From a delayed monsoon straining water supplies in Mumbai and Pune, to States competing for a space-tech investment, a rethink on Tamil Nadu’s second airport, and fresh risk warnings from the NSE ahead of its IPO—here are the key developments across weather, policy and markets.

Get today’s top business news, market headlines about the Stock Market, Sensex & Nifty trends, key market insights, economic highlights, and the latest updates from India and global markets.

From the government’s Telegram curbs and the legal challenge around them, to a revival in IPO markets, and a record surge in defence production—here are the key developments across policy, markets and defence.

Stay updated with today’s key India and global economic developments. This update covers India-US trade talks at the G7 summit, BigBasket’s leadership change amid rising quick commerce competition, and government action on Telegram to curb NEET-UG exam fraud.

It also highlights Tamil Nadu’s fiscal stress, with rising debt, widening deficits and pressure on State finances flagged in a new white paper.

Tune in for quick, clear insights on geopolitics, business, policy action, and State finances shaping India’s economic outlook.

Stay updated with today’s key global and India economic developments. This update covers a potential US–Iran peace deal that could ease oil supply concerns, India’s export growth alongside a widening trade deficit, and fresh policy measures to attract foreign capital.It also tracks the launch of Noida International Airport in the NCR as part of a broader infrastructure push.

Tune in for concise insights on geopolitics, trade, policy, and infrastructure shaping the economic outlook.

As India and the United States race to conclude the first phase of their bilateral trade agreement, critical questions remain over tariffs, market access, agriculture and India's bargaining leverage. In this episode, BusinessLine's Amiti Sen speaks with Prof Abhijit Das, an independent trade policy expert, on whether the proposed deal is truly "fair and balanced" or tilted in Washington's favour.

Prof Das argues that India could be lowering its WTO-compliant tariffs while the US retains higher duties through alternative mechanisms such as Section 301 investigations. He also raises concerns about the impact on Indian agriculture, manufacturing and long-term policy autonomy, while questioning claims that the agreement would automatically boost investments or strengthen the rupee.

On the uncertainty surrounding US trade policy, Das delivers a stark assessment: "In a Trumpian era, there is no certainty, no guarantee that the US will comply with its side of a deal." He adds that even if protective clauses are built into an agreement, there is no assurance that future tariff actions will not emerge under different pretexts.

The conversation also explores the legality of Section 301 tariffs under WTO rules, India's options if negotiations falter, and whether New Delhi should have adopted a tougher stance to strengthen its hand at the negotiating table.

(Host: Amiti Sen; Producer: Siddharth MC)

Get today’s top business news, market headlines about the Stock Market, Sensex & Nifty trends, key market insights, economic highlights, and the latest updates from India and global markets.

US blockade strikes third ship with Indian crew

An Indian crew-manned, Guinea-Bissau-flagged asphalt tanker, MV Jalveer, was attacked by the American military off the coast of Oman. This is the third ship with an Indian crew to be targeted in the last four days. While there were no casualties on Thursday, an earlier attack killed three Indian seafarers.

The government said it has strongly taken up the matter with the US. This is the first public acknowledgement of the US Navy targeting ships with Indian crew.

A Palau-flagged oil tanker, Marivex, carrying 24 Indian seafarers, was disabled by US forces on June 8. All crew members were safely rescued. On June 10, the US struck another Palau-flagged tanker, Settebello, killing three of the 24 Indian sailors on board. Following the attack on Wednesday, the External Affairs Ministry (MEA) summoned US Charge d’Affaires Jason Meeks and handed him a demarche, or diplomatic note of protest.

75 IPOs unlock $31 billion worth of shares by Sept-end

Shareholder lock-ins in 75 recently listed companies are set to expire between June and September, opening a fresh window for private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investors to monetise holdings through block deals, with exits expected to be staggered amid volatile market conditions.

