Business

An inhalers and derma products manufacturing plant of Aurobindo Pharma subsidiary Aurolife Pharma LLC in the U.S. has been issued 11 observations by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

The U.S. FDA conducted an inspection at Raleigh plant, North Carolina, USA, owned by wholly owned step-down subsidiary Aurolife Pharma LLC from March 24 to April 10 and issued a Form 483 with 11 observations. These observations are procedural in nature. The development is not expected to have any material impact on the current business operations or existing supplies from the facility, Aurobindo Pharma said in a filing on Friday.

“We will submit a comprehensive response to the U.S. FDA within the stipulated timeline, addressing each observation with appropriate corrective and preventive actions,” it said.

Indian Overseas Bank has decided to reduce its repo-linked lending rate (RLLR) by 25 basis points from 9.10% to 8.85% effective April 12.

This follows the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy committee reducing the policy repo rate from 6.25% to 6% earlier this week. The asset liability management committee of Indian Overseas Bank on Friday decided to pass on the rate cut to the customers by reducing RLLR, the Chennai-headquartered bank said.

Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.
| Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Friday (April 11, 2025) indicated a clear preference for India to work with European and North American partners for international trade instead of China. “Even when it was open [for Chinese firms to invest in India], not too much Chinese investment has come, nor are we encouraging any significant investment coming in from China at all at the moment,” Mr. Goyal said, speaking at Carnegie India’s Global Technology Summit.

“Our effort is to integrate our economies with the developed world, who believe in fair play, who believe in honest business practices and where we get an equal opportunity to do business and invest,” Mr. Goyal said. “Everything will be based on reciprocity. Everything will be based on mutual trust and mutual benefit.” Indians were insulated from the worst of impacts of U.S. tariffs, Mr. Goyal said, recalling that Indian captains of industry were optimistic at a meeting with him held before a 90-day pause to the measure was announced.

Mr. Goyal also hit out at China’s classification of itself as developing, without explicitly naming the country. “If countries with a per capita income of $50,000 and if I’m not mistaken, maybe one with $100,000, chooses to call itself a developing nation, then obviously it is going to cause angst,” he said. Recent developments vindicated India’s decision to not join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership grouping, he said.

Bilateral agreements

Mr. Goyal abstained from putting any hard timeline on concluding the U.S.–India bilateral trade agreement. “We aspire for [indicative] timelines, but at the end of the day it has to be a win-win for both sides,” Mr. Goyal said. “It has to be a fair, equitable and balanced solution. Just to meet a deadline, you cannot compromise national interest.”

On Europe, Mr. Goyal hit out at climate standards and other requirements typically demanded by the bloc.

“There will be two areas on which the European Union will have to rethink: one is these non-trade issues, which they seek to superimpose into the trade agenda. Unless they get that out of their system — and the European Commission will need to reflect on it — they will find it very difficult to get a trade agreement with anybody whatsoever. Any self-respecting country cannot sign up on commitments which are irrational, beyond the realm of trade, and where the rest of the world has been responsible for the problem in the first place and are sought to be put on our head as if it’s our responsibility to resolve.”

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, crashed 1.52% to 99.335.
| Photo Credit: PTI

The rupee surged 61 paise against the greenback to settle at 86.07 (provisional) on Friday (April 11, 2025) due to a sharp correction in the U.S. dollar and a strong rebound in the domestic equity markets.

The surge in the local unit came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump suspended the 26% tariffs on India till July 9.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit opened at 86.22, up 46 paise against the U.S. dollar. During the intra-day trade, it rose to 85.95 before settling at 86.07 (provisional), up 61 paise against the greenback.

The rupee had settled at 86.68 on Wednesday (April 9, 2025).

Equity, forex, and commodity markets were closed on Thursday (April 10, 2025) on account of Shri Mahavir Jayanti.

“The rupee opened at 86.22 but the dollar was immediately sold off as the dollar index fell below 100 levels for the first time in three years,” Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury and Executive Director, Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP, said.

“The rupee is expected to be in the range of 85.75-86.25 next week on Tuesday after the holiday on Monday,” he said.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, crashed 1.52% to 99.335.

“With China imposing a 125% tariff on U.S. exports, the trade war continues but the dollar has been falling against Asian and European (currencies),” Mr. Bhansali said.

In the domestic equity market, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 1,310.11 points to settle at 75,157.26, while the Nifty rose 429.40 points to 22,828.55.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose marginally by 0.08% to $63.38 per barrel in futures trade.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹4,358.02 crore on a net basis on Wednesday (April 9, 2025), according to exchange data.

