Category: BUSINESS

Mumbai: As many as 75 per cent of companies in India are reshaping their infrastructure and location strategies based on data needs, marking a significant shift in how artificial intelligence (AI) is being adopted across the country, a new report said on Wednesday.

This signals India’s rapid rise as a digital hub in the Asia-Pacific region. Around 59 per cent of Indian companies already have a formal data strategy, outpacing many global counterparts, according to the Digital Realty report.

Indian companies are focusing on three major pillars while adopting AI — data localisation, sustainability, and structured data strategies.

The report highlights that AI and machine learning are seen as powerful tools to unlock the true value of data.

In fact, 44 per cent of businesses believe that AI is essential for this purpose. Sustainability is also emerging as a top priority.

About 60 per cent of companies say it is the most important factor shaping their AI strategies.

Moreover, 51 per cent of firms measure their IT success through green practices — showing a growing focus on responsible and environmentally friendly technology.

A notable 77 per cent of Indian firms have adopted distributed data models to maintain both compliance and performance.

This shift is helping them meet complex regulatory needs while ensuring smooth AI operations.

However, around 52 per cent of businesses are struggling to get meaningful insights from fragmented data.

In addition, 51 per cent say a lack of investment in strong data systems is slowing their AI journey, as per the report.

To address these issues, Indian companies are also working to make their IT infrastructure more energy efficient.

For example, 46 per cent now prioritise low Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) to reduce energy use and meet their environmental goals.

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the constitution of an interim committee to oversee the operations of IndusInd Bank, which will discharge the duties, roles and responsibilities of the chief executive officer (CEO) of the bank for an interim period until a permanent CEO is appointed, the bank said on Wednesday.

The move comes after IndusInd Bank’s Managing Director and CEO Sumant Kathpalia resigned from his post in connections with the derivatives accounting lapse that has eroded the private sector bank’s net worth.

In a stock exchange filing, the bank informed that the committee, comprising Soumitra Sen (Head–Consumer Banking) and Anil Rao (Chief Administrative Officer), will manage the bank’s day-to-day affairs under the supervision of an Oversight Committee of the Board.

This Oversight Committee will be chaired by the Chairman of the Board and will include the chairs of the Audit Committee, the Compensation and Nomination and Remuneration Committee, and the Risk Management Committee.

“Based on the RBI approval, the Board has constituted such ‘Committee of Executives’ to oversee the operations of the Bank, under the oversight and guidance of the Oversight Committee of the Board till a new MD and CEO of the Bank assumes charge or a period of 3 months from the date of relieving the incumbent MD and CEO, whichever is earlier,” according to the exchange filing by the bank.

The bank said it is taking all necessary steps to ensure stability and continuity of its operations while “maintaining high standards of governance”.

The stock of IndusInd Bank fell in the early trade on Wednesday.

The bank’s Deputy CEO Arun Khurana has also quit after accounting discrepancies were unearthed in the bank’s derivatives portfolio by an independent audit.

The findings of the investigation carried out by a professional firm, appointed by the bank’s board, were submitted on April 26. The audit report confirmed that incorrect accounting practices led to an adverse cumulative impact of Rs 1,959.98 crore on the bank’s profit and loss account as of March 31, 2025.

The issue first came to light on March 10, when IndusInd Bank disclosed that mark-to-market (MTM) losses in its derivatives book could impact up to 2.35 per cent of its net worth as of December 2024 due to discrepancies in its derivative accounts found during an internal review. The loss in net worth worked out to around Rs 1,600 crore.

The RBI issued a direction to the bank to appoint global audit firm Grant Thornton Bharat to conduct a forensic investigation to ensure an accurate assessment of the losses.

According to the Grant Thornton investigation, incorrect accounting of internal derivative trades by the bank, particularly in the cases of early termination, led to notional profits, which resulted in accounting discrepancies.

