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ET MarketsSmart InvestingET PanacheSports World PlayAround the World
ET MarketsSmart InvestingET PanacheSports World PlayAround the World
ET MarketsSmart InvestingET PanacheSports World PlayAround the World

1Front Page

India continues to weigh its options, including military action, even as it took several steps to downgrade diplomatic ties with Pakistan after the deadliest attack on civilians in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Paints is competing with a consortium of Advent International and Indigo Paints to acquire Akzo Nobel India, the owner of Dulux Paints, from its Dutch parent Akzo Nobel NV, which is looking to exit India as part of a global restructuring, multiple people aware of the developments told ET.

India’s top advisory board on drugs is considering a plan to rein in the sale of commonly used over-the-counter (OTC) medications to prevent misuse and ensure patient safety, said people with knowledge of the matter.
The income tax department has sent notices to many startup funders and promoters, seeking details of certain investments and tax returns for three years preceding the year in which the money was infused.
BluSmart Mobility’s board has decided to conduct a forensic audit of the cash-strapped all-electric cab service provider’s accounts following whistle-blower complaints of possible financial fraud and mismanagement, people in the know said.
Young, aspiring Indians are increasingly taking to premium electric vehicles, with substantial sales to first-time buyers. This marks a rare bright spot for the domestic auto industry where mainstream EV makers are scaling back sales targets amid sluggish demand.

2Pure Politics

The targeted killing of 28 innocent tourists by four suspected Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists at Pahalgam in J&K is bound to cause a dark shadow over regional peace and stability.

Several people, including an IAF Corporal from Arunachal Pradesh and three individuals from West Bengal, were killed in a terror attack in Pahalgam’s Baisaran valley.

As many as 60 foreign terrorists are currently active in Jammu and Kashmir, with local recruitment said to be around 20, as per a recent assessment of the security agencies.
A combination of factors is being examined on the timing of the attack, including the recent extradition of 26/11 attack plotter Tahawwur Hussain Rana. In this regard, the security at NIA headquarters here has been beefed up.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said he has convened an all-party meeting to discuss the fallout of the Pahalgam attack.
Two terrorists were killed as an infiltration attempt was foiled by Army along LoC in Baramulla district, officials said. Army said the infiltration bid was foiled in Uri Nala of the district.
The Chinese response to the Pahalgam terror attack has been strange, with Beijing condemning terrorism but unlike several countries it refrained from describing it as a terrorist attack.
While extending full support to BJP government at the Centre, the Congress has called a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision maing body of the party, on Thursday morning.
“This is not a terror act. It is a premeditated massacre. The terrorists asked the victims their religion before opening fire –– a demonic inhumane act that must not go unanswered,” BJP national general secretary and party in-charge of J&K, Tarun Chugh told ET.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed its “deep anguish” and condemned the “cowardly” terrorist attack on tourists in Pahalgam. A resolution passed by the full court said: “This diabolical act of mindless violence has shaken the conscience of all and is a stark reminder of the brutality and inhumanity that terrorism unleashes.”
Extensive search and combing operations continued on Wednesday in the forest area of Baisaran Valley in Pahalgam, with authorities releasing sketches of at least three terrorists involved in the attack on tourists at the popular spot.
By encouraging the Pahalgam attack, Pakistan may have tried to internationalise the Kashmir issue yet again, coinciding with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Saudi Arabia trip and US Vice President JD Vance’s India visit with an aim to hyphenate India-Pakistan.
Union home minister Amit Shah visited Pahalgam’s Baisaran Valley in southern Kashmir on Wednesday, where he interacted with the officials of Army, police, CRPF and other investigating agencies to chalk out a future strategy in the aftermath of the terror attack.
The Centre has called an all-party meeting on Thursday in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will chair the session, while Union Home Minister Amit Shah — who returned from Kashmir on Wednesday — is expected to brief Opposition leaders on the security situation and the government’s response.

