Author: V. Alure

(Bloomberg) — The European Union’s anti-fraud office has been asked to “look into” the conduct of Peter Mandelson during his time as the bloc’s trade chief, after further details of the British politician’s links with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein came to light.The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, made the request on Feb. 18 “given the circumstances, and the significant amount of documents made available publicly,” according to a spokesperson. The commission has been assessing whether there’s any breach of obligations under the EU’s treaties and Code of Conduct, the spokesperson added. Mandelson served as EU Trade Commissioner from 2004…

  The issue figured in Thursday’s meeting held at the Department of Financial Services (DFS) on shadow banks where their future as potential banks was taken up.   “Just like you have a transition path for small finance banks (SFBs) to universal banks, it was felt the similar approach for NBFCs may be needed,” said a source. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to be tasked with this.   The DFS is to meet again on the NBFC sector next week. This meeting is to be chaired by finance secretary M Nagaraju.   “Today’s…

Since its public listing on Euronext in 2015, Nicola Perin has served as CFO of Italian mass-market clothing retailer OVS. Previously, he was CFO of the conglomerate Grupo COIN, from which OVS was carved out. OVS operates brands including OVS, Upim, Golden-point, Stefanel, CROFF, and Les Copains, managing a network of 2,600 stores in Italy and abroad. Global Finance: Over your 10 years guiding OVS’ finances, what are you most proud of doing? Nicola Perin: What makes me proudest, though not because it is the most difficult task, is that I’ve always kept the machine running smoothly. For a CFO,…

The Assam government on Thursday decided to increase the daily wages of tea garden workers by ₹30, ahead of the assembly elections.Following this decision, wages in the Brahmaputra valley will rise to ₹280, and will be ₹258 in the Barak valley. Addressing a press conference, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet. “As an interim measure, the cabinet has decided to increase the wages by ₹30 with effect from April 1,” he said.The minimum daily wage of tea garden workers was last hiked by ₹18 in October 2023.The assembly elections…

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate US-based chipmaker Micron Technology’s semiconductor assembly and testing plant at Sanand in Gujarat on Saturday(February 28).The state-of-the-art ATMP (Assembly, Testing, Marking and Packaging) facility has been set up with an investment of Rs 22,516 crore. Located near Ahmedabad, the Sanand plant marks a major step in India’s semiconductor journey and is being described as the country’s first semiconductor fabrication-linked facility of this scale. ‘The World Believes India’: PM Modi’s BIG Statement as He Pitches for Semiconductor Made Locally Rs 22,516 crore investment and job creationMicron Semiconductor Technology India Pvt. Ltd. has invested Rs 22,516…

After a prolonged wait, the statistics ministry is slated to release a new gross domestic product (GDP) series on Friday, with 2022-23 as the base year. Base revisions are technical exercises, but history shows they can significantly reshape the narrative around India’s growth performance.  Under the 2004-05 series, India recorded three consecutive years of 9 per cent-plus growth — 9.3 per cent in 2005-06 (FY06), 9.3 per cent in FY07, and 9.8 per cent in FY08 — all falling under the Manmohan Singh government 1.0. That three-year run remains unprecedented in India’s economic history. No other period has…

The fear that artificial intelligence could upend white-collar careers is no longer confined to software developers. Over the past year, as generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude have grown sharper and faster, anxiety has quietly seeped into corporate offices, business schools and even professions once considered stable and insulated from automation. Now, a finance professional has publicly acknowledged that his own field may not be immune. Shashank Udupa, a SEBI-registered research analyst and founder of Vayu Capital, sparked debate after posting an Instagram reel reflecting on how quickly the AI disruption narrative is shifting. In the video, he…

My Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) has produced some cracking winners since I started building it three years ago. Costain, Rolls-Royce, and Lloyds are all up roughly 200% on my watch. But investing isn’t all champagne and steaks, there’s inevitably the odd dollop of thin gruel too. In my case that comes in three stubborn lumps. By sheer coincidence, the three worst performing stocks in my SIPP all published their full-year results either yesterday (25 February) or today, and they all stank. So do I finally pull the plug? Image source: Getty Images Aston Martin shares are a car crash James…

How high a yield is too high? From a passive income perspective, a juicy dividend yield can be very attractive. On the other hand, it can also be a red flag that investors expect a cut in the payout down the line. So it grabbed my attention today (26 February) when a UK share that already yields a whopping 11% raised its dividend per share yet again. Image source: Getty Images Inflation-busting performance That share is Greencoat UK Wind (LSE: UKW). Its full-year dividend per share has been increased to 10.35p, making this the twelfth year in a row that…

Vishal Mega Mart’s promoter entity Samayat Services LLP is expected to sell 6.5% stake in the company via a block deal. The shares are likely to be sold at a price of Rs 115 apiece, which implies a 10% discount from today’s closing price, according to ET Now report.Samayat Services held 54.09% (252.74 crore) in Vishal Mega Mart as of December 31, 2025 and under the stake sale, 3.05 crore shares will be offloaded, the report said.Shares of Vishal Mega Mart today ended at Rs 127.53 on the NSE, up by Rs 4.56 or 3.71% from the Wednesday closing price.…