Mumbai: The domestic benchmark indices opened flat on Wednesday amid mixed global cues and geo-political tensions, as selling was seen in the PSU bank and financial service sectors in the early trade.

At around 9.32 am, Sensex was trading 7.72 points or 0.01 per cent down at 80,280.66 while the Nifty climbed 1 point or 0.00 per cent at 24,336.95.

Nifty Bank was down 197.50 points or 0.36 per cent at 55,193.75. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 54,356.00 after declining 231.95 points or 0.42 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 16,602.40 after dropping 136.30 points or 0.81 per cent.

According to analysts, Nifty can find support at 24,200 followed by 24,100 and 24,000. On the higher side, 24,400 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 24,500 and 24,700.

“The charts of Bank Nifty indicate that it may get support at 55,000 followed by 54,700 and 54,400. If the index advances further, 55,600 would be the initial key resistance, followed by 55,900 and 56,200,” said Hardik Matalia from Choice Broking.

Sensex witnessed a positive opening but fizzled out once again hovering near the 80300 zone with bias still maintained positive, said experts.

“As mentioned earlier, the index would need a decisive breach above the resistance zone of 80,400 level to trigger for a breakout anticipating for further rise in the coming days having the crucial support positioned near the 79,100 level of the 200 period MA, which needs to be sustained,” said Vaishali Parekh, Vice President-Technical Research PL Capital Group

“For Nifty, the support for the day is seen at 24,200 levels while the resistance is seen at 24,500 levels,” she added.

Meanwhile, in the Sensex pack, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank, Tata Motors, Eternal, SBI and Tata Steel were the top losers. HDFC Bank, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, Power Grid and Hindustan Unilever Limited were the top losers.

In the Asian markets, China and Seoul were trading in red, whereas, Bangkok, Jakarta, Hong Kong and Japan markets were trading in green.

In its last trading session, Dow Jones in the US added 0.75 per cent to close at 40,527.62. The S&P 500 climbed 0.58 per cent to 5,560.83 and the Nasdaq added 0.55 per cent to close at 17,461.32.

On the institutional front, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained consistent net buyers, marking their tenth straight session of inflows with Rs 2,385.61 crore on April 29. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also remained consistent net buyers, marking their third straight session of inflows with Rs 1,369.19 crore on the same day.

California: Working to differentiate itself in the crowded field of artificial intelligence, Meta Platforms has launched a standalone AI app — with a social media component — to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The Meta AI app, built with the company’s Llama 4 AI system. It includes a “discover” feed that lets users see how others are interacting with AI. It also has a voice mode for interacting with the AI.

“It’s smart for Meta to differentiate its ChatGPT competitor by drawing from the company’s social media roots. The app’s Discover feed is like a version of the OG Facebook Feed but only focused on AI use cases,” said Forrester research director Mike Proulx.

By letting users link their Facebook and Instagram accounts, the Meta AI app “gets a leg up on instantly personalising its user experience with social media context.”

Meta has taken a different approach to AI than many of its rivals, releasing it for free as an open-source product. The company says more than a billion people use its AI products each month.

At the Menlo Park, California-based tech giant’s inaugural conference, LlamaCon, on Tuesday Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg chatted with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a technical discussion around the speed of AI development and how the technology is shifting both their companies — where AI is already writing code — as well as the world.

Acknowledging there is a lot of “hype” around AI, Zuckerberg said “if this is going to lead to massive increases in productivity, that needs to be reflected in major increases in GDP.”

“This is going take some multiple years, many years, to play out,” Zuckerberg said. “I’m curious how you think, what’s your current outlook on what we should be looking for to understand the progress that this is making?”

Nadella brought up the advent of electricity, saying that “AI has the promise, but you now have to sort of really have it deliver the real change in productivity — and that requires software and also management change, right? Because in some sense, people have to work with it differently.”

He said it took 50 years before people figured out to change how factories operated with electricity.

