Business

JPMorgan Chase is in advanced talks to take over Apple’s credit card programme from Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Talks between the largest U.S. bank and the tech giant began last year, as Goldman sought to unwind a partnership that had once been a cornerstone of its consumer banking strategy.

JPMorgan and Goldman declined to comment on the WSJ report, while Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The deal would further entrench JPMorgan in the credit card business and add to a string of victories for CEO Jamie Dimon, who has built the bank into a dominant force across retail banking and Wall Street businesses.

The bank is among the top credit card issuers in the United States, and competes closely with rivals such as American Express and Capital One.

Launched in 2019 with Goldman, the Apple card offered perks such as no fees and cashback, but the bank’s struggles in consumer banking prompted a rethink of the partnership.

Since then, Goldman has pivoted to its traditional mainstays of investment banking and trading.

Barclays and Synchrony Financial have also discussed partnering with Apple for the credit card, Reuters reported in January.

Microsoft is in advanced talks for a deal that would give the Windows maker continued access to critical OpenAI technology in the future, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing two people familiar with the negotiations.

The companies have discussed new terms that would allow Microsoft to use OpenAI’s latest models and technology even if the ChatGPT maker declares it has achieved artificial general intelligence (AGI), or AI that surpasses human intelligence, the report said.

A clause in OpenAI’s current contract with Microsoft will shut the software giant out of some rights to the startup’s advanced technology when it achieves AGI.

Negotiators have been meeting regularly, and an agreement could come together in a matter of weeks, Bloomberg News reported.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, while Microsoft declined to comment.

OpenAI needs Microsoft’s approval to complete its transition into a public-benefit corporation. The two have been in negotiations for months to revise the terms of their investment, including the future equity stake Microsoft will hold in OpenAI.

Last month, the Information reported that Microsoft and OpenAI were at odds over the AGI clause.

OpenAI is also facing a lawsuit from Elon Musk, who co-founded the company with Sam Altman in 2015 but left before it surged in popularity, accusing OpenAI of straying from its founding mission — to develop AI for the good of humanity, not corporate profit.

Microsoft is set to report June-quarter earnings on Wednesday, with its relationship with OpenAI in the spotlight, as the startup turns to rivals Google, Oracle and CoreWeave for cloud capacity.

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP), the nation’s monthly barometer of goods output, revealed a 10-month low growth rate in June, at 1.5%, largely due to the sharp contraction in mining activity, by –8.7% (10.3% in June 2024), and electricity output, by –2.6% (8.6% in June 2024). The early onset of the southwest monsoon, with its erratic and uneven distribution, led to water logging in large parts of the mining belts in Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal, hampering a key economic activity. Ranchi’s regional meteorological office has said that Jharkhand recorded 504.8 mm (against a normal of 307 mm) between June 1 and July 12 — but five districts were categorised as rain deficient. The resultant damage to the power distribution infrastructure and disruptions to supply chains may have contributed to the sluggish growth in industrial output at 3.9% in June, up from 3.5% a year ago. This in turn, is likely to have led to subdued power demand. While mining and power production collectively make up for almost a quarter (22.3%) of the IIP’s weightage, the rest is apportioned for manufacturing activities. The robust growth in capital (3.5%), intermediate (5.5%) and infrastructure (7.2%) goods output, indicates that much of industrial growth continues to hinge on the government’s infrastructure spends.

There has been a general reluctance, both institutionally and in public economic discourse in India, to explicitly correlate disruptions in economic activity with climate-related events, especially in official narratives such as the IIP or GDP data releases. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) tend to frame industrial and economic under-performance in terms of ‘high base effects; supply chain bottlenecks; input cost fluctuations; global demand softening; and domestic consumption contraction’. Climate-related disruptions, such as in mining belts, are rarely mentioned in IIP or national accounts commentary. Economic data agencies in India have been slow to integrate climate risk frameworks into routine macroeconomic reporting, unlike institutions such as the European Central Bank or the Bank of England which have begun mapping climate risk to output and financial stability. True, climate attribution is complex: linking a specific event such as waterlogging in a coal mine to broader climate change involves scientific rigour and probabilistic modelling. Policymakers often avoid this due to fear of politicising economic data. Indeed, the RBI’s Financial Stability Reports now include climate-related risks. But this has not yet filtered into production-side metrics such as the IIP. The time has come for India to make a systemic shift to integrate climate attribution to economic activity.

Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) has entered into a Joint Operating Agreement with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC) and BP Exploration (Alpha) Ltd. (BP) for the exploration Block GS-OSHP-2022/2 (Block).

This Block located off the western coast in Saurashtra basin and was awarded to RIL, ONGC and BP as part of Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy. The parties will pursue exploration operation in the Block pursuant to the terms of award of the Block, RIL said in a statement.

Jagatjit Industries Ltd. said it has commenced commercial production at its 200‑kilolitre‑per‑day (KLPD) grain‑based ethanol distillery, housed within the company’s complex at Hamira in Punjab.

At full capacity, it could supply up to 65–70 million litre of ethanol per year, directly supporting the government’s 20% ethanol blending target under the National Policy on Biofuels.

Roshini Sanah Jaiswal, Promoter & Executive Director said “This plant marks a strategic milestone in Jagatjit Industries’ journey.”

“With a ₹550 crore annual topline opportunity and an 8–10% margin lift, it brings stable, high-quality revenue that strengthens our balance sheet and funds our next phase of growth across premium spirits and new markets,” she said.

“It aligns us with India’s clean energy mandate—converting surplus grain into biofuel and contributing meaningfully to the country’s ethanol blending targets. This is a decisive step in building a more resilient and future-focused company,” she added.

The commissioning comes at a time when the government’s ethanol‑blending programme has already lifted the petrol‑blend from virtually zero to 20%, and policy discussions are under way to raise that level to 27% in the years ahead. 

Under the National Policy on Biofuels, distillers can draw on a wide range of feedstocks—corn, broken rice, damaged food grain and even agricultural residue—when supplies are officially deemed surplus.

Jagatjit’s plant is designed to handle this mix, turning what might otherwise go to waste into fuel that cuts emissions and reduces the country’s dependence on imported crude oil. 

Lord Meghnad Desai, a “multifaceted personality”, eminent economist, holder of India’s third-highest civilian honour, and a member of the United Kingdom’s House of Lords has passed away on Tuesday (July 29, 2025), at the age of 85.

Commenting on the loss, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to the social media platform X to say he was “anguished by the passing away of Shri Meghnad Desai Ji, a distinguished thinker, writer and economist”. 

“He always remained connected to India and Indian culture,” Mr. Modi added. “He also played a role in deepening India-U.K. ties. Will fondly recall our discussions, where he shared his valuable insights. Condolences to his family and friends. Om Shanti.”

Born Meghnad Jagdishchandra Desai, Lord Desai, as he came to be known following his membership to the House of Lords in the U.K., was born in Vadodara in 1940. After completing his Bachelor’s in economics from the University of Mumbai, he went on to finish his Master’s degree from the same university before securing a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed his PhD in economics in 1963— three years after he secured admission there. 

Desai’s personality, as well as his professional and personal accomplishments can perhaps best be encapsulated by what Montek Singh Ahluwalia wrote about him in the book ‘Arguing about the World: The Work and Legacy of Meghnad Desai’.

“I have known Meghnad for many years in a staggering variety of avatars: as a one-time Marxist economist, a mainstream economist/econometrician at LSE, a Labour Party activist, a Labour Member of the House of Lords … a keen and surprisingly good cook, an insightful observer of the Indian political scene, a regular columnist in one of India’s leading newspapers, a biographer of one of the best-loved Bollywood icons of yesteryear, most recently a late-blossoming novelist, and above all a wonderful raconteur and bon vivant,” Mr. Ahluwalia wrote in his chapter of the book.

The book, published in 2011, also has eminent economist Jagdish Bhagwati describing Desai as being at the “forefront of discussions on Indian public policy for many years”. 

Desai’s early works certainly were focused on the Marxian way of thought, including his first book Marxian Economic Theory (1973), which was relatively quickly followed up by Applied Econometrics (1976), and Marxian Economics (1979), which was a revised edition of his 1973. He then wrote a critique on monetarism — the economic theory that focuses on the role of money supply in influencing economic activity and price levels — in 1981.