Data compiled by Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research show shares worth about $31 billion becoming eligible for trading by September 28. The lock-ins for Meesho expired this week, opening up 3,083 million shares, equivalent to 68 per cent of its outstanding equity. Aequs’s lock-in expiry opened 146 million shares on Tuesday.

Next week, 923 million shares of Vishal Mega Mart and 344 million shares of ICICI Pru AMC become eligible to trade. Other unlocks for June include Wakefit Innovations, Corona Remedies, Nephrocare Health Services, Oswal Pumps and Sai Life Sciences.

These expiries come at a time when volatility in equity markets has slowed the pace of fresh listings, making secondary transactions a key exit route for pre-IPO investors. While half of these companies are still trading at a premium, almost all are in the red from their highs since listing.

Petrol blended with 22-30% ethanol exempted from central excise

Petrol with ethanol blending between 22-30 per cent will be exempted from Central Excise Duty. Finance Ministry has issued multiple notifications for that. However, Oil Ministry said that roll out of higher blends will only be done after extensive testing and consultation.

As on date, petrol with blending up to 10 per cent is exempted from Central Excise Duty. For unbranded petrol, Central Excise Duty is ₹11.90 per litre, while for branded it is ₹13.10 per litre. The price of petrol (including ethanol blended petrol) has been market determined with effect from June 26, 2010. Since then, oil marketing companies (OMCs) take appropriate decisions on pricing of petrol based on, inter alia, international product prices and domestic market conditions.

According to a notification, there will be NIL duty for 22 per cent ethanol blended petrol consisting, by volume, of 78 per cent motor spirit, (commonly known as petrol), on which the appropriate duties of excise have been paid and of 22 per cent ethanol on which the appropriate Central tax, State tax, Union territory tax or Integrated tax, have been paid. It should conform to the Bureau of Indian Standards specification Similar provision will be made for 25 per cent, 27 per cent and 30 per cent ethanol blended petrol.

Automakers move to cut prices on British-built luxury cars ahead of India-UK FTA implementation

Luxury automakers are beginning to pre-empt the proposed India-UK free trade agreement by slashing prices on British-built imported cars, creating expected customer savings ranging from about ₹8 lakh on the MINI Cooper S to ₹75 lakh on the Range Rover SV, and as much as ₹3.32 crore on the McLaren 750S Spider as companies move early to capture demand ahead of a formal treaty implementation.

For brands such as Bentley, Aston Martin and Rolls-Royce, the agreement could potentially trigger price reductions ranging from ₹1 crore to more than ₹3 crore depending on engine size and model specifications.

But the proposed pact is also creating an unusual inversion in India’s premium automobile market: while some of the country’s most expensive petrol-powered supercars and luxury SUVs are suddenly becoming dramatically cheaper, premium electric vehicles and hybrids remain excluded from the benefits and will continue attracting steep import duties for years.

(Research and VO: Siddharth Mathew Cherian)

MF equity inflows fall 40% m-o-m to one year low amid uncertainty

Volatility in equity markets and concerns over economic growth dampened inflows into mutual fund schemes, including SIPs, in May.

Equity inflows fell to a one-year low, dropping 40 per cent month-on-month (m-o-m) to ₹22,908 crore in May from ₹38,440 crore in April, as investor sentiment was hit by a market downturn driven by persistent foreign portfolio outflows and heightened volatility, according to AMFI data released on Wednesday.

Hybrid schemes inflow nearly halved m-o-m to ₹10,560 crore ( ₹20,565 crore), while debt funds registered an outflow of ₹96,949 crore as against an inflow of ₹2.47 lakh crore in May.

Meta and Reliance Industries partner to develop 168 MW, AI-enabled data centre in Gujarat

Meta Inc is set to have its own 168-MW capacity AI-enabled data centre in Jamnagar set up by Reliance Industries in India within two years.

The new data centre, separate from the 1 GW data centre announced by Reliance in 2025, will act as part of Meta’s global infrastructure, supporting its core business and AI compute needs. As the first built-to-suit data centre capacity in India for Meta, the project underlines India’s emergence as a global hub for AI infrastructure.

