Composer-actor Sooraj S Kurup is stepping behind the camera for the first time with 'Lighter', a Malayalam short film that blends horror and thriller elements around an apparently simple late-night outing gone wrong. The project centers on two friends who head out for a drink and instead find themselves trapped in a tense, unsettling situation.
India A enter the next contest under pressure to level the three-match series after Australia A opened with a 1-0 lead. The onus now falls on the home batters to produce a disciplined, high-quality response and keep the series alive.
Vice President C. P. Radhakrishnan addressed the second convocation of AIIMS Deoghar, using the platform to spotlight the role of premier public medical institutions in strengthening India’s healthcare system. His remarks placed the graduating cohort within a larger national framework of service, medical excellence, and institutional responsibility.
IndusInd Bank has launched a dedicated banking vertical for Global Capability Centres in India, aiming to capture a fast-growing client base that is increasingly central to the country’s services economy. The new offering combines corporate and employee banking under one relationship and adds foreign-currency account services to support cross-border operations.
The Reserve Bank of India will require banks to maintain 99% of their cash reserve ratio on a daily basis from the fortnight beginning October 16, 2026, up from the current 90%. The move removes a layer of operational flexibility and is designed to absorb excess liquidity in the banking system, reinforcing the central bank’s grip on short-term money market conditions.
The World Trade Organization has upgraded its 2026 forecast for global goods trade growth to 3.9%, citing stronger demand linked to the artificial intelligence boom and the durability of supply chains despite repeated shocks. Asia is expected to lead export growth, while the outlook for services has weakened as conflict in West Asia disrupts transport and travel flows.
West Indies bowling coach Ravi Rampaul has warned that his side must avoid losing wickets in clusters if they are to remain competitive, acknowledging that the attack still lacks the depth of international experience needed to control pressure moments. His assessment comes as the team continues to balance promise with inconsistency in a demanding phase of transition.
Fast bowling is expected to shape India’s upcoming tour of New Zealand, with former cricketer and analyst Ferguson stressing that seamers will play a decisive role in the conditions. He also said the series will provide a significant test for teenage batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, whose rapid rise has made him one of the most closely watched young talents in Indian cricket.
D2C fashion brand Bewakoof reported a sharp deterioration in profitability in FY26, with net loss widening nearly 20% year-on-year to ₹87.4 crore even as revenue crossed the ₹200 crore mark. The reversal comes after a comparatively improved FY25, underscoring the continued strain on unit economics, marketing efficiency and operating leverage in India’s crowded online fashion market.
Aamir Khan Productions has launched an open mic initiative under its Aamir Khan Talkies channel in collaboration with Kommune, the spoken-word and storytelling platform, to create a wider stage for grassroots talent. The move positions the production house within a growing ecosystem of creator-led cultural discovery, where live performance, community participation and digital distribution increasingly intersect.
Tipped Off and Ravishing Queen emerged as the headline performers in the latest round of Indian racing, drawing attention for the quality of their runs and the confidence they inspired among followers. Their success added momentum to a competitive card and underlined the continuing depth of form among leading contenders in the domestic circuit.
IndusBridge Ventures has raised Rs 2,000 crore for a defence-focused fund, marking a significant bet on India’s military manufacturing and security technology ecosystem. Co-founders Ravi Kapoor and Rahul Devjani said the capital will be deployed into Indian defence companies as global military spending rises and New Delhi intensifies its push for self-reliance.
On International Day of the Girl Child, the entertainment and culture conversation turns to visibility, aspiration and the power of representation. The quiz-style feature, framed around the theme of girls’ empowerment, underscores how popular culture can help shape public understanding of opportunity, equality and confidence for young women in India.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has wrested the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat in Assam after a seven-year gap, marking a significant political recovery in a constituency where Muslim voters form a decisive majority. The result underscores the party’s expanding footprint in areas long considered difficult terrain, with Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma saying Muslims account for 62% of the electorate in the seat.
Veteran actor Nana Patekar has died at the age of 75 after being found unconscious at his apartment in Dona Paula, near Panaji in Goa, and rushed to a private hospital. The development marks the loss of one of Indian cinema’s most distinctive and forceful performers, whose career spanned decades across film, theatre, and public life.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has wrested the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat in Assam after a seven-year gap, marking a significant political recovery in a constituency long shaped by shifting demographic and communal equations. The result underscores the party’s deeper penetration into areas with a large Muslim electorate, which Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said accounts for 62% of the constituency’s voters.
Peak XV Partners, one of Awfis Space Solutions’ early institutional backers, has pared its stake in the coworking operator through a bulk deal valued at about ₹30 crore. The transaction, involving 12.2 lakh shares, comes as venture investors continue to rebalance exposure in listed new-age companies amid a volatile market for growth stocks.
India is preparing to roll out an annual return and quarterly payment framework for small taxpayers, a move aimed at easing compliance and improving cash flow for micro and small businesses. The proposal also includes extinguishing disputed tax notices of up to ₹10,000, a step that could benefit as many as 12 lakh small enterprises if implemented as described.