Zuckerberg replied “well we’re all investing as if it’s not going to take 50 years, so I hope it doesn’t take 50 years.”

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank has decided to inject more liquidity into the banking system through the purchase of Government bonds for an aggregate amount of Rs 1.25 lakh crore in May.

The move is also expected to prop up bond prices, which had declined due to a sell-off by foreign banks and primary dealers after the uncertainty triggered by the Pahalgam attack.

The RBI’s open market operations (OMO) to purchase government bonds will be carried out in four tranches between May 6 and May 19.

The decision was taken after a review of current and evolving liquidity conditions, according to an RBI statement.

The move comes close on the heels of the RBI’s announcement on April 1 to buy government bonds worth Rs 80,000 crore, which was followed by another Rs 40,000 crore purchase announced on April 11.

RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra has stated that the central bank will continue to monitor evolving liquidity and market conditions and take measures as appropriate to ensure orderly liquidity conditions.

The bond purchases are in continuation of the RBI’s recent measures to inject liquidity into the system. In March, it conducted OMO purchases of government securities worth Rs 1 lakh crore in two tranches of Rs 50,000 crore each.

The central bank also held a dollar-rupee buy/sell swap auction of $10 billion for 36 months. Besides, the central bank this week reduced borrowing costs by cutting the benchmark repo rate by 25 basis points and changing its neutral stance to accommodative. The steps were taken as part of the soft money policy to spur economic growth, as the inflation rate has come down.

According to financial analysts, the fresh liquidity infusion is also expected to help fetch a better price for the new benchmark bond, which would be auctioned on May 2.

The RBI announced the new bond after the old benchmark bond completed the outstanding amount of Rs 1.84 lakh crore.

Mumbai: The domestic benchmark indices opened higher on Tuesday amid positive cues from global markets, as buying was seen in the PSU bank, auto and IT sectors in the early trade.

At around 9.25 am, Sensex was trading 409.4 points or 0.51 per cent up at 80,627.85 while the Nifty climbed 118.10 points or 0.49 per cent at 24,446.60.

Nifty Bank was up 492.90 points or 0.89 per cent at 55,925.70. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 54,931.15 after increasing 490.90 points or 0.43 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 16,860.05 after climbing 183.15 points or 1.10 per cent.

According to analysts, after a positive opening, Nifty can find support at 24,250. On the higher side, 24,500 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 24,600 and 24,700.

“The charts of Bank Nifty indicate that it may get support at 55,300 followed by 55,000 and 54,700. If the index advances further, 55,600 would be the initial key resistance, followed by 55,900 and 56,200,” said Hardik Matalia from Choice Broking.

Meanwhile, in the Sensex pack, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, M&M, Titan, SBI, Bajaj Finance, Eternal, Maruti Suzuki and Power Grid were the top gainers. Whereas, UltraTech Cement, Nestle India, Sun Pharma and Asian Paints were the top losers.

Sensex has respected the important 200DMA zone of 79,100 level, where it has strong support during the intraday session, and witnessed a decent rally towards the 61.8 per cent retracement level to improve the bias.

“On the upside, it would need a decisive breach above the resistance zone of 80,400 level to trigger for a breakout anticipating for further rise in the coming days, said Vaishali Parekh, Vice President-Technical Research, PL Capital Group.

In the Asian markets, China and Bangkok were trading in red, whereas, Jakarta, Seoul, Hong Kong and Japan markets were trading in green.

In the last trading session, Dow Jones in the US added 0.28 per cent to close at 40,227.59. The S&P 500 climbed 0.06 per cent to 5,528.75 and the Nasdaq declined 0.10 per cent to close at 17,366.13.

On the institutional front, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained consistent net buyers, marking their ninth straight session of inflows with Rs 2,474.10 crore on April 28. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also remained consistent net buyers, marking their second straight session of inflows with Rs 2,817.64 crore on the same day.

