen to the Shiv Sena and the Thackereys ?  Radheshyam Jadav explains. Listen in!

Cotton prices have been falling, but this is almost the same with all commodities. Cotton prices have dropped by over 10 per cent across the country and over 20 per cent globally to a six-month low. What is the cause behind the fall in cotton prices and how does the year look ahead for Cotton prices and production both domestically and internationally. MR Subramani, head, Commodities and Agri-Business, The Hindu BusinessLine, explains. Listen in!

The NSE co-location scam is back in the news again. This time, investigators have found evidence that brokers deployed illegal means to set up trading links between the NSE, MCX, BSE, and other global exchanges in China, the US, and  West Asia among others. In this podcast, Palak Shah talks to V Nivedita about how the scandal took place what the investigations by various agencies have found and how to regain investors' trust. Listen in Listen in! Read the full story here | NSE Co-lo scam:...

The Maha Vikas Agadhi government is in trouble with Rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde taking the support of close to 50 MLA and hinting towards supporting a BJP-led govt in Maharashtra. This has put the tri-party alliance of the Shiv Sena, Congress, and NCP into the doldrums and also raised questions on the future of the Shiv Sena under Uddhav Thackeray. Radheshyam Jadhav who has been covering the happenings helps give a snapshot of the political situation in Maharashtra and its likely...

On June 21, The BJP announced tribal leader and former Jharkhand Governor, Droupadi Murmu, as the party’s official candidate for the upcoming presidential election. Who is Droupadi Murmu, and what makes her BJP’s ideal pick for the presidential polls? In conversation with TR Vivek, BusinessLine’s political editor Poornima Joshi takes a look at Droupadi Murmu - Her rise from the ranks and the long-term strategy behind fielding her as the BJP’s presidential candidate. Listen in! Read |...

It is layoff season in India’s startup land The last few years have been go-go season in India’s startup scene. India has the third largest startup eco-system after USA and China. At last count India had 100 unicorns – that is startups which are valued at more than a billion dollars. A lot of this has been made possible by investment from international venture and private equity funds which have helped companies not just with seed capital but provided growth funds and helped them scale to...

The Supreme Court has put the application related to India's sedition law on hold. This comes a day after the Central Government had agreed to re-examine the law and some its colonial provisions. What led to this decision and what do legal professionals feel about the move? Listen in.

India's biggest IPO has begun today. After much debate, the LIC IPO is now open to all investors. Many have welcomed the move. Will this move motivate more insurance companies to be listed? What lies ahead for India's insurance sector? BusinessLine's Deputy Editor, Surabhi, tells us more in this episode of BL Context.

Vedanta Group is in talks with strategic investors to sell 25 per cent in each of the three business units of Sterlite Technologies Ltd which is into optical fibre manufacturing, telecom network services business and software services. Suresh Iyengar explains. Read the full story here

The Niti Aayog has come out with a draft on battery swapping policy. What is in the policy? Here’s all you need to know. Listen in! Credits Producer: V Nivedita. VO: Siddharth MC

Elon Musk plans to turn Twitter into a free-speech utopia, internet freedom experts and researchers believe that this is neither desirable, nor possible, given the influence of social media in today’s democracy and political narrative. Debangana Ghosh tells us more. Listen in!

A recent article in the New York Times said number of people who died due to covid around the world is far more than the official figures. It said that the World Health Organization's year-long effort to  "calculate the global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has found that vastly more people died than previously believed — a total of about 15 million by the end of 2021". It claimed that a vast majority of these deaths goes "are estimated to have occurred in India...The WHO will...

On Tuesday, Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook spoke out against a set of new rules in the US that would force the company to permit sideloading. He said that the law could compromise users’ privacy. What is the controversy all about? Here’s all you need to know.

The Ella family which runs Bharat Biotech was a key player in enabling India's fightback against the Covid pandemic by producing Covaxin. What is less known is that members of the Ella family also run a food business of providing healthy nutrition and simultaneously ensuring better value to farmers for their produce. This podcast talks about Ella Foods' journey into pickles to spice powders and how they are trying to differentiate themselves from the competition.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has scaled down its projection for global trade growth (in volume) for 2022 to 3 per cent from 4.7 per cent predicted earlier following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict that has impacted commodity prices, disrupted supplies and intensified geopolitical and economic uncertainty. Amiti Sen tells us more!

TRAI has come out with its recommendations regarding the spectrum auction. Amongst them-A lower reserve price for Telecom operators. What are TRAI’s recommendations and what does this mean for India’s rollout of 5G services. BusinessLine’s Thomas K Thomas tells us more.

The recent report of the IPCC was the 6th Assessment Report by Working Group III and deals with mitigation. It, as the name suggests, is the sixth round of reports released by the IPCC. The previous ones were in 1990, 1995, 2001, 2007 and 2013. In 2018, the IPCC released a Special Report on the Impacts of Global Warming of 1.5°C. M Ramesh tells us more.

The recent announcement by Zomato that it would provide 10-minute delivery has sparked off a lively debate on the quick commerce segment. While most of the attention and angst – rightly so – has been focussed on the safety of the riders or delivery personnel in India’s teeming traffic, there are various other aspects to the business. Issues like the long-term viability of this model, basket size of orders, margins, size of the market they are trying to address, possible regulatory hurdles,...

What are oil shocks and how would such scenarios affect the Indian economy amidst the Russia-Ukraine crisis? BusinessLine's Richa Mishra tells us more.

The Vladimir Putin administration has decided to suspend exports of fertilizers. The announcement followed after Russian President Putin warned of “negative consequences” of the Western world’s sanctions. Listen in for further details. Read the full story here

Oil prices have been soaring and now the US says that they will ban oil imports from Russia. This development seem to be taking place at a time when the world is finally finding its footing after being immensely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Would the move obstruct the Indian economy's path to stability? BusinessLine's Amiti Sen explains.

All of us have been closely monitoring and engrossed in the developments with regard to the clash happening at Bharatpe, a fintech that has raised nearly $700 million in funding and was at the last round valued at a little over $2.85 billion.The company’s co-founder Ashneer Grover had resigned recently due to corporate governance issues. Bharatpe’s case is not unique, and there have been similar instances in the past. In fact, several founders do not want to take in external investors, even...

Similar to NSE disposing of its former CEO Chitra Ramkrishna’s devices as e-waste, Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited (MCX) is also likely to be questioned why it did not store laptops and data from personal computers of its former MD and CEO Mrugank Paranjape and the head of research V Shanmugam in the case related to alleged data leak in 2016. Palak Shah tells us more about the story.