A fund associated with the late Rakesh Jhunjhunwala has acquired a stake in Tourism Finance Corporation of India, drawing fresh market attention to the small-cap lender. In a CNBC-TV18 interview, TFCI Managing Director Satpal Arora said business conditions remain supportive and the company is positioned to benefit from India’s continuing tourism and hospitality recovery.
India’s tax administration is preparing to extend faceless assessment to GST payers registered across multiple CGST jurisdictions, a move aimed at reducing discretionary contact and improving consistency in adjudication. The framework is expected to be placed in the public domain for consultation by the end of this year, with implementation targeted for the next fiscal year.
Chennaiyin FC are entering a decisive phase of their Indian Super League campaign with the message from within the camp clear: the team must finally convert promising pieces into a complete performance. With results and consistency still lagging, the club’s challenge is less about talent than execution, cohesion and game management. The coming fixtures will test whether Chennaiyin can turn intent into points before the season slips further away.
Indian banks are entering the next few quarters with asset quality still broadly benign, but a fresh report warns that higher crude oil prices and uneven monsoon rainfall could test borrowers’ repayment capacity. The note says credit costs remain stable for both private and public sector lenders, yet external shocks may pressure profitability and net interest margins if they persist.
India’s next phase of farm electrification is likely to hinge on more than the tractor segment now drawing industry attention. To cut operating costs, lift farm incomes and reduce post-harvest and field-level waste, policymakers and manufacturers will need to extend the transition to power tillers, weeders and the smaller machines that do much of the work around the tractor. The shift could broaden access to mechanisation for smallholders while sharpening the fiscal and productivity case for cleaner rural energy use.
Siennor Trio’s new 11-track album, 'Ninaivu Maaligai', arrives as a live-recorded work that draws on Sufi, rock and other influences while reflecting on memory, continuity and artistic renewal. The release positions the group as part of a wider Indian independent music movement that is increasingly embracing live performance as both an aesthetic choice and a statement of authenticity.
Three names have emerged as the focal point of the latest India sports and racing conversation: Crown Invictus, Ashwa Tazbeez and Red Lightning. Their prominence reflects a competitive field where form, timing and tactical execution are shaping expectations ahead of the next decisive contests.
HDFC Bank has appointed Anup Bagchi as its next Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, with the transition set for October 27 after current chief Sashidhar Jagdishan’s term ends a day earlier. The Reserve Bank of India approved the appointment following its assessment, placing a long-serving ICICI Bank executive at the helm of India’s largest private-sector lender by market value. Bagchi’s background across banking, insurance and financial services signals continuity at a time when the lender is navigating a more competitive and regulated operating environment.
Veteran Indian actor Nana Patekar has died at the age of 75 after being found unconscious at his apartment in Dona Paula, near Panaji in Goa, and rushed to a private hospital, according to the breaking account. The development marks the end of a long and influential career that made Patekar one of the most distinctive and formidable performers in Indian cinema.
Badminton legend Prakash Padukone has urged Indian shuttlers to deliver more consistent performances, underscoring a familiar challenge for a squad that has produced flashes of brilliance but too often fallen short of sustained excellence. His remarks come at a time when Indian badminton is seeking to convert individual promise into regular podium contention across major international events.
More than half of urban households now believe India’s economic conditions have deteriorated, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s latest consumer confidence survey. The share of respondents reporting a worsening economy rose to 54.5% in the current round, up from 50.5% in July and 40.9% in September last year, signalling a sustained erosion in urban sentiment.
Lance Oppenheim’s 'Primetime' turns the camera back on the culture of spectacle, exposing the machinery behind televised morality with a sharp, unsettling sense of humour. Robert Pattinson delivers a striking performance in a film that is as much a critique of exploitative entertainment as it is an example of it.
A fund associated with the late investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala has acquired a stake in Tourism Finance Corporation of India, drawing market attention to the lender’s improving business outlook. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, TFCI Managing Director Satpal Arora said the company is seeing healthier demand trends and remains focused on disciplined growth in tourism-linked financing.
Sri Lanka have moved to reset their red-ball leadership, with Dhananjaya de Silva stepping down as Test captain and Kusal Mendis set to take over. The change hands the longest format to a player already trusted with the one-day and T20 sides, underlining the selectors’ preference for continuity across formats.
Canara HSBC Life Insurance Company reported a 5% year-on-year rise in net profit to Rs 43 crore for the September quarter, supported by stronger premium inflows and higher income. The insurer’s total income climbed to Rs 2,511 crore, while net premium collections and first-year premiums also posted solid gains, underscoring steady business momentum in a competitive life insurance market.
Reissued state bonds accounted for nearly 66% of total state market borrowings in the first half of FY27, underscoring how refinancing activity has become central to sub-sovereign funding, according to a report. The trend reflects both the growing sophistication of state debt management and the Reserve Bank of India’s efforts to deepen transparency and liquidity in the government securities market.
Airtel Money, the financial services arm of Airtel Africa, has made a high-profile debut on the London Stock Exchange in what market participants are calling the largest listing in five years. The offer for sale raised about £529 million through the sale of 270 million existing shares, valuing Airtel Mobile Commerce NV at roughly £5.3 billion.