The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) crossed a major milestone on Friday, surpassing 22 crore investor accounts. The number of accounts, measured by unique client codes (UCCs), increased by 2 crores in just 6 months pushing behind the 20-crore mark from October 2024.
The number of unique registered investors, as of March 31, 2025, stood at 11.3 crore, up from 11 crore on 20 January 2025.
The number of investors and their client codes may differ, as a single investor can hold accounts with multiple brokers and therefore can be assigned separate client codes.
Maharashtra leads in investor accounts at 3.8 crore, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 2.4 crore, Gujarat at 1.9 crore), and Rajasthan and West Bengal at 1.3 crore each. Together, these five states contribute nearly 49 per cent of total accounts. The top ten states make up about three-fourths of the overall count.
Over the past five years, the Nifty 50 Index delivered a 22 per cent annualised return, while the broader Nifty 500 Index returned 25 per cent annually, the National Stock Exchange said in a press release.
Meanwhile, the NSE’s investor protection fund (IPF) rose by over 23 per cent year-on-year to Rs 2,459 crore as of 31 March 2025.
Sriram Krishnan, chief business development Officer at NSE, said, “India’s investor base continues to expand rapidly, with over 2 crore new accounts added in just six months—a clear reflection of strong investor confidence in India’s growth trajectory despite global economic headwinds.”
He further added that simplified KYC, financial literacy efforts, and broader participation across instruments like equities, ETFs, REITs, InvITs, and bonds are helping shape a maturing investment ecosystem.
Established in 1994, the NSE was the first exchange in India to launch electronic trading. It has been the country’s largest exchange by daily and total turnover since 1995, according to SEBI data. Its integrated model includes listings, trading, clearing, settlement, indices, data, technology, and investor education. It also monitors compliance with SEBI rules.
The NSE began operations in 1994 as India’s first exchange to implement electronic trading. The stock exchange has been ranked as the largest stock exchange in India in terms of total and average daily turnover for equity shares every year since 1995.

Ola Electric Mobility on Friday (April 11, 2025) said it has rolled out the first Roadster X motorcycle from its Future factory in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu. The electric bike is set to hit the road this month.

“The Roadster X series represents our commitment to taking the EV revolution to the next level. Today’s rollout celebrates not just a new product, but a new era for us and the industry, as it represents the next phase of revolution in electric mobility,” Ola Electric chairman and MD Bhavish Aggarwal said in a statement.

Ola Electric shares tumble over 7%; hit 52-week low

The Roadster X Series comes with a mid-drive motor that boosts performance and safety. It also features a chain drive and an integrated MCU for efficient torque transfer, providing better acceleration, and improved range. The Roadster X series also features flat cables in the motorcycles — an industry-first innovation.

These cables improve packaging efficiency, reduce weight, and enhance thermal performance, improving overall durability and reliability. The Roadster X series offers a breakthrough in motorcycle technology and comes with first-in-segment patented brake-by-wire technology with single ABS, and smart MoveOS five features such as advanced regeneration, cruise control, and reverse mode.

Restructuring exercise completed by March end, says Ola Electric

The battery system of the Roadster X series gets an IP67 waterproof and dust-proof certification, advanced wire bonding technology, and a serviceable Battery Management System (BMS) enabling easy maintenance.

Prices of Roadster X series are ₹84,999, ₹94,999 and ₹1,04,999 for the Roadster X 2.5kWh, 3.5kWh, and 4.5 kWh, respectively. Roadster X+ 4.5kWh is priced at ₹1,14,999, while Roadster X+ 9.1kWh (with 4680 Bharat Cell) that offers a range of 501 km/charge, is priced at ₹1,84,999.

Delhi CM Rekha Gupta (File photo)

The BJP-led Delhi government is set to unveil a new “foolproof” excise policy that will incorporate the best practices from other states to boost revenue, according to Chief Minister Rekha Gupta.
In an interview with PTI, Gupta emphasized that the new policy will be transparent, carefully designed to avoid societal issues, and focused on generating government revenue.
“We will bring a new, foolproof policy that is transparent and generates revenue for the government.” Gupta said in an interview with PTI on Thursday.
The policy will be such that it does not cause any problems to the people and society at large, she said. “In some states, excise policies are doing fine. We will follow these best excise policies of different states.”
The BJP came to power in Delhi in February, ousting the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). One of the key issues during the election was the alleged corruption and irregularities in the 2021-22 excise policy introduced by the AAP, which led to its eventual scrapping after the charges emerged.
The previous AAP-led government had replaced the old excise policy in November 2021 with a reform aimed at transforming the liquor trade in Delhi. However, it faced allegations of corruption, leading to a CBI probe and the eventual scrapping of the policy in August 2022. Following this, the government returned to the old policy, where wholesale and retail liquor sales are managed by government-run corporations.
At present, Delhi has about 700 liquor stores operated by four government corporations. In a review meeting on Wednesday, CM Gupta discussed the formulation of the new excise policy with senior Excise Department officials.
The Chief Minister’s Office reaffirmed the government’s commitment to a “transparent and effective” excise policy.

