Bharti Airtel’s management said they are not satisfied with the sluggish growth in industry average revenues per user (ARPU), which is happening due to a “broken” pricing architecture. The company said it will double down on existing growth levers to boost this key performance metric.

While Airtel’s ARPU fell 0.6% sequentially to Rs 257 in the fourth quarter, the management accounted for two missing days compared with the previous three-month period to project a modest Rs 3 growth in the metric.

“We are not happy with our ARPU increase of only Rs 3 for the quarter. Part of this issue was linked to the West Asia crisis and (its impact on) international roaming revenues. But we are now determined to double down on all our levers on ARPU and grow and accelerate the pace,” executive vice chairman Gopal Vittal told analysts Thursday.

A labour shortage in Pune’s industrial belt has begun to affect operations and productivity. The manufacturing and construction industries have been hit the most with labour moving back home and not returning.

Deepak Karandikar, managing director and CEO of Praditi Press Parts and managing partner of Fine Fittings, said MSMEs have faced the brunt of the labour shortage, and the situation is becoming grave. He used to have a workforce of 180 and 90 in two of his units. He is now down to 120 and 45 in both units. The workforce is drastically down because labour has not returned, as if 100 go back, only 30 return, says Karandikar.

Petrol, diesel price hike: The oil marketing companies on Friday raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 3 per litre each across India, passing on part of the recent surge in global energy prices to consumers. As a result, petrol will now retail at Rs 97.77 per litre, while diesel will be priced at Rs 99.67 per litre in Delhi. The revision marks a notable move after weeks of volatile crude markets that have put pressure on domestic fuel pricing.

Following the petrol and diesel price hike, CNG rates have also gone up by Rs 2, as the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz persists due to the ongoing conflict in West Asia involving the US, Israel, and Iran.

Global solar sector funding more than doubled to $11.1 billion in the first quarter of 2026, driven by a sharp surge in debt financing and rising acquisition activity, signalling renewed investor appetite for large-scale clean energy expansion despite global economic uncertainty.

Corporate funding in the solar sector rose 131% year-on-year to $11.1 billion across 53 deals during the January-March quarter, compared to $4.8 billion raised through 39 deals in the same period last year. Funding also jumped 127% sequentially from $4.9 billion across 48 deals in Q4 2025.

Debt Dominance
The sharp rebound was led by debt financing, which surged 154% year-on-year to $8.9 billion across 28 deals in Q1 2026, up from $3.5 billion raised through 23 deals a year earlier. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, debt funding climbed 162% from $3.4 billion across 20 deals, underscoring aggressive capital deployment into utility-scale solar assets and project pipelines globally.

Cabinet ministers and senior government officials will be closely watching the talks between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping amid concerns that any easing of tensions between Washington and Beijing could blunt India’s recent gains as an alternative technology and manufacturing destination.

The concern is centred around the large contingent of top American CEOs travelling with Trump to China, including leaders from semiconductor, consumer technology, finance and aerospace firms, many of whom are seeking wider market access, regulatory easing and fewer restrictions on technology flows into China.

CEO Delegation
Officials said India has, over the last few years, benefited from growing geopolitical friction between the world’s two largest economies as multinational firms diversified manufacturing bases and supply chains away from China.

India's electric vehicle (EV) battery demand is projected to grow 10 times from 20 GWh in 2025 to 200 GWh by 2032, industry body Indian Energy Alliance (IESA) said on Thursday.

Citing a study, IESA said the EV opportunity in India is no longer limited to vehicle manufacturing; the largest strategic gains may lie in component localisation and supply chain development as India positions itself as a global manufacturing hub.

The IESA, in association with Customized Energy Solutions (CES), is set to release the study report titled 'India EV & EV Component Market Outlook 2025-2034' at the 12th India Energy Storage Week (IESW), to be held from July 8-10 in the national capital.

The study has found that India's EV battery demand is projected to rise sharply from 20 GWh in 2025 to 200 GWh by 2032, a tenfold increase, the industry body said.

Rising input costs due to the West Asia conflict, along with concerns about shrinking demand, may squeeze smaller brands from both ends. Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands are bracing for a difficult stretch ahead, with consumer spending projected to drop 5-6% over the next three months, analysts told ET. Over the past few months, snacks, beverages, fashion, and perfume brands have seen their costs rise in phases.
After the cost of aluminium cans for beverages and glass perfume bottles surged 25-30%, now local logistics is expected to be under pressure with rise in fuel prices.

Large conglomerates and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies like Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) hiking prices by 8-10% and the rupee plummeting to fresh lows is likely to push consumers to pull back on discretionary spending in the coming months.

Taxi driver Ravi Ranjan, who lives with his wife and child in New Delhi said shipping disruptions caused by the Iran war have forced him to pay higher prices for cooking fuel at a time when India's prime minister is also urging residents to reduce driving and travel.