Through all this, Desai also committed himself to an illustrious teaching career, primarily at the London School of Economics. 

Notably, in 2002, he wrote Marx’s Revenge: The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism in which he argued that the ongoing trend of globalisation would eventually lead in the direction of a revival of socialism.

The overwhelming focus European societies place on social security, and the ongoing trend even in India of increasing doles to the electorate suggests Desai might not have been far off the mark in his analysis.

In total, Desai wrote or edited more than 20 books and over 200 articles for academic journals. 

Among them was the book ‘Who Wrote The Bhagavadgita?’, published in January 2014. According to HarperCollins, the publisher, Desai in his book contended “that some themes in the Gita reinforce social inequality and lack of concern for the other and to that extent he finds Gita to be toxic”.

Desai was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian honour, in 2008.   

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) found 51 safety lapses at Air India in its July audit, including lack of adequate training for some pilots, use of unapproved simulators and a poor rostering system, according to a government report seen by Reuters.

The Tata Group-owned airline is already facing warning notices for running planes without checking emergency equipment, not changing engine parts in time and forging records, along with other lapses related to crew fatigue management.

The 11-page confidential audit report from the aviation watchdog noted seven “Level I” significant breaches which need to be fixed by July 30, and 44 other non-compliances classified which need to be resolved by August 23.

Officials said they found “recurrent training gaps” for some unspecified Boeing 787 and 777 pilots, saying they had not completed their monitoring duties ahead of mandatory periodic evaluations.

Not related to Ahmedabad crash

The annual audit was not related to the deadly Boeing 787 crash last month that killed 260 people in Ahmedabad, but its findings come as the airline faces renewed scrutiny after the accident.

Air India’s fleet includes 34 Boeing 787s and 23 Boeing 777s, according to Flightradar24 website.

Flagging operational and safety risks, officials wrote in their report that Air India did not do “proper route assessments” for some so-called Category C airports – which may have challenging layouts or terrain – and conducted training for such airfields with simulators that did not meet qualification standards.

“This may account to non-consideration of safety risks during approaches to challenging airports,” the DGCA audit report said.

In a statement to Reuters, Air India said it was “fully transparent” during the audit. It added it will “submit our response to the regulator within the stipulated time frame, along with the details of the corrective actions.”

A preliminary report into the June crash found that the fuel control switches were flipped almost simultaneously after takeoff and there was pilot confusion in the cockpit. One pilot asked the other why he cut off the fuel and the other responded that he hadn’t done so, the report said.

The DGCA has often flagged concerns about Air India pilots breaching the limits of their flight-duty periods, and the audit report said an AI-787 Milan-New Delhi flight last month exceeded the limit by 2 hours and 18 minutes, calling it a “Level I” non-compliance.

The audit was conducted by 10 DGCA inspectors, and included another four auditors.

It also criticized the airline’s rostering system, which it said “doesn’t give a hard alert” if a minimum number of crew members were not being deployed on a flight, adding that at least four international flights had flown with insufficient cabin crew.

Reuters reported last week that Air India’s senior executives, including the airline’s director of flight operations and its director of training, were sent notices on July 23 flagging 29 “systemic” lapses, pulling up the airline for ignoring “repeated” warnings. Air India has said it will respond to the regulator.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (July 29, 2025) fixed July 31 for hearing pleas seeking a review of a May 2 verdict that set aside a resolution plan submitted by JSW Steel Limited for Bhushan Steel and Power Limited (BSPL), holding it illegal and in violation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

A Bench of Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma allowed an application for open-court hearing and fixed July 31 for hearing a batch of pleas seeking a review of the verdict.

“Application(s) for listing review petition(s) in open court and application for oral hearing are allowed. Issue notice. List these matters on July 31, 2025 at 3 p.m.,” the bench ordered.

The Court considered the review pleas in chambers by circulation and passed the order.

The former promoters of BSPL urged the top court on July 21 to accord an open-court hearing to their plea for a review of the May 2 verdict.

The former promoters of BSPL were Sanjay Singhal and his family, specifically including his father Brij Bhushan Singhal and brother Neeraj Singhal.