Innholdsfortegnelse for 26 October 2025 i Business Today

Over 75% business of the $17-billion Syngenta comes from crop protection. The company was formed in 2000 with the merger of Novartis and AstraZeneca’s agrichemical businesses. Steven Hawkins, President, Syngenta Crop Protection, talks with Business Today’s Krishna Gopalan about why he is optimistic about India, the effects of geopolitical turmoil, and the overall outlook for agriculture. Edited excerpts: Q: Every multinational corporation, without exception, says India is a critical market. What makes the country unique for your business? A: India, for sure, is a critical growth market. We must understand a few things here. The development and sophistication of agricultural production, or productivity as you call it, must catch up. That is still quite low in India compared to the global average. “India is a fragmented market, and I believe…

• WITH A MEDIAN age of 28, India’s population can power economic growth. But for decades, imparting skills and vocational training has been a challenge for policymakers and industry, putting the considerable demographic advantages that the country enjoys at risk. In fact, industry has for long complained that most of India’s graduates are unemployable with little or no on-the-job skills and training. As per Mercer-Mettl’s India’s Graduate Skill Index 2025, just 42.6% of Indian graduates were employable in 2024, down from 44.3% in 2023. It attributed this to a drop in non-technical skills. Nipun Sharma, CEO of TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship, a degree apprenticeship service provider, highlights the massive skill gap and lack of formal skilling. “Our education system continues to emphasise qualifications over skills. While the government is working hard…

TARUN GOYAL MANUFACTURES aluminium cookware in Jagadhri, Haryana. He has mixed views about the recent changes to the Goods and Services Tax (GST). A lower tax on utensils under GST 2.0 is expected to result in an increase in sales during this festive season. The GST rate on utensils has been lowered to 5% from 12%. However, he will now have to contend with the new problem of inverted duty, which has already begun choking the working capital pipeline. “So, the raw material for my product continues to be taxed at 18% while the finished product has been brought to the 5% slab. If I buy aluminium scrap at ₹200 per kg, I must pay ₹36 per kg as GST. But if I sell utensils at ₹280 per kg, I can…

THE DAILY BATHINDA-TO-BIKANER TRAIN, LONG DUBBED THE CANCER TRAIN, IS BEGINNING TO SHED THAT GRIM IDENTITY. DATA FROM THE ACHARYA TULSI REGIONAL CANCER TREATMENT & RESEARCH INSTITUTE IN BIKANER, ONE OF THE FEW INSTITUTIONS IN INDIA OFFERING FREE TREATMENT, SHOW A SHARP DECLINE IN PATIENTS FROM PUNJAB. Between 2014 and 2024, about 6% of its patients came from the state. Last year, it was 2%. This shows the spread of cancer care services in Punjab, with new hospitals, district day-care centres, and diagnostic facilities bringing treatment closer to patients’ doorstep. The gap between demand and supply is narrowing, not just in Punjab, but across India. Yet, the larger crisis remains daunting. In 2024, India recorded over 1.6 million new cancer cases and 870,000 deaths, according to the National Cancer Registry…

In June, when Rajasthan invited bids to build a Battery Energy Storage System, or BESS, based on solar power, it attracted 50 offers, the most by any renewable energy and storage project in India. The project achieved the lowest tariff for any storage bids in the country. The project, to generate 1000 Mega Watt (MW) of power and offer 2000 Mega Watt hours (GWh) of storage capacity, will strengthen the reliability of the electricity grid and reinforce the availability of renewable energy during peak hour. The bids opened on October 7 with a record low tariff of ₹1.77 lakh per hour, compared to previous low of ₹2.21 lakh per hour. Stockwell Solar Services Private Limited, Oswal Cables Limited, Micromax Informatics Ltd, yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Renewable Energy Ltd and…

WHEN BENGALURU’S KEMPEGOWDA International Airport opened in 2008, its ambition was modest—to become the gateway to southern India for air travellers. Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) has raised that bar a few notches: it is now aspiring to become a global transit hub. Bold bets on infrastructure, entailing as much as ₹20,000 crore capital expenditure, are part of a plan drawn up by BIAL to achieve the ambition, which Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Hari Marar says will ensure the airport stays in step with Bengaluru’s own rapid growth. “Aviation oils the engine of the economy,” Marar tells BT. Investment in capacity expansion is essential because, without it, Bengaluru’s connectivity, especially important for IT and outsourcing industries, to which it is an important home, risks being impaired, he says.…

TIMETABLED FREIGHT ON OCTOBER 1, Indian Railways launched its first assured time container service between Delhi and Kolkata. In a significant shift, timetabled services are planned to be scaled up on several routes to ensure reliable delivery of goods that generally move by road. Commodity specific cargo services—grains, cement, automobile and export/import—are also being transitioned to timetabled movement to boost logistics services. It was a long-pending demand from operators to provide assured time services to compete with road services. AI FUNDING BUBBLE? WITH OPENAI OVERTAKING Elon Musk’s SpaceX to become the world’s most valuable privately held start-up at over $500 billion, concerns of an AI funding bubble are mounting. Globally, AI start-ups raised $73 billion in 2025, accounting for nearly 58% of all venture funding, research platform PitchBook data shows.…

THE BIENNIAL WINGS INDIA aviation show in Hyderabad serves as a showcase for Indian commercial airlines. It provides a good platform for visibility and networking among all stakeholders. In 2024, it went a step further and delivered a surprise. In the 2024 edition of the event, Akasa Air, a two-year-old start-up, stunned the industry by placing an order for 150 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft worth $20 billion—the largest order ever placed by a fledgling airline in the country. The move propelled the airline—barely out of infancy—into the front ranks of global buyers, marking the level India’s newest carrier had set for itself. AKASA’S UNIT ECONOMICS ARE MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION: MORE REVENUE PER SEAT AND STRONGER OPERATING MARGINS. BUT ABSOLUTE LOSSES HAVE WIDENED Akasa is perhaps the first airline…

WHEN GOOGLE CEOSundar Pichai calmly fields tough questions from employees at an all-hands meeting, or when Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella calls empathy a superpower, it signals a quiet shift in corporate culture: Flamboyance is passé, modesty is motivating. Experts and corporate observers say this cultural shift is also visible back home, where “dynamic leadership” has long been equated with charisma and visibility. N. Chandrasekaran, Chairperson of Tata Sons, has guided the Tata group through major transformations with a steady hand and a willing ear. Leena Nair runs Chanel with a people-first approach that prizes inclusion and listening as much as bold decision-making. “The demand is for leaders who can listen deeply as well as inspire teams. It’s less about razzle and dazzle and more about balancing visibility with depth,” says…