JSW MG Motors India has announced eight startup winners from its MG Developer Program 2026, underscoring the automaker’s push to deepen its engagement with India’s startup ecosystem. The initiative reflects a broader industry shift toward open innovation, with legacy manufacturers increasingly turning to external founders for software, mobility, and customer-experience solutions.
Telangana has advised farmers to choose crops that require less water in the upcoming rabi season, warning that irrigation stress may intensify because of the continued impact of El Nino. State Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao said the government is assessing the situation closely as reservoir inflows and water availability remain a concern. The guidance signals a precautionary policy stance aimed at protecting yields and reducing the risk of crop losses in a season that could be shaped by tighter water supplies.
Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran has called for a differentiated approach to classifying non-performing assets for micro, small and medium enterprises, arguing that standard norms can misread the sector’s uneven cash flows and working-capital cycles. The Finance Ministry, from a policy standpoint, has indicated support for reviewing the framework, underscoring the need to align credit regulation with the realities of smaller businesses.
India’s government bond market may be entering a consolidation phase after a strong rally, but the broader downtrend in yields is still intact, according to market experts. The benchmark 10-year government security, which spent much of 2015 and early 2016 trapped in an 8-7.5 percent range before slipping below 7 percent, could fall further if the Reserve Bank of India continues to ease the system’s liquidity deficit.
Senior photojournalist B.M. Kedarnath said press photographs remain a powerful instrument of public accountability because they expose ground realities that can compel governments to respond. Speaking in the context of India’s media landscape, he argued that images often carry the urgency and credibility needed to move issues from public neglect into policy attention.
Orkut, the once-dominant social network that shaped an early era of internet culture in India and Brazil, may be headed for a comeback after its creator indicated plans to revive the platform. The move comes as an online petition backing the relaunch crossed 270,000 signatures by October 9, with Brazil accounting for the bulk of support and users from Portugal, Ireland and Paraguay also joining the campaign.
Twin Strings, the Delhi-based indie band that began by recording covers in a home studio, is set to take its original music to audiences across India with Karwaan 2026, a six-city tour marking nine years of its evolution. The tour underscores the band’s shift from an intimate online following to a broader live-performance footprint in India’s fast-growing independent music circuit.
India’s satellite communications market has entered a sharper phase of regulatory and commercial contest, with Elon Musk’s Starlink facing renewed scrutiny over market access, spectrum policy and the pace of approvals. At the same time, the Reserve Bank of India’s updated FEMA rules are adding a new layer of compliance pressure for startups and venture-backed companies navigating cross-border capital flows.
The Supreme Court has declined to immediately halt the government’s new merchant discount rate regime for certain Unified Payments Interface transactions above Rs 2,000, allowing the policy to remain on track for an October 15 rollout. The court, however, issued notices to the Centre, the Reserve Bank of India, the National Payments Corporation of India and other respondents after a public interest litigation challenged the legality of the levy.
India’s push to expand irrigation coverage is increasingly turning to lift irrigation projects, which move water uphill or across difficult terrain to farms that canals and gravity-fed systems often miss. The central policy logic is straightforward: deliver the right quantity of water to the right place, with minimum losses and maximum reliability, while improving farm productivity and easing regional water stress.
India’s farm electrification agenda is entering a more practical phase, with policymakers and industry increasingly focused on machines that can deliver immediate savings for small and marginal farmers. Beyond the tractor programme already under development, the next opportunity lies in power tillers, weeders and other equipment that can cut fuel use, reduce labour dependence and lower post-harvest waste.
The shift matters because farm electrification will be judged not by technology adoption alone, but by whether it raises incomes, improves efficiency and fits the realities of fragmented landholdings across India.
Venture capital funding into Indian startups fell sharply in the second week of October, underscoring how dependent weekly totals remain on a handful of large transactions. The decline was driven primarily by the absence of blockbuster deals, even as investor interest across the ecosystem remained intact.
India is sharpening its governance narrative around measurable public delivery, with policymakers increasingly framing administrative reform as a shift from symbolic leadership to operational benchmarks. The latest push reflects a broader effort to make state capacity more visible, more accountable and more closely tied to outcomes that citizens can actually experience.
At stake is not only the efficiency of government machinery but also the credibility of India’s national policy model, which is being tested on whether it can translate ambition into reliable service delivery across a vast and uneven administrative landscape.
Bitcoin climbed back above $82,500 on Saturday after sliding to a nearly three-week low earlier in the week, with improved exchange-traded fund flows helping to steady sentiment across digital assets. Even so, analysts warned that institutional outflows, rising US-Iran tensions and AI-related security concerns continue to cloud the outlook, while derivatives markets showed heavy liquidations across crypto positions.
Bengaluru FC head coach Gerard Zaragoza Munoz has welcomed what he sees as the Indian Super League’s return to a more familiar competitive rhythm, saying the league now feels closer to its original identity. His remarks come at a time when clubs are adjusting to a sharper, more demanding contest in which margins are tighter and consistency matters more than reputation. For Bengaluru FC, that shift could prove decisive as they look to convert stability into results.
