Author: Abizar Attari
News Editor

Mumbai: India’s largest cement manufacturer is now the world’s largest outside China following the commissioning of three new grinding units. In a press release, UltraTech Cement has announced the commissioning of three new grinding units at Shahjahanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Patratu (Jharkhand), and Vizag (Andhra Pradesh) boosting supplies pan-India. Following this, UltraTech’s capacity now stands at 200.1 MTPA with its consolidated global capacity at 205.5 MTPA, including its operations in the UAE, Bahrain, and Sri Lanka. It has taken 36 years for UltraTech to reach 100+ MTPA while the next 100 MTPA took less than seven years.  “Over a decade ago,…

The appraisal season is in its last leg, with many now grumbling, cheering, or protesting the increments they’ve received. In November 2025, the government solved a major bureaucratic hurdle facing employers- the complex web of compliance that included 29 colonial-era labour laws and other state laws complicating matters. In the absence of a uniform definition of the basic pay component, organizations started to compress it in the salary structures, often to as low as 20-30% of the total Cost to Company (CTC), while inflating the allowances and reimbursements given.   All of that changed in November 2025, when the central government…

Westlake, US: Charles Schwab Corporation, one of the leading US-based investment advisory firms, has announced its entry into the spot cryptocurrency market with its Schwab Crypto™ trading service. Through a phased launch, this service will allow its 39 million brokerage account holders to buy and sell Bitcoin and Ethereum directly.  This comes at a time when most investment advisory firms have joined the cryptocurrency bandwagon, with all of them managing upwards of $200 billion in crypto assets through ETFs and direct holdings. Charles Schwab currently holds about $12 trillion in client assets, even though it has been relatively late to…

New Delhi: With the US-Iran war continuing to block oil shipments from the Middle East, India has moved ahead to fast track the long delayed plan for a massive underground crude oil storage facility in Odisha. The project, which was buried in red tape for nearly seven years due to administrative hurdles, is now being treated as a matter of national security. A ₹8,743 Crore Fortress for Crude The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) at Chandikhol will become the world’s largest underground crude oil storage reserve. The project will cost ₹ 8,743 crores and have the capacity to hold 4 million…

Bengaluru: Wipro Ltd has declared a mixed bag of financial results for Q4 FY26, with the Bengaluru-based IT giant reporting a 8.6% year on year (YoY) decline in consolidated net profit to ₹3,502 crore. The company’s revenues have remained flat for the year, falling 0.32% year on year to $10.48 billion.  Despite this, the company has made an announcement of a ₹15,000 crore share buyback, repurchasing 600 million shares at a 19% premium, with even the promoters and promoter groups reportedly participating in the issue.  The company’s operating margins remained under pressure reaching 16.2%. The management has cited the transition…

New Delhi: The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has further boosted its transparency and eased its bureaucratic systems by addressing regular challenges that plagued the system. Many employees who had multiple accounts along with incorrect or duplicate Provident Fund (PF) accounts can now solve the anomaly themselves through the improved EPFO portal.  Previously, employees were forced to take leave to visit the nearest EPFO Regional Office to get their PF accounts in line, a nightmare situation for millions. Now, you can place your request to remove or delink incorrect or duplicate Member IDs (MIDs) from their Universal Account Numbers (UANs)…

New Delhi: India’s exports for the Financial Year 2025-26 have reached $860 billion despite geopolitical challenges including the US tariffs and the Middle East war, data shared by the goverment showed. The export growth represents a 4.22% growth over the previous year, though this isn’t a cause of celebration as imports have grown to $979.4 billion from $919.92 billion last year. As a result, the trade deficit has widened to $119.9 billion, driven by a surge in essential imports-including energy and electronics- outpaced the gains in outbound shipments.  Services: The Resiliant Trump Card India’s service sector continues to be the…

New Delhi: India’s dream of becoming the world’s fourth-largest economy has been delayed as the depreciating Rupee and a revision in the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) calculations have downgraded India back to Number 6.  This development has dampened the government’s ambition of trying to secure the third spot by 2027, hoping to get there through structural reforms and investments in infrastructure and skill development.  But the depreciating Rupee has been both a curse and boon, as it has made our exports more competitive even through it has shrunk the total value of the economy. Besides that, the IMF has revised…

New Delhi: The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz hasn’t just affected energy imports, it could threaten our food supplies as well. With the conflict between the US and Iran showing no signs of a truce, the goverment has been put in a bind as urea demand is expected to skyrocket for the impending Kharif sowing season. Unreasonable price rises Just two months ago, global urea prices hovered around the $500 per tonne mark, even as the government started procurement well ahead of the sowing season. Due to the US-Iran war, quotes have reached upwards of $950, putting the government…

New Delhi: India’s fourth-largest IT firm, Wipro Ltd, is seeking to aggressively arrest an almost three-year streak of underwhelming revenue growth through acquisitions. The Bengaluru-based company has announced a deal to acquire select contracts from California-based Alpha Net Group for up to $71 million. This move is seen as a tactical acquisition designed to boost the company’s consulting business, especially with the high-growth cloud transformation technologies enhanced with AI. Acquiring reach, expertise  These contracts had earlier fetched Apha Net $37.7 million in revenue in 2024, where it offered software development, data engineering, and managed services. “The business acquisition will enable…