A Mint analysis of 1,957 companies shows that individual investors (holding nominal share capital up to ₹ 2 lakhs) increased their ownership in approximately 51% of these companies between the September and December quarters. This compares with nearly 49% of stocks that saw a sequential rise in stakes in the previous two quarters. These 51%…
Like every year, even the FY26 Union Budget will be analysed more for what it has done for growth, fiscal consolidation, capex/infrastructure, agriculture/rural, employment/skill development, MSME, climate change/energy transition, and above all, measures to support lagging consumption demand. All the announcements made in the budget help the country as a whole and, in turn, states…
For a business journalist, Budget Day is nothing short of the World Cup final (ICC or FIFA, you decide). It is the D-day for which edit meetings are held months in advance. It’s the day for which editorial teams plan months in advance, crafting center spreads, fine-tuning graphics, and, come 11 AM on February 1st,…
The Centre has been the bulwark of investments over the past five fiscals, building out infrastructure to stoke and sustain long-term economic growth. After the Covid-19 pandemic, such investments have been the driver of overall capital formation. The Centre’s capex has risen continuously from 1.7% of gross domestic product (GDP) during fiscal 2016-2020 to 3.1%…
Consumption, particularly in urban markets, has been battered by high food inflation and low income growth in recent months, resulting in calls for the Reserve Bank of India to cut its policy rate to spur spending. The banking regulator in December maintained the repo rate at 6.5% for an 11th consecutive time. RBI’s monetary policy committee,…
Consumption, particularly in urban markets, has been battered by high food inflation and low income growth in recent months, resulting in calls for the Reserve Bank of India to cut its policy rate to spur spending. The banking regulator in December maintained the repo rate at 6.5% for an 11th consecutive time. RBI’s monetary policy committee,…
This year’s budget comes at a critical juncture when the bounce-back from the Covid-19 pandemic seems to have exhausted itself and the economy risks sliding into the low rates of growth witnessed right before the pandemic. Furthermore, as I’ve highlighted before and as mentioned in the Economic Survey, the pace of creation of regular wage…
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has followed a stable trajectory in all her Union Budgets since 2019. This year’s budget speech, though, was unusual in not mentioning allocations for specific Infrastructure sectors. The unsaid implication being – execute and implement existing projects in large sectors like highways and railways. Of the allocation to Infrastructure of an…
The Union budget presented on Saturday saw a 9.8% increase in the allocation for the healthcare sector to ₹99,858.56 crore from ₹90,958.68 crore in the previous financial year but overall health allocation remained below 2% of the budget. The share of health in the FY26 budget increased marginally to 1.97% from 1.9% in FY25 and…
The Economic Survey called agriculture the “sector of the future” and the FM echoed this sentiment in her budget speech, emphasizing garib, youth, annadata and nari. Despite this focus, key gaps remain. Firstly, there is a budget cut for agriculture ministry. Despite the rhetoric, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MOA) saw a ₹3,500…
