In a relief for fund houses and brokerages, SEBI has revised mutual fund cost rules, which lower base expense ratios and recalibrate brokerage fee caps for funds. The main difference is that the Total Expense Ratio (TER) is replaced with the Base Expense Ratio (BER). Anishaa Kumar reports on how this move reduces the fees paid by mutual fund houses.
State Bank of India chairman CS Setty spoke exclusively to Hamsini Karthik, highlighting how the country's biggest bank is hoping to acquire incremental annual growth of 1%. Setty also spoke about SBI's exit from Yes Bank, problems with scaling further, and foreign banks competing with SBI.
India's share in global market cap hit a 29-month low in December. It's currently at 3.47%, a level last seen in July 2023, from an all-time high of 4.64% recorded at the end of July last year. Ravindra Sonavane writes that this is mainly because foreign investors continued to take money out of Indian markets.
L Catterton, which manages around $39 billion of equity capital across private equity, credit, and real estate, has become a minority partner in Haldiram's, writes Ashwin Mohan. The deal size and valuation were not disclosed. L Catterton becomes the fourth external investor in Haldiram's, after Temasek, Alpha Wave Global and UAE's IHC picked up a 15% stake earlier this year.
After negotiating for nearly two years, India and Oman signed a trade deal earlier today during PM Narendra Modi's visit to Muscat. To safeguard domestic interests, India has excluded sensitive sectors from tariff concessions in its trade deal with Oman, particularly dairy and key agricultural products. Adrija Chatterjee notes that this move is in line with New Delhi’s traditional stance, and reflects in trade deals signed with other countries as well.
With TCS in a trough on the stock markets for a while now, check out Madhuchanda Dey’s research piece on whether the company’s AI pivot can help the stock come out of its slumber.
With Trump Media, owned by US President Donald Trump, looking to invest over Rs1 lakh crore in Telangana government’s ambitious Future City project, Ashish Mishra and Shiladitya Pandit write on how this money will be spent across real estate, infrastructure, smart city systems, and media-technology development projects over the next decade.
And finally, Priyansh Verma reports on how the government's decision to rename the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to Viksit Bharat - Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission wasn’t just a cosmetic decision. The scheme significantly changes the way money was allocated to the states. Also read Vatsal Srivastava’s sharp take on why he thinks that MNREGA is not just being replaced, its underlying welfare philosophy itself is being overturned.