It's all hitting Ranjan's bottom line, he said, as he's paying three times as much for liquid petroleum gas after facing delays on delivery of the cooking fuel.

"I used to get a cylinder of LPG for 1,000 rupees ($11), now I pay 3,000 rupees ($31) in the black market," he said.

On the other side of the country, in the coastal city of Chennai, Sushmita Sankar, an advertising executive, said her gasoline and cooking fuel expenses are skyrocketing because of the war. Sankar said gasoline blended with ethanol - the default mix available at fuel stations now - is also worsening her car's mileage.

India’s industrial and warehousing sector is expected to see demand and supply increasingly concentrated across a limited set of logistics and manufacturing corridors, with 13 high-activity clusters likely to account for 70-80% of the country’s Grade A industrial and warehousing activity in the coming years amid continued infrastructure expansion and manufacturing growth.

These 13 clusters have together accounted for around 75% of India’s cumulative industrial and warehousing demand and new supply since 2021, according to a report by Colliers India.

The sector has emerged as one of the strongest-performing real estate asset classes in recent years, supported by improving logistics infrastructure, rising institutional investments and expansion of manufacturing and supply-chain networks across major consumption centres.

India is accelerating plans to secure uninterrupted gas supplies from the Gulf through a direct deep-sea pipeline, as the Strait of Hormuz crisis leads the government to prioritise energy security. If cleared, the estimated Rs 40,000 crore ($4.7-4.8 billion) pipeline project from Oman is expected to take five to seven years to build, said a petroleum ministry official.

The push reflects the country’s high exposure to LNG supply shocks and price volatility, and shows how it lags manufacturing rivals such as China.

The ministry is set to direct state-run GAIL, Engineers India and Indian Oil Corp to prepare a detailed feasibility report, senior officials told ET. They said the government is working off a pre-feasibility study submitted by The South Asia Gas Enterprise (SAGE), a New Delhi-based private sector consortium.

The Indian film industry is returning to a theatre-first release model, reversing the post-pandemic trend of direct-to-streaming premieres as studios increasingly prioritise box-office revenues while streaming platforms pull back on spending.

Today, films are typically arriving on streaming services around eight weeks after their theatrical release, compared to a window of 2-4 weeks for certain films during the post-pandemic period when many titles bypassed theatres altogether, industry executives said.

"Movies are reaching OTT platforms much later after their theatrical release. So, OTT is no longer a substitute. In fact, it never really was," said Ajay Bijli, managing director of leading multiplex chain PVR Inox.

According to a Ficci-EY report, while the total number of films released on OTT platforms across Indian languages remained steady at 500 in 2025, direct-to-digital premieres fell 50% to 30 from 60 in 2024. So, 470 films released in theatres first before arriving on OTT platforms last year, compared with 440 in 2024.

India and Japan have held a key economic security dialogue meeting advancing industrial and technological collaboration in five sectors -- critical minerals, semiconductors, ICT including AI and telecom, clean energy and pharmaceuticals.

The meeting was held in the backdrop of a newly formed centre in the Japanese foreign ministry to assist Japanese companies looking to expand into the bigger Indian market and ahead of Quad foreign ministers meeting here later this month. The Quad meeting will focus on critical mineral supply chains and emerging technology.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri co-chaired the 2nd round of the India-Japan Economic Security Dialogue here on Monday with Vice Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan Takehiro Funakoshi and Vice Minister- International Affairs, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Takehiko Matsuo.

India and Russia are in advanced talks to sign a preliminary agreement on critical minerals covering exploration, processing and technological collaboration, two sources familiar with the matter said.

The deal is expected to focus on lithium and rare earths, with the two governments also set to facilitate corporate investments, the sources said, declining to be identified as the deliberations were not public.

The agreement could be signed within two months, they added.

"We have shared a draft of the proposed agreement with our Russian counterparts," one of the sources said.

The Ministry of Mines, which is leading discussions with Russia, did not respond to a Reuters email seeking comment. Russia's Ministry of Industry and Trade and the office of First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov also did not respond to requests for comment.

The ministries of renewable energy and power will meet on Wednesday to discuss issues related to the deviation settlement mechanism, curtailment of green power and transmission infrastructure, renewable energy minister Pralhad Joshi said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the CII Annual Business Summit, Joshi said industry concerns over the viability of renewable energy projects under stricter grid compliance rules were being examined.

"The issues that have been brought up by the industry such as curtailment and deviation settlement mechanism, all that will be discussed," he said on the sidelines of the event. "This is a continuous process and won't be resolved in a day... There have already been a few meetings on this."

