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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept key policy rates and its monetary policy stance unchanged, while continuing to monitor inflationary pressures and global economic developments, according to market reactions following the central bank's latest policy announcement. Reacting to the policy decision, Upasna Bhardwaj, Chief Economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank, said the RBI had expectedly maintained both rates and stance, while highlighting amplified risks on the inflation front. She noted that the central bank remains cautious amid evolving macroeconomic conditions and inflation concerns. Bhardwaj said the bank expects a cumulative 50 basis points rate hike cycle to begin from October…

State-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is actively engaging with major financial regulators, including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), to expand the availability of long-term investment instruments. LIC Managing Director and CEO R. Doraiswamy revealed that this proactive outreach is driven by a massive, continuous surge of inflows into the corporation’s annuity and pension products. Annuity products convert a policyholder's retirement corpus into a guaranteed, lifelong stream of income, creating long-tailed liabilities for LIC that can span up to 50 years. To safely match these extended liabilities, the insurance…

A relentless wave of artificial intelligence adoption has triggered a profound shift across the global workforce, with the technology, media, and telecommunications sector alongside customer operations suffering the most severe disruption. As corporate giants aggressively scale up spending on generative AI models and data centers, executive leadership teams are leveraging high-level automation to significantly downsize their workforces. This sudden operational transition has debunked early projections that automation would take decades to materialize, proving instead that routine, rule-based digital tasks can be completely substituted overnight at a fraction of human labor costs. The legal, administrative, and technology sectors are experiencing unprecedented…

In a major shift for online retail, Meesho announced that more than 75 percent of its platform orders now originate from personalized product feeds. This surge is powered by its proprietary AI recommendation engine, known as PRISM. The system represents a fundamental shift away from traditional, keyword-based search bars, catering instead to a growing demographic of users who prefer browsing over typing. Serving an enormous user base of 264 million annual transacting users, PRISM analyzes real-time shopper behavior and intent signals. According to Meesho's Chief Data Scientist, Debdoot Mukherjee, the next hundred million Indians coming online will discover products through…

Marking World Hunger Day, Hunger Free World, a humanitarian initiative of Malabar Group, released a rehabilitation impact report highlighting how its Street Meal Distribution Programme has helped transform the lives of vulnerable people living on the streets through consistent food outreach and rehabilitation support. Titled "Impact Stories: How a Daily Meal Opens the Door to a Transformed Life", the report documents cases where regular meal distribution led to medical assistance, shelter access, dignity restoration and family reunification. The programme is implemented on the ground by Thanal. According to the report, the initiative was launched to address hunger through regular access…

Renault India on Friday announced that its new Duster Turbo TCe 100 has achieved an ARAI-certified fuel efficiency of 19.41 km per litre, highlighting the company's focus on combining performance with fuel economy in the competitive SUV segment. The automaker said the Duster Turbo TCe 100 is powered by a turbocharged petrol engine that delivers 100 PS of power and 160 Nm of torque. Paired with a six-speed manual transmission, the powertrain has been designed to offer responsive performance, smooth drivability and improved fuel efficiency across varied driving conditions. Dr. V. Vikraman, Chief of Renault Engineering, Renault Group India, said…