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday underscored the need to target one billion Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions per day within the next 2–3 years, stressing on the importance of accelerating the internationalisation of UPI through the development of interoperable frameworks and expanding global payment acceptance.

In a meeting to review various aspects and the way ahead for the UPI ecosystem, Finance Minister encouraged officials to intensify efforts to onboard more users and merchants onto the UPI platform to broaden its reach and impact.

She urged all stakeholders to work collaboratively to address infrastructure gaps, enhance the end-user experience and cybersecurity architecture.

The Union Minister also directed NPCI to reinforce UPI’s robustness and prevent future disruptions.

Discussions focused on enhancing the resilience, scalability, and real-time monitoring of the UPI infrastructure to ensure uninterrupted service delivery and strengthen user trust.

UPI is witnessing significant growth. From FY 2019–20 to FY 2024–25, UPI transactions registered a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 72 per cent.

NPCI officials also informed Finance Minister that between FY 2021–22 and FY 2024–25, around 26 crore new users and 5.5 crore new merchants have been successfully onboarded onto the UPI platform. UPI now has approximately 45 crore annually active users.

In FY 2024-25, UPI transactions amounted to Rs 261 lakh crore — a 30 per cent YoY growth. Similarly, in terms of volume, 18,586 crore transactions took place in FY 2024-25 — a 42 per cent annual growth.

The UPI saw a 13.59 per cent increase (on-month) in transaction volume at 18.3 billion in the month of March, from 16.11 billion in February, as per the latest NPCI data. The month of March saw a record Rs 24.77 lakh crore worth UPI-based transactions, up 12.79 per cent from Rs 21.96 lakh crore in February.

On a daily basis, the UPI network recorded more than 590 million average transactions at Rs 79,910 crore daily transaction count, according to the NPCI data.

Mumbai: Nearly 38.64 per cent of 298 open-ended equity diversified mutual funds in India outperformed their respective benchmarks in March 2025, a report said on Monday.

The assets under management (AUM) of equity mutual funds — excluding sectoral and thematic funds –rose by 7.68 per cent, growing from Rs 23.12 lakh crore in February to Rs 24.90 lakh crore in March, according to the report by PL Wealth Management, the wealth management arm of PL Capital.

Among the different fund categories, large cap funds stood out as the best performers. About 71.88 per cent of large cap schemes managed to beat their benchmark — the Nifty 50 TRI — during the month.

Large and mid-cap funds followed next, with 58.06 per cent of funds outperforming their benchmark — the Nifty LargeMidcap 250 TRI.

Mid-cap funds also showed strong performance, with 51.72 per cent of schemes beating the Nifty Midcap 150 TRI benchmark, the report said.

On the other hand, small cap funds had the weakest showing, with only 10 per cent of the funds outperforming their benchmark, the Nifty Smallcap 250 TRI.

Other categories like flexi cap funds, focused funds, and value/contra/dividend yield funds showed moderate performances, with outperformance rates ranging between 27 per cent and 37 per cent.

Meanwhile, earlier report by PL Wealth Management said that more than half of India’s equity mutual funds managed to outperform their respective benchmarks in February.

The previous report, which analysed 294 open-ended equity diversified funds, revealed that 54.08 per cent of the schemes delivered better returns than their benchmarks during the month.

Among the different categories, small-cap funds emerged as the best performers in February. Nearly 79.31 per cent of small-cap schemes beat the Nifty Smallcap 250 benchmark — making them the top-performing category for the month.

Focused funds also delivered strong returns, with 67.86 per cent outperforming their respective benchmark during the same month.

Large and mid-cap funds were not far behind, with 65.63 per cent of the schemes exceeding the returns of the Nifty LargeMidcap 250 benchmark in February, the report said.

Mumbai: Even as tensions between India and Pakistan rise once again following the barbaric Pahalgam terror attack, Indian stock markets have showcased resilience every time the two neighbouring nations went into conflict.

