The government on Wednesday launched the India Graphene Engineering and Innovation Centre (IGEIC), a key initiative under the vision towards building a 'Viksit Bharat' in 2047.

According to the government, the centre will help build the graphene ecosystem in the country with startups, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), academia, industry and government, including bilateral collaborations forming part of this global initiative.

The non-profit IGEIC will create a hub of excellence in graphene technology commercialisation, focusing on a range of applications from electronics and energy storage to healthcare to material coating and conveyance systems and sustainable material development.

The Indian textile industry has the potential to become a $300 billion industry by 2030, with $100 billion coming from exports, the government said on Wednesday.

The Indian textile industry is currently estimated to be worth $175 billion, including exports of $38-40 billion.

According to Pabitra Margherita, Minister of State of Textiles and External Affairs, the domestic textile industry is becoming a driving force of India's GDP.

Speaking at the Assocham’s ‘Global Textile Sustainability Summit’ here, the minister underscored the importance of sustainability in the textile industry, and outlined a vision for India to lead in sustainable textiles while inspiring global responsibility.

Ola Electric shares continued to slide on Wednesday --- its sixth consecutive session of decline – as its stock lost more than 30 per cent from its recent all-time peak of Rs 157.40 apiece.

The Bhavish Aggarwal-run company’s stock dropped 3 per cent to Rs 110 per share. It was, however, still up 45 per cent from its initial public offering (IPO) price of Rs 76 apiece.

Market experts said that the company’s stock is not looking good and can even slip further from the current Rs 110 level over the near term. There are concerns as current valuation of the EV firm appears to be quite speculative.

Moreover, its rivals like TVS Motor and Bajaj Auto have extended their market share by launching more affordable electric two-wheelers. Hero MotoCorp also plans to launch its Vida EV motorcycle at a more affordable price point in rising competition in the electric 2W space.

The Centre on Wednesday approved the Centralised Pension Payments System (CPPS) that will benefit more than 78 lakh people under the Employee Pension Scheme (EPS), which is part of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of Labour and Employment, said that EPS pensioners can get pension from any bank, any branch, anywhere in India from January 1, 2025.

According to the ministry, there will also be no need for pensioners to visit the branch for any verification at the time of commencement of pension and the pension shall be immediately credited upon release.

In addition, EPFO expects a significant cost reduction in pension disbursement after moving to the new system.

“The approval of CPPS marks a significant milestone in modernisation of the EPFO. By enabling pensioners to receive their pensions from any bank, any branch, anywhere in the country, this initiative addresses the long-standing challenges faced by pensioners and ensures a seamless and efficient disbursement mechanism,” said the minister.

Global real asset manager CapitaLand Investment Limited (CLI) on Wednesday announced to more than double its funds under management (FUM) in its core market India to $14.8 billion Singapore dollars (Rs 90,280 crore) by 2028 -- up from the current 7.4 billion Singapore dollars – as Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his two-day official visit to Singapore.

The announcement will contribute to CLI’s global target of achieving $200 billion Singapore dollars in FUM by 2028, the company said in a statement.

Singapore's High Commissioner to India, Simon Wong, posted on X that it is "good to see Singapore companies doubling down on investments in India".

CLI entered India 30 years ago with the development of its first IT park called the International Tech Park Bangalore (ITPB). Its footprint has since expanded to 14 business and IT parks, offering 23.5 million square feet of space strategically located across Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai and Gurugram, with more than 250,000 professionals working from these parks.

India's financial sector is growing at a rapid pace as fintech startups have grown by about five times in the past three years, according to a report. The growth has been from 2,100 in 2021 to 10,500 in 2024.

JM Financial said in a report: "At present time, India has 26 fintech unicorns with an estimated combined market value of $90 billion."

India has one decacorn fintech (valuation of over $10 billion) and 25 unicorns, whose valuation ranges between $1 billion to $10 billion and 37 minicorns, with valuations ranging from $100 million to $1 billion.

After a massive Rs 2,000 crore data breach, more bad news awaits WazirX customers — including at least 4.2 million Indian users — as nearly 43 per cent of them are likely to lose their money. According to industry and legal experts, this urgently requires further scrutiny of the crypto trading platform by the government regulators.

The company informed customers in a town-hall meeting earlier this week, attended by WazirX Co-founder Nischal Shetty, that customers will probably lose 43 per cent of the funds they had invested in the platform.

The government-run Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is now enabling more than 1.2 crore orders per month, with over six lakh sellers live on the network, it was announced on Tuesday.

ONDC was awarded the prestigious gold award under the category ‘application of emerging technologies for providing citizen-centric services’ in the National Awards for e-Governance (NAeG) at an event here.

The network is empowering a diverse range of sellers, including lakhs of small businesses, artisans, women entrepreneurs, farmers, and street vendors to compete effectively and reach a wider audience.

“ONDC functions with a startup mindset and government scale approach wherein it is adapting to evolving market dynamics with agility, driven by a team of technocrats and mentored by veteran ONDC Advisory Council,” according to Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

With the World Bank revising India’s growth outlook from previous forecast of 6.6 per cent to 7 per cent in the current fiscal, industry leaders said on Tuesday that the country is continuously increasing its resilience despite many uncertainties at the global front.

According to the World Bank, the Indian economy continues to grow at a healthy pace and the country's medium-term outlook remains positive.

“India’s growth forecast at 7 per cent in 2024-25 is highly encouraging. The macroeconomic fundamentals such as inflation, current account deficit, fiscal deficit, debt to GDP ratio have turned benign in the recent quarters and indicate India’s strong growth to continue and remain fastest among the major economies,” said Sanjeev Agrawal, President, PHDCCI.

Amid the rising demand for higher education abroad, the education loan asset under management (AUM) of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) in India is projected to grow at healthy 40-45 per cent to cross Rs 60,000 crore this fiscal, a report said on Tuesday.

After robust growth of over 80 per cent and 70 per cent in fiscals 2023 and 2024, respectively, NBFCs’ education loan AUM rose to Rs 43,000 crore as on March 31, 2024, according to a report by CRISIL Ratings.

The number of Indian students studying abroad is estimated to have doubled in the past five years to around 13.4 lakh as of last fiscal.

“Only a tenth are being funded by these NBFCs, and even including education loans by banks, the financed quantum is not much higher,” said Ajit Velonie, Senior Director, CRISIL Ratings.