The RE industry has sought government intervention over stricter norms related to penalties for deviation from scheduled available capacity. The deviation settlement mechanism imposes grid penalties on power generators and distributors when their actual electricity supply or demand diverges from their scheduled forecasts.

Panic buying of bridal jewellery has started across India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked consumers to avoid buying gold for a year as part of austerity measures to mitigate the effects of the Gulf war on the Indian economy.

Jewellers said customers are rushing to buy ornaments before any policy changes ahead of the wedding season that starts in June and will continue until the middle of August. Sales are mostly driven by fears of higher import duties, an increase in goods and services tax (GST), or tighter restrictions on gold purchases.

"In the last two days, sales of bridal jewellery are up 15%-20% compared with average daily sales," said Rajesh Rokde, chairman of the All India Gem & Jewellery Domestic Council.

On average, daily sales for large jewellery chains can touch about RS 25 lakh per store, while mid-sized jewellers typically see RS 15 lakh to RS 18 lakh in daily sales, industry executives said.

The travel and tourism sector is in a ‘wait-and watch’ mode after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for austerity in travel, among other things. The PM’s call to cut down on foreign trips and overseas destination weddings, and opt for destinations within the country instead, spells good news for domestic tourism, already on an upward path.

In 2025, domestic tourist visits were estimated at 4,548 million, an increase of 54% from 2948.19 million in 2024. An HVS Anarock report suggests this number could exceed 9,500 million by 2030. At the same time, Indians are increasingly travelling abroad. Indian national departures during 2025 reflected a growth of 5.9% over the previous year, and 21.5% compared to 2019.

Anil Chadha, managing director, ITC Hotels, told FE: “Domestic tourism has always been a strong pillar of the Indian tourism sector, and this renewed focus can further strengthen local livelihoods, regional economies and allied industries across the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to citizens to postpone non-essential gold purchases in order to safeguard India’s foreign exchange reserves has triggered intense discussions across the bullion market, with jewellery retailers responding by aggressively promoting gold recycling and exchange programmes as a less disruptive alternative to suppressing demand.

The comments come at a time when India’s gold imports remain elevated amid volatile global commodity prices and persistent geopolitical uncertainty. India is among the world’s largest consumers of gold, and heavy imports often exert pressure on the current account deficit and the rupee.

Top jewellery retailers and industry executives said while they understand the macroeconomic concerns behind the government’s message, restricting consumer demand in a country where gold is culturally and financially embedded may not be practical.

Instead, organised jewellers are increasingly encouraging customers to recycle idle household gold, exchange old ornaments for new designs and monetise unused jewellery. “We are assessing the impact of the PM’s call on procurement. Having said that, there can be rotation of the gold that lies within lockers, temples or with citizens.

Amid mounting pressure for retail fuel price hikes after the recently concluded assembly elections, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said fuel price revisions were “unrelated” to elections, while acknowledging that the government would eventually have to assess how long state-run oil companies can continue absorbing massive losses caused by elevated crude prices and stagnant retail fuel rates.

The remarks come at a time when state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) are estimated to be incurring under-recoveries of nearly RS 1.98 lakh crore in the current quarter, while actual losses are projected at around RS 1 lakh crore as petrol, diesel and LPG prices remain largely unchanged despite the sharp rise in global energy prices following the West Asia conflict.

“My oil companies are losing RS 1,000 crore a day,” Puri said at the CII Annual Business Summit 2026. “How long will the oil companies be able to take it… frankly, that’s something that worries me,” he said.

After a 50% jump in April sales, electric two-wheeler (E2W) makers are expected to sustain strong growth momentum in the coming months as concerns over fuel shortages, a likely rise in petrol prices due to the ongoing Gulf war, and government messaging around conservative fuel usage drive a shift in consumer behaviour.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged people to use petrol, diesel and gas with “great restraint”, calling it the “need of the hour” amid the ongoing West Asia crisis, which has raised concerns over disruption of fuel supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil transit route.

“Government messaging around fuel conservation adds to a broader concern around rising fuel costs that has been gaining ground,” said Poonam Upadhyay, Director, Crisil Ratings. She added that while public appeals rarely influence purchase decisions, the bigger concern is that absorbing the widening gap between global crude prices and domestic retail fuel prices is becoming increasingly difficult for state-owned oil marketing companies.

Renewable energy deal values in India increased more than five-fold to nearly $2 billion last year even as the country prepares for the next phase of its clean energy transition centred around battery storage, grid resilience and round-the-clock renewable power systems, Union minister for new and renewable energy Pralhad Joshi said on Tuesday.

“As we move towards 500 GW, the next phase will require deeper integration of generation, storage and transmission,” Joshi said while addressing the CII Annual Business Summit 2026.

“Grid resilience, battery storage, hybrid renewable projects, pumped hydro, offshore wind and round-the-clock clean power solutions will become more important,” he said.