Business Today 3 August 2025

Today, we stand at a moment of reckoning with the rise of artificial intelligence. Unlike past shifts, AI is reshaping the very architecture of the internet and reconfiguring vast swathes of business and human endeavour. Preceding this AI inflection point was the Covid-19 pandemic—a global event that didn’t just push us indoors but transformed the way we interact with the world around us. How we work, shop, consume content, and entertain ourselves has been irreversibly altered. This dramatic shift in consumer behaviour in India, accelerated by a rapid embrace of digital, lies at the heart of this issue’s cover story by Krishna Gopalan. The `18,700-crore Indian film industry is facing its moment of truth. The chaos traces back to the pandemic-era OTT gold rush, when platforms competed fiercely for releases,…

ROBUST GROWTH NSE’S PAT HAS SURGED 547% IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS; ITS TOP LINE HAS RISEN FIVE TIMES BROADENING BASE THE NUMBER OF UNIQUE INVESTORS HAS RISEN 265% TO 113 MILLION IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS FIGURES IN MILLION SOURCE NSE CONTRIBUTION TO EXCHEQUER NSE PAID ₹60,000 CRORE TAX AND DUTIES IN FY25 DATA AS ON MARCH 31,2025; IN ₹CRORE SOURCE NSE EARNING SOURCES TRANSACTION CHARGES MADE UP 71% OF REVENUE IN FY25, FOLLOWED BY OTHER INCOME, DATA CENTRE AND CONNECTIVITY FIGURES IN ₹CRORE SOURCE NSE OWNERSHIP INSURANCE COMPANIES (19.22%) ARE THE LARGEST NON-PUBLIC INVESTORS IN NSE FIGURES ARE % SHAREHOLDING IN NSE SOURCE NSE ₹5.98 LAKH CRORE THE TOTAL VALUE OF UNLISTED NSE SHARES IN JUNE. A 10% EQUITY DILUTION COULD RAISE AROUND ₹60,000 CRORE, MAKING IT THE…

THE TATA GROUP has been ranked as India’s top brand in terms of valuation by the UK-based consultancy Brand Finance for the 15th year in a row. This makes it seem like a routine development. Yet, there are some factors that make it worth a deeper look. The group faced a big setback after a London-bound Air India flight from Ahmedabad crashed in June, resulting in the deaths of 260 people. Incidentally, the Brand Finance report was finalised before the crash. Its impact on the brand’s valuation will be known next year. Otherwise, too, the going has not been too good for the salt-to-software conglomerate, lately. Sentiment has been muted because of the underperformance of flagship companies, such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tata Motors, and Tata Steel, over the…

THE SECURITIES AND Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on July 3 banned the US-based proprietary trading firm Jane Street from the Indian securities market on charges of manipulation. Between January 2023 and March 2025, Jane Street Group made a total profit of more than ₹35,000 crore across all trading activities in Indian markets. Unlawful gains for the period was around ₹4,843 crore and the same has been deposited by the company in an escrow account. Overall, a significant chunk—₹43,289 crore for the same period—was derived from trading index options, although this was partly reduced by ₹7,687 crore in losses from activities in cash and futures segments. Investors have been on the receiving end of such market manipulations. A recent analysis by Sebi revealed that nine out of 10 investors lost…

ASUTOSH PADHI, an IIT and IIM graduate, is the Chicago-based Senior Partner and Global Leader for Firm Strategy at McKinsey & Company. In an interview with BT, he talks about how companies can navigate the many disruptions they face at this moment. Edited excerpts: With the global economy in a state of flux, what are you hearing from CEOs of global companies about their concerns? The I have been spending a lot of time with CEOs around the world, and I would say that two topics are consistently on their minds. The first one is geopolitics, given all the uncertainty around tariffs and trade. The second is Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its disruptive impact. We are at the very beginning of what we are going to witness with AI. It’s…

THE EMPLOYMENT LINKED Incentive (ELI) Scheme, approved by the Union Cabinet early July, to create new jobs in the formal sector has failed to enthuse economists and trade unions. The scheme may not achieve its objective of generating 35 million jobs over two years in its current form or enhance employability and social security, they say. The scheme, with an outlay of ₹99,446 crore, has two components. One offers ₹15,000 a year to first-time employees in two instalments over 12 months. The other offers ₹1,000-3,000 to employers every month for two years (for manufacturing, this extends up to four years) for every additional hiring for at least six months. Both are cash transfers for new employees (up to ₹1 lakh a month salary) and establishments registered with the EPFO. This makes…