Finance, explained

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis opened a second front this week, striking two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea and vowing to blockade Saudi ports — a new theatre entirely, separate from the Strait of Hormuz standoff this newsletter has tracked since June. Brent crossed $100 a barrel

Indian households are sitting on gold worth more than the GDP of most countries on Earth — nearly 30 times what the RBI itself holds. Most of it isn't really an investment. The one product that fixed that has just been quietly killed. And the price isn't coming down anytime soon,

Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz again, the US reinstated a naval blockade, Brent jumped 12%, and the rupee hit a seven-week low. Nifty ended the week roughly where it started — and India VIX actually fell to a three-week low. The gap between what shipping insurers are charging and

Nifty fell 2% on Wednesday, recovered most of it by Friday, and the headlines all said "Iran war." But the number that actually explains this week isn't the price of Brent crude, it's a war-risk insurance premium most investors have never heard of, quietly rewriting shipping cost

Every home loan agreement carries a number almost nobody questions: the tenure. 20 years, printed in bold, treated as gospel by the borrower who signs it. Is there something you can do about it?

This was the week the story everyone was bracing for — a hawkish Fed marching toward a July rate hike — quietly lost its momentum, undone by one soft jobs number. At the same time, the India-US trade deal edges toward its July 24 crunch point with an old complication

Two weeks ago, Japan's stock market crossed a line nobody alive in finance has ever traded through. Not once since 1989 — not during the dot-com boom, not during 2008, not during the pandemic rally. What's buried inside this comeback?

The peace deal has been tested and so far, it is holding. Crude is now below $73 and at pre-war levels. But the India-US trade deal just hit its most complicated week yet, the RBI governor has pushed back on rate hike talk, and gold in India has quietly slipped another ₹8,000

There is a savings instrument that has been around since 1968, backed by the Government of India, that offers guaranteed returns, complete safety of capital, and one of the most generous tax shelters in the country. Yet most people either don't fully understand it and underuse it,

Most Indians think you either file taxes as yourself, or as something you deliberately built — a company, an LLP, a partnership. There's a third option, one nobody builds on purpose because it's already there the moment you have a family, that almost nobody talks about

Five stories rewrote India's macro picture this week. One peace deal, one crude collapse, one hawkish Fed, one record-breaking IPO, and one trade agreement teetering on the edge. The question is which of these changes are structural — and which last only until the next headline.

For decades, "real estate investment" in India meant one thing: buy a plot, build a house, or own a flat. REITs offer a different proposition — fractional landlordship of Grade-A office parks and malls, with quarterly income, no maintenance calls, and an exit that takes seconds

A rate hold, a bond market quietly rewired, ₹2.67 lakh crore in YTD equity exits, IT hit by two forces at once, and a $6 crude swing on a single Washington sentence — followed by the IRGC formally closing the Strait of Hormuz. Friday's rally was real but borrowed.

On April 1, 2026, every petrol pump in India quietly switched to E20 — no label, no debate, no choice. A deep dive into what India's ethanol mandate actually means: the engineering damage, the food and water trade-offs, the launches, and the decade ahead.

RBI held, FY26 GDP printed at 7.7%, BTA talks reached "99% done", and the government abolished FPI capital gains tax on G-Secs by ordinance — all on the same Friday. Seven dense days that left markets suspended between two competing narratives.

From ₹45 to ₹95 in two decades — and the slide accelerating. A deep investigation into why India's currency keeps losing ground, how it compares to the rest of the world, and why the official reassurances no longer fully hold.

A week that looked like a breakout and ended as a retreat. The Iran ceasefire MoU pushed markets to weekly highs, only for Friday's selloff to erase every gain. Trade deal advanced, Coal India OFS launched, GDP release pushed to June 5.

The Nifty closed flat on the week but the story underneath — AI destroying Indian IT, crude above $100, a new Fed Chair, and Rubio's India visit — was anything but quiet. A full briefing on what happened and what comes next.

Cashflow is the single most important number in your business, and the one most founders understand last. What it is, why it kills companies, and how to manage it at every stage.

DPIIT Startup Recognition is free, takes under a week, and unlocks benefits worth crores over the life of your company. Everything you need to know — updated for the February 2026 notification.

India is growing at 6.5% a year. Its stock market is among the largest in the world. And yet, its currency has lost nearly 9% of its value in twelve months. This paradox deserves an honest answer.