Meta will lease capacity from the facility, expanding the company’s global infrastructure, supporting its core business and AI compute needs while Reliance Industries will provide end-to-end services for the data centre lifecycle.

Starlink licensing in India stuck amidst geopolitical strains

Industry experts estimate geopolitical developments to have soured Starlink’s chances of getting licensing approvals in India, even as the company rubbishes “unsubstantiated claims” of a regulatory freeze.

Following news reports that the Indian government had frozen approvals for Starlink’s commercial operations, Lauren Dreyer, Vice President of Company Business Operations stated on X, “Starlink remains in active and productive discussions with the Government of India contrary to misleading stories based upon unsubstantiated claims from anonymous sources.”

However, industry stakeholders speaking to businessline said Starlink’s approval procedure which was considered smooth-sailing until last year has hit a rut in terms of security checks. Many attributed this to the geopolitical developments, particularly in terms of the India-US relations.

Zoho launches hardware play with designed-in-India server Nathu La

Eyeing tech sovereignty in the data hardware space and in a step to build the full enterprise technology stack, Zoho has launched its indigenously designed server Nathu La.

Zoho says with Nathu La it has achieved equivalent performance, with 12-18 per cent lower power consumption and 20-30 per cent lower total cost of ownership (TCO). In Zoho’s marquee style, the R&D work for the server platform was entirely done out of Nagpur by local talent recruited and trained by the company. The centre was set up in 2020 with an eye to play the long game in enterprise hardware.

The Nathu La server motherboard and chassis platform is the result of over five years of R&D across hardware, firmware, and systems management. Based on Intel® Xeon® 6 Processors, the server is designed to optimise performance for virtualisation (VM), High Performance Computing (HPC), AI inference, and storage applications.

(Research and VO: Siddharth Mathew Cherian)

1. Government forgoes over ₹1.23 lakh crore during 78-day fuel price freeze

The government provided nearly ₹1.23 lakh crore in support to state-run oil marketing companies to freeze fuel prices for 78 days following the West Asia crisis, top officials said on Tuesday. Concurrently, the Fertiliser Ministry has sought a near-100 per cent increase in subsidy support over its budgeted outlay, that amounts to an additional allocation of approximately ₹3.4 lakh crore.

The substantial fiscal cushion provided to the energy sector underscores the intensity of the external shocks hitting India’s import bills.

“Oil Marketing Companies are still incurring ₹650 crore per day loss for selling fuel at lower rate than the prevailing global crude prices,” said a senior official. The financial cushion was necessary even though oil marketing companies raised retail petrol and diesel prices four times since May 15, totalling a hike of ₹7.50–₹8 per litre. Previously, the government had reduced excise duty on both fuels by ₹10 a litre on March 27.

2. TCS signals hiring slowdown; AI agents to match human workforce

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will have as many AI agents and workers as its human workforce within the next three years, Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran said on Monday, underscoring the company’s growing focus on artificial intelligence as a key driver of future growth.

Speaking at TCS’ 31st Annual General Meeting, Chandrasekaran said, “I predict that over the next three years, TCS will have as many AI agents as human employees.”

Highlighting the scale of AI adoption within the company, he added, “The day is not very far when TCS will have equal number of AI agents or AI workers as their physical workers.” Chandrasekaran noted that TCS is already investing extensively in AI agents across internal operations, solution frameworks and external operations as part of its broader strategy to capitalise on the rapid evolution of enterprise AI.

3. Telcos oppose separate authorisation for V2V, V2X communications

Telecom operators, including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have opposed the separate service authorisation for Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) or vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, particularly where such communication could be enabled through existing licensed telecom networks (through cellular networks or through localised road-side infrastructure deployed for intelligent transport and road-safety applications).

In a submission to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the telcos said that the regulatory framework for spectrum assignment for V2I/C-V2X services should be based on licensed, interference-protected and IMT-integrated use of the 5.9 GHz band, rather than a fragmented or licence-exempt model.