3Pure Politics & Economy

Pakistan’s military leadership probably believes that another conflict with India could destroy the Pakistani military, if not the entire state, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said in a secret report in 1993, which has recently been declassified.

India’s economic growth is expected to slow down to 6.3% in the current financial year from the projected 6.5% growth in FY25 due to global economic uncertainty, the World Bank said in a report, adding that the country needs to step up domestic revenue mobilisation to increase resilience against future shocks.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed its “shock” and disapproval of the swift reinstatement of Senthil Balaji as a minister in the Tamil Nadu government immediately after he was granted bail in a money-laundering case related to a recruitment scandal.
Formal job creation could hit a record high in 2024-25, suggesting robust hiring amid strong economic growth in the country.
The World Bank on Wednesday added four top executives, including Bayer AG CEO Bill Anderson and Hyatt Hotels CEO Mark Hoplamazian, to an initiative working to address barriers to private sector investment in developing countries.

4The Edit Page

A small cluster associated with India’s security grid has at some point heard a story about how an Indian PM was taken by R&AW to one of its facilities on the outskirts of Delhi.

Saudi Arabia is once again eyeing investments in India’s refining sector, drawn by the country’s growing oil demand and expanding refining capacity, both rare globally amid a shifting energy landscape.

The yellow metal struck gold as prices pierced the ₹1 lakh per 10 gm barrier on Tuesday, climbing over 25% in 2025 on unprecedented global economic uncertainty.
The heinous attack on civilians in Pahalgam’s Baisaran Valley in J&K’s Anantnag district on Tuesday comes at a time that makes its intent clear: to elicit a hyperventilated ‘overkill’ response from New Delhi.
Nitin Gadkari reminds us of the baroque masters with his fondness for polyphony — musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody.
Having launched an airstrike into Pakistan-controlled territory after the bomb blast that killed 44 CRPF jawans a few weeks before the 2019 general elections, the Modi government seems hoist on the petard it raised then.
Coda isn’t your regular sugar- laden sweet spot. It’s a 2-Michelin-starred rebellion against everything you think   you know about dessert.
​Islam is a religion wholly based on the principles of peace and tolerance. Violent activism is unlawful in Islam. Under no circumstances are Muslims allowed to adopt violent methods to achieve their goals.

5Companies: Pursuit of Profit

The time is ripe for India’s “UPI moment” in artificial intelligence, and a comprehensive AI stack built as a digital public infrastructure (DPI) will help take AI to the masses, industry leaders and policymakers said.

Saudi Arabia will team up with Indian companies to establish two refineries in the country, marking a renewed effort by the kingdom to secure a future for its oil after two previous setbacks in its attempts to gain a foothold in India’s refining sector.

The satcom industry has urged the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to speed up provisional allotment of satellite spectrum, a move that will allow Bharti Group-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and the Reliance Jio-SES combine—which have government clearance—to introduce satellite internet commercially in India.
The government has allowed imports of air-conditioner compressors of up to two tonnes from China without the mandatory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification of Chinese factories for one year, the commerce and industry ministry informed manufacturers on Tuesday through a gazette order.
Samsung has enquired if the firm can get an additional year for getting incentives under the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for smartphones, officials aware of the matter told ET.

6Brands & Companies

Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL) has received a ₹12,800-crore order from Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) to construct two 700 Megawatt (MW) nuclear reactors—Kaiga Units 5 & 6—in Karnataka.

India Inc strongly condemned the dastardly terrorist attack on tourists and civilians in Pahalgam, Kashmir, saying it would threaten peace and prosperity in the entire region.

