New Delhi: Avenue Supermarts Ltd, which operates retail store chain DMart, on Saturday reported its net profit at Rs 746.55 crore for the second quarter of the current fiscal (Q2 FY26), down 10 per cent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) from Rs 829.73 crore.
However, the firm’s profit increased 5 per cent year-on-year (YoY) from Rs 710.37 crore.
Meanwhile, the DMart’s revenue from operations stood at Rs 16,218.79 crore, up nearly 2 per cent QoQ from Rs 15,932.12 crore, and over 15 per cent YoY from Rs 14,050.32, according to its exchange filing.
The company reported an uptick of nearly 2.5 per cent in its total expenses to Rs 15,248.89 crore for Q2 FY26 from the April-June quarter of Rs 14,855 crore. The expenses went up 16 per cent YoY as well, from Rs 13,143.56 crore in the same quarter a year ago.
According to the filing, earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in Q2 FY26 stood at Rs 1,230 crore, as compared to Rs 1,105 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago, while EBITDA margin stood at 7.6 per cent in Q2 FY26 as compared to 7.9 per cent in Q2 FY25.
Basic earnings per share (EPS) for the period stood at Rs 11.47, as compared to Rs 10.92 for a year ago, the company informed.
“Our revenue in Q2 FY26 grew by 15.4 per cent over the previous year. Profit after tax (PAT) grew by 5.1 per cent over the previous year. Two-year-old and older DMart stores grew by 6.8 per cent during Q2 FY26 as compared to Q2 FY25,” said Anshul Asawa, CEO-Designate, Avenue Supermarts Limited.
“Following the government’s recent announcement on GST reforms, we passed on the benefit of reduced GST rates to all our customers, wherever applicable. We opened 8 new stores during the quarter. Our total stores stand at 432 as of September 30, 2025,” Asawa added.
The Mumbai-based retail chain operator DMart follows the everyday low cost-everyday low price (EDLC-EDLP) strategy, which aims at procuring goods at competitive prices, using operational and distribution efficiency, and thereby delivering value for money to customers by selling at competitive prices, the company said.
Hyderabad: This month, Hyderabad’s silver market witnessed notable fluctuations. On October 1, silver was priced at Rs 1,61,000 per kilogram, rising to Rs 1,87,000 per kilogram by October 11, an increase of about 16.1 percent.
During this period, prices oscillated between Rs 1,60,000 and Rs 1,87,000 per kilogram, reflecting market volatility.
Meanwhile, gold prices in Hyderabad remained relatively stable, with 24-carat gold priced at Rs 12,426 per gram, 22-carat at Rs 11,390 per gram, and 18-carat at Rs 9,319 per gram.
Silver prices in Hyderabad :
October 1: Rs 1,61,000 per kilogram
October 11: Rs 1,87,000 per kilogram
Change: Approximately +16.1pc
Throughout October, silver prices ranged between Rs 1,60,000 and Rs 1,87,000 per kilogram, reflecting market volatility.
Gold Prices:
24-Carat Gold: Rs 12,426 per gram
22-Carat Gold: Rs 11,390 per gram
18-Carat Gold: Rs 9,319 per gram
Silver: Rs 187 per gram
These rates indicate a steady demand for precious metals, influenced by factors such as global market trends and domestic consumption patterns.
New Delhi: An Akasa Air aircraft flying from Pune to Delhi suffered a bird hit but landed safely in the national capital without any incident, the airline said. All passengers and crew members were safely deplaned following landing.
Flight QP1607, operating a Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, arrived in Delhi shortly after 10 a.m. on Friday, according to flight tracking data from Flightradar24.
“The aircraft is being examined by our engineering team in accordance with the airline’s standard operating procedures and will be released for service after a thorough inspection,” an Akasa Air spokesperson said in a statement.
The aircraft was originally scheduled to operate a subsequent flight from Delhi to Goa later in the day. However, the departure was delayed for a few hours as another aircraft was deployed for the route.
Earlier last month, Akasa Air systems were facing technical issues, due to which some of its online services were not working.
In an announcement made on the social media platform X, the airline said that booking, check-in, and managing booking services may remain temporarily unavailable.
“Our systems are currently experiencing intermittent issues and some of our online services, including booking, check-in and manage booking services, may be temporarily unavailable,” Akasa Air said in its post.
The airline assured that its teams are working with service providers to fix the problem.
“We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused and want to assure you that our teams are working with our service provider to resolve the same at the earliest,” the statement said.
Akasa Air has advised passengers with immediate travel plans to arrive at the airport early and complete the check-in process at its counters.
