Author: Abizar Attari
News Editor

New Delhi: Power utility major Tata Power has selected Odisha to establish a greenfield solar ingot and wafer manufacturing plant with a planned investment of ₹6,600 crore. This is part of the company’s aim to integrate backward into the solar energy supply chain, allowing it to produce the raw materials for its cell and module manufacturing lines. The construction on the site is expected to begin soon, with the first phase to be set for commissioning by January 2028. For the Tata’s, choosing the plant location meant evaluating all the incentives and support the various state governments offered, and Odisha…

Mumbai: FMCG major Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) has reported its strongest quarter in more than a year, with its consolidated sales reaching ₹17,184 crore. This represents a 10% YoY underlying sales growth, with its net profit rising 9% YoY to ₹2,731 crore from ₹2,526 crore reported in the same quarter last year. The company’s operating EBITDA has also grown 8.5% YoY to ₹3,947 crores, from ₹3,640 crore last year, with the EBITDA margin holding steady at 22.76%. The home care segment has delivered the highest growth, with a 14% Underlying Sales Growth (USG) from disciplined market development and consumer-centric innovations.…

Chennai: Leading iron casting manufacturer Nelcast Limited reported a 58.9% year-on-year drop in net profit to ₹5.14 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, down from ₹12.50 crore in Q1 FY26.  The company has attributed this to a mismatch between rising input costs and sales realisations, with operational revenues increasing by just 2.77% to ₹341.05 crore. Along with that, the company’s EBITDA margins have also halved to 5.8% as a result, with raw material and operational cost increases impacting margins immensely. The cost of materials consumed has increased to 9.28% YoY to ₹154.05 crore. Though Nelcast did not face…

Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation as education minister represents a moral victory for the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) led protests against repeated exam paper leaks and an inept government that hasn’t worked to reform the education system. The protests mobilized popular support from the youth, funneled through the viral social media handles led by Abhijeet Dipke. ​ For the youth, social media represents a platform that offers a medium of venting out against the government and the status quo, while offering them a ray of hope for people looking to make a mark in the sector. Arab Spring ​ One of the…

Hyderabad: Zen Technologies Limited reported a 10.5% year on year decline in consolidated revenue to ₹141.64 crore in Q1FY27 from ₹158.22 crore during the same period last year. Net profits also declined to ₹ 34.46 crore from ₹47.75 crore during the same period. The defence major also recorded an inventory loss of ₹3.37 crore due to a fire incident at a company facility during the quarter.  Despite this, the company’s order book value has reached ₹1.239.02 crore, with ₹44.62 crores worth of orders bagged during the quarter. ₹85.25 crore from the total order book has come from overseas. The Hyderabad-based…

For Delhi-based Arata, building a personal care brand in a crowded market has meant fundamentally rethinking the way the market works, even as others continue to tread the familiar path.  “When we started Arata, the haircare market in India was built on two extremes: heritage Ayurvedic claims with no clinical backing, or mass FMCG products optimised for shelf life and margins, not results. We built Arata on the belief that hair and scalp care deserved the same rigour as skincare, ingredients that were tested, dosed correctly, and backed by actual research, not marketing language borrowed from a grandmother’s remedy,” Dhruv…

Mumbai: India’s leading hospital chain Manipal Health Enterprises is all set to raise about $960 million through its upcoming IPO, with shares priced between ₹560-590. According to widely published reports, this IPO will be a combination of an offer for sale (OFS) by existing promoters and investors and a fresh issue, though there is no mention of the exact proportions. For the corporate hospital chain, a big chunk of the money raised will go towards paying back acquisition-related debt, after the company spent ₹6,400 crore to acquire Maharashtra-based Sahyadri Hospitals last year, besides its ₹2,400 crore acquisition of Kolkata-based AMRI…

Bhubaneshwar: After Andhra Pradesh’s Vizag grabbed headlines with its data center investments, its Odisha’s turn now. HCLTech, along with AI startup Sarvam AI has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government of Odisha to set up a $1.48 billion data center in Bhubaneswar. This project will be built in the upcoming Odisha Sovereign AI park and includes financial support from the state government. Along with this, the IT behemoth is also opening a 5,000-seat technology center in the state, expected to open by 2028. This will be the first data center being set up by HCLTech, with the…

Bengaluru: India’s second largest IT service provider, Infosys Limited, has reported a 12.2% year on year increase in consolidated net profit to ₹7,769 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2026. Despite this, the company has trimmed its growth guidance to 1.5% -3% of revenues, from its earlier 1.5%-3.5% of revenues. According to the company, subdued discretionary spending by clients and persistent macroeconomic challenges could slow growth, forcing the company to lower its growth targets.  Causes of concern  While the company’s financials remain strong, with its operational revenues rising 14% year on year to ₹48,211 crore, the operating margins…

Alphabet Inc. has reported its first negative cash flow since listing on public bourses in 2004, as the company has been spending like there is no tomorrow to build its Artificial Intelligence infrastructure. According to regulatory disclosures filed with the SEC, the technology giant generated a negative free cash flow of -$5.9 billion for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026. The cash burn came at a time when its quarterly purchases of property and equipment doubled year-on-year to $44.9 billion. Following the disclosures, Alphabet shares fell over 4% in after-hours trading as investors weighed record capex against operational margins.…