Adopting AI at scale is “even harder in the enterprise” world, Mr. Nilekani said [File]
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Artificial intelligence is “turning out to be far more difficult than we thought to actually make work at scale and useful to everyone,” Infosys founder Nandan Nilekani said on Friday. For the technology to truly work, the “cost per inference” should be as low as ₹1, he said, referring to a computing parameter that is only that inexpensive for AI systems with a small number of parameters. 

Adopting AI at scale is “even harder in the enterprise” world, Mr. Nilekani said, as companies are far more cautious about handing over decision-making to models that are prone to errors. Mr. Nilekani was speaking at Carnegie India’s Global Technology Summit.

“But the most difficult actually is implementing AI in the public sector,” Mr. Nilekani said, “because the public sector has structural concerns. It has ministries, it has departments, everybody is territorial… So data is not shared. If data is the lifeblood of AI, we have to find a way to bring all AI together, irrespective of which part of the government it comes from.”

Indian models

“DeepSeek has done the world a great service,” Mr. Nilekani said, referring to the Chinese firm that put out a reasoning AI model at a far lower cost than western competitors. The firm “accelerated the commoditization of models,” he said.

On building an India-specific large language model, he said that nobody “should lose sleep” over an indigenous model not being built. “The real challenge is how do we make this work? How do you make it work for a billion people? How do you make sure it’s accurate? How do you make sure there’s no bias?”

“So we’ll focus on those things tomorrow. If some new model comes, we just replace the old one with the new one. No big deal.”

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar speaks during the Global Technology Summit, in New Delhi. Courtesy: X/@DrSJaishankar

The United States’ recent tariffs have “focused our minds on the need for correcting a certain skewed nature of our openness to the global economy,” External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Friday (April 11, 2025), calling for growing partnerships with Western economies in engaging in free trade. 

“Many of us have argued that our complementary partners are in the West, where real growth is possible, where they’re more open, with market economies, contractual underpinnings, and are much more competitive than the economies to our east,” Mr. Jaishankar added. 

“I’d argue, we have an opportunity today … if we can focus on these three big [free trade agreement] negotiations, with the US, the European Union and the U.K., if these work out for us this year, we’d be in a different situation.” Mr. Jaishankar was speaking at Carnegie India’s annual Global Technology Summit. India is “geared up for a high degree of urgency” in finalising these deals, Mr. Jaishankar said, contrasting the fervour with past reluctance. 

Advancing pacts

On bi- and multilateral collaboration frameworks like the US–India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (ICET), Mr. Jaishankar said that domestic follow-through was important. “My reality check on the partnerships would be that you have to move both the regulatory system and the real economy in step with each other,” he said. 

“Often we would have discussions, but if they were not followed through by projects, then those discussions don’t have the seriousness the other party would have given,” he added.

MAGA, atmanirbharta

Responding to a question on whether the Make America Great Again movement was in tension with Indian self-sufficiency, Mr. Jaishankar said, “I don’t see a contradiction because anybody who’s been objective about the direction of the world would have seen the trend lines; this didn’t come out of the blue.” 

Pointing to developments like Brexit and other rejections of globalisation, he said, “There was a different debate building under this complacency of globalisation,” and that even in India, “there was deep anger about the kind of dumping [of goods at low cost] taking place and the impact it’s had on small and medium enterprises.” 

File picture of Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal
| Photo Credit: ANI

India is in continuous dialogue with the U.S. on the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA), and the government will safeguard the nation’s and public interests as it is never advisable to take any step in undue haste, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday (April 11, 2025).

He said all the country’s trade talks are progressing well in the spirit of ‘India first’ and to ensure the pathway to Viksit Bharat 2047.

“I have said it many times before that we do not negotiate at gunpoint. Timely restrictions are good as they encourage us to talk swiftly, but until we can protect the interests of the country and people, it is never good to be hasty,” Mr. Goyal told reporters when asked about the progress of India-US BTA.

The two countries have fixed a target to finalise the first phase of the agreement by fall (September-October) this year with an aim to more than double bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 from the current $191 billion.

Trade pact with EU

On the India-European Union (EU) trade pact, Mr. Goyal said the trade talks proceed when both sides are sensitive to each other’s concerns and requirements.

“I can only share… that all the trade talks are progressing well in the spirit of India first and to ensure our pathway to Viksit Bharat 2047,” he said.

He added that businesses face various constraints of non-tariff barriers in the EU.

India and Italy

Meanwhile, speaking at the Italy-India Business Forum, Mr. Goyal said that concrete steps need to be taken to expedite the conclusion of the free trade agreement between India and the EU that can help both sides deepen economic ties.

He added that the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC) provides India and Italy an opportunity to further come closer to each other.

Further, the Minister said there is also a need to promote seamless trade and investments between India and Italy.

There is a need to “encourage investments on both sides, promote businesses to do trade with each other without roadblocks… I think there is tremendous potential to grow from $15 billion level,” Mr. Goyal added.