“Passengers with immediate travel plans are requested to reach the airport early to check in at our counters,” it said.
The system issue came a day after Akasa Air had alerted passengers about possible delays due to heavy rains in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Pune.
Washington: President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to place an additional 100 per cent tax on Chinese imports starting on November 1 or sooner, potentially escalating tariff rates close to levels that in April fanned fears of a global recession.
The president expressed frustration with new export controls placed on rare earth elements by China — and said on social media that “there seems to be no reason” to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as part of an upcoming trip to South Korea.
Trump later told reporters he had not cancelled his meeting. “But I don’t know that we’re going to have it,” he said during an Oval Office appearance on another subject. “I’m going to be there regardless, so I would assume we might have it.”
Trump also suggested there may be time to ratchet down his steep new tariff threat. “We’re going to have to see what happens. That’s why I made it Nov. 1,” he said.
China’s new restrictions
On Thursday, the Chinese government restricted access to rare earth minerals, requiring foreign companies to get special approval for shipping the metallic elements abroad. It also announced permitting requirements on exports of technologies used in the mining, smelting and recycling of rare earths, adding that any export requests for products used in military goods would be rejected.
On social media, Trump described the export controls as “shocking” and “out of the blue.” He said China is “becoming very hostile” and that it’s holding the world “captive” by restricting access to the metals and magnets used in electronics, computer chips, lasers, jet engines and other technologies.
Trump said in a post that “starting November 1st, 2025 (or sooner, depending on any further actions or changes taken by China), the United States of America will impose a Tariff of 100% on China, over and above any Tariff that they are currently paying.” The president also said the US government would respond to China by putting its own export controls “on any and all critical software” from American firms.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment.
Trump is known for using threats as a tactic
The S&P 500 tumbled 2.7 per cent on worries about the rising tensions between the world’s largest economies. It was the market’s worst day since April when the president last bandied about import taxes this high. Still, the stock market closed before the president spelt out the terms of his threat.
Not only could the global trade war instigated by Trump be rekindled, but import taxes being heaped on top of the 30 per cent already being levied on Chinese goods could, by the administration’s past statements, cause trade to break down between the US and China in ways that could cause growth worldwide to slump.
While Trump’s wording was definitive, he is also famously known for backing down from threats. Earlier this year, some investors began engaging in what the Financial Times called the “TACO” trade, which stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out.”
The prospect of tariffs this large could compound the president’s own political worries, potentially pushing up inflation at a moment when the job market appears fragile and the drags from a government shutdown are starting to compound with layoffs of federal workers.
The United States and China have been jostling for advantage in trade talks, after the import taxes announced earlier this year triggered the trade war. Both countries agreed to ratchet down tariffs after negotiations in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, yet tensions remain as China has continued to restrict America’s access to the difficult-to-mine rare earths needed for a wide array of US technologies.
There is already a backlog of export license applications from Beijing’s previous round of export controls on rare earth elements, and the latest announcements “add further complexity to the global supply chain of rare earth elements,” the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said in a statement.
There are other flashpoints in the trade relationship, including US restrictions on China’s ability to import advanced computer chips, sales of American-grown soybeans and a series of tit-for-tat port fees being levied by both countries starting on Tuesday.
Analysts say there’s time to de-escalate
Trump did not formally cancel the meeting with Xi, so much as indicating that it might not happen as part of a trip at the end of the month in Asia. The trip was scheduled to include a stop in Malaysia, which is hosting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit; a stop in Japan; and a visit to South Korea, where he was slated to meet with Xi ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, said Beijing’s move was a reaction to US sanctions of Chinese companies this week and the upcoming port fees targeting China-related vessels — but said there’s room for de-escalation to keep the leaders’ meeting alive. “It is a disproportional reaction,” Sun said. “Beijing feels that de-escalation will have to be mutual as well. There is room for manoeuvre, especially on the implementation.”
Gracelin Baskaran, director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, said China holds leverage because it dominates the market for rare earths with 70 per cent of the mining and 93 per cent of the production of permanent magnets made from them, which are crucial to high-tech products and the military.
“These restrictions undermine our ability to develop our industrial base at a time when we need to. And then second, it’s a powerful negotiating tool,” she said.
Craig Singleton, senior director of the China program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank, said Trump’s post could “mark the beginning of the end of the tariff truce” that had lowered the tax rates charged by both countries.
“Mutually assured disruption between the two sides is no longer a metaphor,” Singleton said. “Both sides are reaching for their economic weapons at the same time, and neither seems willing to back down.”
