A month into the war with Iran, the strain on India’s financial markets is building. Archishma Iyer reports that the rupee’s brief rebound after the Reserve Bank of India capped banks’ forex positions quickly faded, slipping to a record low vis-a-vis the US dollar - past Rs 95 - as pressures from soaring oil prices, capital outflows and aggressive hedging resurfaced. The episode shows how constrained the RBI’s room for manoeuvre has become. However, the strain wasn’t confined to the currency markets. Equities cracked too. J. Jagannath reports that the Sensex fell more than 2% amid crude surging above $114, a weakening rupee, and heavy selling in banks after RBI proposed curbs on their forex positions, reports J Jagannath. Alongside, India’s market capitalisation has logged its steepest decline in three years, with the country’s share of global market cap slipping below 3% for the first time in four years, reports Ravindra Sonavane.
A battle for the assets of an insolvent company has reached the top court. Pavan Burugula reports that Vedanta has approached the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the Adani Group’s resolution plan for Jaypee Group's assets, after the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal declined to intervene. Vedanta claims its bid offered superior value and that the committee of creditors erred in backing Adani’s proposal.
One company in the Tata group is doing all the heavy lifting. Dividends of about Rs 1.7 lakh crore from Tata Consultancy Services since FY20 have helped Tata Sons absorb mounting losses at Air India and fund cash burn at Tata Digital, reports Pavan Burugula. Since FY20, Tata Sons has received an average of Rs 30,000 crore annually in dividends from TCS, along with Rs 40,000 crore through buybacks.
Digital regulations are tightening. Aihik Sur reports that the government’s draft amendments to the IT Rules, released on Monday, could bring user-generated news content under publisher-style oversight. While users themselves won’t be treated as publishers, platforms such as Facebook and Instagram may now have to comply with government directions on such content, including takedowns, warnings, or disclaimers.
The effects of the Iran war continue to impact the economy and companies. Arunima Bharadwaj reports that at least 10 foreign-flagged energy cargoes bound for India, carrying LPG, crude, and LNG, remain stranded in the Persian Gulf, even as Indian-flagged vessels are being allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, the gas find in the Andaman basin offers longer-term promise, though commercial output may still be years away. The risks are not limited to energy. Danish Khan reports that India is preparing contingency plans as the conflict threatens subsea cable infrastructure, while Swaraj Baggaonkar writes that soaring airfares are already reshaping summer travel plans, pushing many Indians to reconsider or reroute their holidays. Economists, meanwhile, have cut their growth estimates for FY27 by 20-60 basis points, writes Priyansh Verma.
In a conversation with Meghna Mittal, Rakesh Mohan, a part-time member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, said the Iran-linked energy shock will require a coordinated, full-spectrum policy response, spanning fiscal, monetary, and administrative measures. He expects financial stress in India’s aviation sector to worsen as rising fuel costs and route disruptions linked to the West Asia crisis begin to bite.
And finally, amid the noise around growth narratives, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla weighs in on what matters. He told Tushar Goenka and Bhavya Dilipkumar that while new-age AI startups use varied ways to report growth, what ultimately matters is the underlying cash flows. Khosla's comments come as vibe coding startup Emergent, which raised around $30 million from Khosla Ventures, has found itself at the centre of a debate over how AI companies should report revenue.