4. Zepto co-founders questioned by ED in FEMA case

Zepto co-founders Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra have been questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in April in a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) case, with investigators examining their overseas investments, audited financial statements, shareholding patterns, loans and guarantees, and income-tax returns to ascertain contravention of law.

Zepto, the quick-commerce firm which is coming with an IPO, disclosed this in its updated Draft Red Herring Prospectus (UDRHP). At the same time, Zepto wrote in its draft IPO document that they have not received any further communication from the ED after submitting documents and information sought. “We cannot assure you there will not be future inquiries or that these could escalate to investigations, legal proceedings or any possible penalties,” they disclosed.

(Research and VO: Siddharth Mathew Cherian)

In a major win for telcos, Bombay High Court on Monday quashed the government’s one time charge for spectrum, stating that the Centre has failed to justify any authoritative power in levying the charges and altering the financial terms of the telecom licenses as an afterthought.

A division bench of Justices Shreeram V. Shirsat and Manish Pitale also directed the government to set aside demand notices and return any related bank guarantees furnished by the telcos. It upheld Bharti Airtel’s and Vodafone Idea’s arguments that the Centre holds no power to retrospectively impose a one-time spectrum charge in 2012 for spectrum held above 6.2 MHz from the year 2008 onwards.

India’s EV inventory falls to single digits as waiting periods loom, ICE vehicle stocks rise

A sharp surge in demand for EVs has pushed dealer inventory levels down sharply to low single digits, with select higher-end variants of models such as the MG Windsor EV, Tata Nexon EV, Tata Punch EV, Mahindra BE 6, Mahindra XEV 9e, Bajaj Chetak and Ather’s 450X and Rizta scooters beginning to see waiting periods as fuel-price hikes accelerate consumer preference for electric mobility and other fuel-efficient vehicles, according to dealers and automakers who spoke to businessline.

Dealers and automakers said fuel-price hikes are accelerating consumer preference for EVs, CNG cars and smaller fuel-efficient vehicles, while simultaneously leading to rising inventories of higher-displacement petrol and diesel vehicles as buyers are increasingly moving away from ICE models.

FY27 Disinvestment proceeds cross full FY25 collections in 2 months; Miscellaneous Capital Receipts exceeds 23% of BE

The government’s Mop-up under ‘Miscellaneous Capital Receipts’ (MCR) crossed more than 23 per cent of the budget estimates in just little over two months of FY27 driven primarily by robust earnings from disinvestment. Significantly, earnings from disinvestment in just two months exceeded those during full fiscal of FY25 and nearly 72 per cent of full fiscal of FY26 .

Union Budget has pegged MCR at ₹80,000 crore. According to the budget document, these include receipts on account of management of equity investments and public assets through various mechanisms. Put simply, MCR primarily includes disinvestment (sale of minority share holdings and strategic disinvestment) and asset monetisation.

Data from DIPAM shows government offloaded parts of its stake in three CPSEs (Central Public Sector Enterprises) — Central Bank, Coal India and NHPC and mobilised ₹12,165 crore.

Govt cuts PM Ujjwala subsidy as domestic LPG cylinder cost surpasses ₹1,600

Government has reduced the number of cylinders for which a Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) household can avail subsidy from nine to four. The subsidy amount remains unchanged at ₹300 per 14.2 kg domestic LPG cylinder.

The decision comes amid the disruption in Strait of Hormuz, West Asian conflict almost completely choking-off LPG supplies coming out of West Asia via the Strait of Hormuz (SoH) which have pushed up benchmark Saudi CP prices, resulting which reflected in the domestic cylinder cost rising past ₹1,600 and losses of PSU oil marketing companies (OMCs) hitting ₹700 a cylinder.

Praveen Mal Khanooja, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), said on Monday that PMUY households will receive ₹300 a cylinder on the first four refills each year -- ₹1,200 per beneficiary a year.

(Research and VO: Siddharth Mathew Cherian)