Kochi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday questioned George Alexander Muthoot, the managing director of the Kerala-based Muthoot Group, in a money-laundering case linked to an investors fraud case, official sources said.
The Kochi zonal unit of the ED has filed a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), taking cognisance of a clutch of FIRs lodged by the Kerala Police.
The police complaints allege that the accused, primarily Muthoot Finance branch managers, lured investors with the promise of returns in the range of 8 to 12 per cent on certain fixed deposits and non-convertible debentures (NCDs), but “diverted” the funds to a company named Srei Equipment Finance Limited.
This company was “misrepresented” as a sister concern of the group, the sources said.
Due to this, the investors faced non-repayment of funds upon maturity and hence, were cheated, they added.
The ED had summoned Muthoot to depose at its office here and recorded his statement in the case, the sources said.
New Delhi: India and the UK signed a strategic partnership at India Mobile Congress 2025 to jointly drive innovation in the digital connectivity space with an investment of 24 million pounds (about Rs 282 crore) in the next four years.
The agreement was signed by the United Kingdom’s Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, Deputy Director for Technology, Spectrum and Strategy division of Catherine Page and the Department of Telecom, Deputy Director General, Parag Agrawal, for setting up the India-UK Connectivity and Innovation Centre (CIC).
“Our governments have made a strong commitment to the new centre. We have agreed jointly to invest 24 million pound over a period of four years to bring together the world leading innovators, researchers and telecom businesses large and small that operate in both of our countries,” Page said.
She said that the theme of IMC (India Mobile Congress) is “Innovate to Transform” and through the India-UK connectivity, both governments wish for this to have an impact in the real world.
Page said the India-UK Connectivity and Innovation Centre that it will operate across the whole spectrum, from early-stage research to applied innovation.
Agrawal said that India UK CIC will bring academic excellence with market driven innovation.
“The centre’s activities will focus on telecommunication, telecoms, cybersecurity, non-telecommunication ideas and the transformative role of AI in telecommunication. While also supporting joint testbeds, collaborative R&D projects and standardisation efforts, India’s own digital transformation journey has been unprecedented in both scale and inclusiveness,” he said.
Agrawal said that CIC will operate as a living bridge between the two nations, facilitating and tackling the most pressing connectivity challenges of the present and future.
Mumbai: Tata Group-owned Air India on Friday said its Delhi-bound flight from Vienna on October 9 was diverted to Dubai due to a technical issue.
The aircraft landed safely at Dubai and underwent necessary checks, it said in a statement, without sharing specific details.
The flight, operated by the same aircraft, departed Dubai at 08:45 hours IST and landed in Delhi at 12:19 hours IST.
Though Air India did not elaborate the “technical issue” due to which the flight was forced to divert to Dubai, the pilots body, Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) in a letter to the Civil Aviation Minister revealed that the Boeing 787 aircraft “experienced failures across critical systems which included Autopilots, ILS (instrument landing system), flight directors (FDs) and flight control system degradation with no autoland capability.”
“Since 16 Jun 25, we have reiterated that all B-787s in the country must be checked thoroughly for the electrical systems. On October 5, RAT (unexpectedly) deployed on the AI-117 (which was being operated by a Boeing 787) while on approach at Birmingham. On October 9, AI-154 from Vienna to Delhi was diverted to Dubai, which had major technical issues where the autopilot system suddenly failed, triggering a series of technical malfunctions,” the FIP said.
RAT deploys automatically in the eventuality of a dual engine failure or total electronic or hydraulic failure. It uses wind speed to generate emergency power.
“The pilots could not engage the autopilots due to electrical malfunctions; thus, pilots were constrained to fly manually at night and divert to Dubai. Moreover, the FDs were not available with degraded flight control systems. The aircraft landed safely at Dubai,” the FIP said in the letter, while demanding the grounding of the entire B787 fleet and a special DGCA audit of Air India.
FIP had earlier urged aviation safety regulator DGCA to thoroughly check and investigate the electrical system of all Boeing 787 aircraft in the country after a Boeing 787 plane operated by Air India from Amritsar to Birmingham saw deployment of emergency turbine power when it was about to land in the UK city.
These two incidents come after the June 12 Air India’s Ahmedabad-London Gatwick plane accident, wherein one of its Boeing 787-8 aircraft crashed into a medical hostel complex soon after take-off from Ahmedabad, killing 260 people.
Mumbai: Wearable smart glasses can now be used to make payments via UPI Lite by simply scanning a QR and issuing a voice command.