While investors may have initially turned cautious, historical trends reveal that Indian markets have consistently overcome geopolitical challenges and emerged even stronger.

Whenever tensions flared along the Line of Control (LoC), the Indian stock markets saw brief declines but soon staged strong recoveries — reflecting the underlying strength and confidence in India’s economic growth.

Take the example of the Balakot airstrike. After the Pulwama terror attack, when the Indian Air Force carried out successful airstrikes on terror camps in Balakot on February 26, 2019, the Sensex fell by 239 points and the Nifty by 44 points.

However, the very next day, the Sensex rebounded, opening 165 points higher and closing flat — showing a swift recovery.

Similarly, after the Pulwama attack on February 14, 2019, markets showed only a minor reaction, with just a 0.2 per cent fall the following day — highlighting investors’ long-term confidence in India’s stability.

During the Uri surgical strikes, while there was a sharper fall, with the Sensex slipping about 400 points and the Nifty around 156 points, the markets quickly regained strength in the following sessions — maintaining a strong growth trajectory.

Even during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, the markets defied global expectations. Instead of falling, the Sensex surged by nearly 400 points and the Nifty gained around 100 points during that period.

The 1999 Kargil war was another shining example of India’s economic resilience. Despite the conflict lasting nearly three months, the Sensex soared by over 1,100 points and the Nifty jumped more than 300 points, registering gains of about 33 per cent during the period.

Historical data clearly shows that while short-term volatility occurs during geopolitical tensions, Indian stock markets have not only recovered but thrived over the long term.

During the intra-day trade on Monday, Sensex had climbed nearly 1,000 points, or 1.3 per cent, while the Nifty rose about 300 points, or 1.23 per cent, to trade at 24,329 — reflecting the market’s steady confidence despite geopolitical concerns.

Mumbai: The Indian equity benchmark indices opened higher on Monday amid mixed global cues, as buying was seen in the PSU bank and financial service sectors in the early trade.

At around 9.30 am, Sensex was trading 400.7 points or 0.51 per cent up at 79,613.28 while the Nifty climbed 88.65 points or 0.37 per cent at 24,128.00.

Nifty Bank was up 347.85 points or 0.64 per cent at 55,011.90. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 53,801.00 after increasing 230.80 points or 0.43 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 16,518.65 after declining 28.55 points or 0.17 per cent.

According to analysts, markets were poised to open on a strong note, as indicated by GIFT Nifty trends, which show a gap-up of around 110 points for the Nifty. This positive setup came after a volatile session on Friday, where the Indian benchmark indices ended over 0.5 per cent lower.

Nifty, after finding a tough resistance near the 24,350 zone, witnessed profit booking with high fluctuations during the session to end near the important 200 period SMA at 24,050 level with bias shaken to some extent but having the overall trend still maintained positive.

“As mentioned earlier, we maintain our stance, with the index having the near-term significant support positioned near the 23,800 zone which if sustained, can regain with the positive move for further rise in the coming days,” said Vaishali Parekh, Vice President-Technical Research, PL Capital Group.

“The support for the day is seen at 23,800 levels while the resistance is seen at 24,300 levels,” Parekh added.

Meanwhile, in the Sensex pack, M&M, Eternal, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank, SBI, Hindustan Unilever Limited and L&T were the top gainers. Whereas, HCL Tech, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, Nestle India, ITC and UltraTech Cement were the top losers.

In the last trading session on Friday, Dow Jones in the US added 0.05 per cent to close at 40,113.50. The S&P 500 climbed 0.74 per cent to 5,525.21 and the Nasdaq added 1.26 per cent to close at 17,382.94.

In the Asian markets (except China), Jakarta, Bangkok, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Japan were trading in green.

On the institutional front, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained consistent net buyers, marking their eighth straight session of inflows with Rs 2,952.33 crore on April 25. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs), after three sessions of net selling, turned net buyers with inflows of Rs 3,539.85 crore.