Travel companies and hotels in Kashmir are staring at a wave of cancellations following the Pahalgam terror attack.
Airlines are mounting additional flights besides waiving off ticket cancellation and rescheduling fees, with the government also asking them to keep airfares moderate to handle the exodus of tourists from Kashmir after Tuesday’s deadly terror attack.
The direct hit from tariffs introduced by Donald Trump’s administration on India could shave off between 0.2-0.5 percentage points from GDP growth, finance secretary Ajay Seth said on Wednesday.
It’s been a while since this tony pocket of Gurugram—home to some of India’s most powerful business names—quietly morphed into a deal playground for the freshly funded.
Leading consumer goods companies supplying essentials such as milk, water, biscuits, soap, and rice have issued advisories to their sales teams across Kashmir to scale back daily market visits amid a slump in demand after Tuesday’s terror attack in Pahalgam.
The scramble for marquee audit mandates has begun as India Inc enters the final stretch of the 10-year mandatory rotation cycle introduced under the Companies Act in 2017-18, with several companies beginning discussions to onboard new auditors for the next decade.

7Economy: Macro, Micro & More

Purchase of luxury handbags, wrist watches, footwear and sportswear, priced above ₹10 lakh, will now attract 1% tax collected at source (TCS).

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) will review the FY24 financial statements and statutory audit reports of Gensol Engineering and its related party BluSmart Mobility amid allegations of fraud, ICAI president Charanjot Singh Nanda told ET.

India’s private sector activity surged to an eight-month high of 60 in April, driven by a sharp increase in new export orders, according to a private survey released Wednesday.

8Disruption: Startups & Tech

Rakesh Ranjan, chief executive of food delivery at Eternal—Zomato’s parent entity—is stepping down, people aware of the development told ET.

Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI and three other artificial intelligence (AI) firms, including Soket AI Labs, Gnani.ai and Gan.ai, could be among the first cohort of companies to be selected by the ministry of IT (MeitY) to receive incentives for building frontier AI models under the ₹10,000-crore IndiaAI Mission, sources said.

LTIMindtree, the L&T Group’s software services arm, on Wednesday posted muted profit growth in the January-March quarter, a period when the Indian IT industry has flagged the impact of the US-triggered tariff war on client spending and warned of continued uncertainties.
Promoters and early investors in Ather Energy are set to make significant gains as the electric two-wheeler maker gears up for its initial public offering (IPO) later this month.
As the Donald Trump administration slashes billions of dollars of federal funding for US universities, Indian edtech platforms—especially those in the higher education and study abroad segments—are evaluating how these could help shore up their businesses, founders and executives told ET.
Despite the uncertain environment, IT services companies may need to step up hiring in the long term to protect against talent drain to global capability centres (GCCs), said experts.
Concerned over the misuse of commonly available medicine Pregabalin, the government is considering restricting the sales of painkiller on a prescription from a registered medical practitioner.
PixelSky Capital, a secondaries fund founded by Bengaluru-based investment bank IndigoEdge and entrepreneur Hitesh Ahuja, has launched its first investment vehicle with a target corpus of ₹400 crore to back late-stage tech and consumer companies, people in the know said.

9ET Markets

Information technology (IT) stocks were the biggest gainers in Wednesday’s trading, after HCL Technologies’ stronger-than-expected earnings outlook prompted traders to cover some of their bearish bets that were initiated after earnings announcements of its larger peers ––TCS and Infosys.

US stocks gained Wednesday as a worldwide rally comes back around to Wall Street after President Donald Trump appeared to back off his criticism of the Federal Reserve and his tough talk in his trade war.

Oil prices fell almost 2% on Wednesday as sources said OPEC+ would consider accelerating its oil output increases in June, but losses were curbed following a report that U.S. President Donald Trump may cut tariffs on Chinese imports.
HCL Technologies, the country’s third-largest IT exporter, has projected a more optimistic view of the expected growth in the current fiscal year (FY26) compared with peers.
A reduction in policy rates would bolster private consumption and support a revival in corporate investments as tariffs pose risks to global growth, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra was cited as saying in the minutes of the latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) review that had recommended the second rate cut in as many months.
India’s equity indices rose 0.7% on Wednesday — extending gains to the seventh straight trading session with the Sensex closing above 80,000 for the first time since December, driven by gains in Information Technology (IT) stocks.

10Smart Investing

Bajaj Finance board of directors will consider a special interim dividend, a stock split, and a bonus share issue at its upcoming meeting on April 29, 2025.