These small-value transactions using wearable glasses will neither need a mobile phone nor any payment authentication PIN, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said in a statement.
Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar announced the launch of the digital payment innovations at the ongoing Global Fintech Fest 2025 here.
UPI Lite is designed for small-value, high-frequency payments with enhanced success rates and minimal dependency on core banking infrastructure.
The NPCI has also issued a video on the use of UPI Lite on smart glasses, which explains how a person can just ‘Look. Speak. Pay’.
In a statement, NPCI said users can complete hands-free and secure transactions by simply scanning a QR, authenticate and complete payments through voice on smart glasses, without needing a phone or entering a PIN.
“The solution is aimed at everyday payments such as retail, food, and transit, encouraging greater digital payment penetration,” it added.
This feature addresses customers’ growing demand for seamless, frictionless payments that integrate effortlessly into their always-connected, on-the-go digital lifestyle.
“This launch marks the first time UPI is extended to the wearable ecosystem, representing a step towards ambient payments by enabling seamless digital payments,” NPCI said.
It also benefits banks and PSPs by reducing core banking system load through off-CBS wallet execution.
Embedding UPI Lite on smart glasses enhances convenience for consumers and strengthens India’s leadership in digital payment innovation globally, NPCI said.
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform is owned and operated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
NPCI, an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India, is an initiative of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) for creating a robust Payment & Settlement Infrastructure in India.
New Delhi: Top honchos of the Tata group, including Tata Trusts Chairman Noel Tata and Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran, on Tuesday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman amid infighting among trustees over board appointments and governance issues.
Noel Tata and Chandrasekaran, along with Tata Trusts Vice Chairman Venu Srinivasan and trustee Darius Khambata, arrived together in the evening at Shah’s residence for the meeting. Sitharaman also joined in at the home minister’s residence.
The meeting came against the backdrop of infighting among the trustees of Tata Trusts over board appointments and governance issues, which threaten to impact the functioning of the over USD 180 billion conglomerate.
Tata Trusts exerts decisive influence over India’s most valuable conglomerate through its about 66 per cent stake in Tata Sons, the promoter and holding company of the salt-to-semiconductor group.
Sources said Tata Trusts is said to be vertically split, with one section aligned with Noel Tata, who was appointed chairman of the Trusts following the death of Ratan Tata. The other grouping of four trustees is led by Mehli Mistry, who has ties with the extended Shapoorji Pallonji family, which owns about 18.37 per cent of Tata Sons.
Mehli reportedly feels he has been kept out of the loop on key matters.
Sources said the flashpoint is said to be board seats at Tata Sons, which controls the 156-year-old group that spans around 400 companies, including 30 listed firms.
Tata Trusts, Tata Sons and Venu Srinivasan had declined to comment on the matter and comments from Mehli Mistry could not be obtained as calls and messages remained unanswered.
“The primary question in front of the government, considering how significant and important the Tata Group is to the country’s economy, is whether it can let an individual take control of it. The infighting among trustees of Tata Trusts has an impact on Tata Sons,” a source said.
Hyderabad: The Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TGIIC) has achieved a record-breaking Rs 177 crore per acre in its latest auction of 7.67 acres at Raidurg, Hyderabad Knowledge City, setting a new benchmark.
This was the highest-ever price per acre in the state, according to TGIIC, surpassing the earlier Neopolis, Kokapet benchmark of Rs 100.75 crore per acre for 3.60 acres achieved in auctions conducted by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA).
As per a statement issued by TGIIC on Monday, October 6, the auction was managed by ‘JLL India and MSTC’ as it’s auction partners, which acted as the exclusive transaction advisors.
“The record price of Rs 177 crore per acre reflects the strong confidence that investors and developers have in Hyderabad’s long-term potential and Telangana Rising-2047 story. This result at Raidurg further strengthens Hyderabad’s position as one of India’s most attractive and competitive investment destinations,” said K Shashanka, MD, TGIIC.
“Achieving Rs 177 crore per acre at Raidurg — nearly 75 percent higher than the Rs 101 crore per acre benchmark at Neopolis demonstrates Hyderabad’s exceptional market strength, robust investor sentiment, and the city’s evolution into a truly global business hub.” a spokesperson from JLL India added.
Government land auctions in the area, in the past
2017: Raidurg parcels fetched Rs 42.59 crore per acre for an extent of 2.84 acres. 2022: Neopolis, Kokapet auctions conducted by HMDA achieved up to Rs100.75 crore per acre for 3.60 acres. 2025: Raidurg auction witnessed Rs 177 crore per acre.