Longer tenure government bonds maturing in 35 to 40 years have been in demand in the past three sessions as yields on these instruments, mirroring those on shorter time periods, are expected to fall more than 10 basis points, market participants said.

Hero FinCorp (HFCL), the lending arm of two-wheeler giant Hero MotoCorp, is looking to raise $200 million through a syndicated loan and has mandated DBS Bank to lead the deal, according to people familiar with the matter.
Bajaj Housing Finance on Wednesday reported a 54% year-on-year rise in net profit at ₹587 crore in Q4, FY25, backed by steady business growth and healthy asset quality.
The Indian rupee weakened 24 paisa on Wednesday, its worst fall in two weeks, to close at ₹85.42 per dollar as the currency failed to strengthen past the ₹85/$1 mark, leading to an unwinding of bets in favour of the local unit, dealers said.
Pharma companies are expected to stand out in the March 2025 quarter, offering stability amid broader earnings weakness. According to the average of estimates from 4 brokerages, Sun Pharmaceutical, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, and Lupin are set to report healthy growth, driven by strong US portfolios and steady India performance.
The chief executive of BSE, Sundararaman Ramamurthy, has pitched for a level playing field in the stock exchange business.

11ET Panache

Rizwan Sajan is the founder and chairman of Danube Group. Established in 1993 in Dubai, Danube Group is one of the biggest conglomerates in the Middle East.

Paloma Picasso has helped organise a show featuring her father’s best works, some of which have never been seen by the public.

A court in Thail and convicted two former prosecutors for misconduct in connection with a high-profile hit-and-run case involving the fugitive heir to the Red Bull energy drink empire.

12Sports World Play

Rohit Sharma scored his second successive half-century and shared a 53-run partnership with Suryakumar Yadav (40 not out) as Mumbai Indians thrashed Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets to register their fourth consecutive win in the IPL, here on Wednesday.

Former Lucknow captain’s half century against his ex-side had a subtle message—telling them what they were missing

Formula 1’s governing body says it has approved General Motors’ plans to supply engines for the new Cadillac team from 2029. The FIA’s approval on Wednesday comes after GM’s Cadillac brand got the final signoff to join the F1 grid next year as the 11th team.
According to Sport, Saudi Pro League powerhouse Al-Hilal have made an audacious approach to sign Barcelona’s in-form winger Raphinha, with a stunning transfer bid of €100 million (£86m/$114m) and a four-year contract worth $200m (£150m) on the table.

13Around the World

Noah Kaufman is Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. Speaking to Srijana Mitra Das, he discusses America’s new ecological aims:

Thousands of people filed through the central aisle of St. Peter’s Basilica to pay their final respects to Pope Francis on Wednesday, the start of three days of public viewing ahead of the pontiff's funeral.

The EU on Wednesday slapped Apple and Meta with ₹700 million in fines for breaking digital competition rules. The penalties threaten to cause more tension in the already fraught relationship between the European Union and the United States, as the two discuss a deal to avoid sweeping tariffs on the bloc.
US President Donald Trump said he plans to be “very nice” to China in any trade talks and that tariffs will drop if the two countries can reach a deal, a sign he may be backing down from his tough stance on Beijing amid market volatility.
U.S., Ukrainian and European officials held "substantive" meetings in London on Wednesday to try to revive peace talks after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio cancelled his trip, raising questions over how much progress was being made.
Elon Musk vowed Tuesday to pull back “significantly” from his work with the US government and pay more mind to Tesla Inc, assuaging investors concerned about the carmaker’s worst quarter in years.
Talks continue between the U.S. and China on tackling the fentanyl epidemic amid the bitter trade war between the world’s two largest economies, four U.S. officials familiar with the discussions told Reuters, even as American negotiators claim the Chinese are failing to negotiate in good faith.
An overnight Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City killed 23 people, as Arab mediators worked on a proposal to end the war with Hamas that would include a five to seven year truce and the release of all remaining hostages, officials said Wednesday.
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