Sam Altman bets on India as OpenAI’s next growth engine| Business News
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is doubling down on India, labelling the world’s most populous nation a potential “full-stack AI leader” as the San Francisco-based startup prepares to expand its physical presence and government ties in the region. OpenAI plans to significantly increase its headcount and footprint in India within the year, Sam Altman says. (Reuters) Writing for The Times of India ahead of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 at New Delhi’s Bharat Mandapam, Altman stated that India has surged to become OpenAI’s second-largest user base globally, trailing only the United States. The pivot toward New Delhi signals a strategic shift for the Microsoft-backed AI pioneer, which is increasingly looking toward the Global South to sustain its breakneck growth. Infrastructure as Destiny Altman outlined a vision for “Democratic AI”, arguing that India possesses the rare combination of homegrown technical talent, a massive scale of data, and “infectious optimism”. OpenAI opened its first India office in Delhi last August. Altman said the company plans to significantly increase its headcount and footprint within the year. The expansion comes as India clocks 100 million weekly active users on OpenAI platforms, driven largely by a student population that is now the largest user group of ChatGPT worldwide. “AI will help define India’s future, and India will help define AI’s future,” Altman stated. “And it will do so in a way only a democracy can.” The Three-Pillar Strategy To bridge what he calls a “capability overhang”—where access exists but skills do not—Altman proposed a trifold framework for India’s AI evolution: Access: Making tools available regardless of income or education levels. Adoption: Integrating AI into the “analog” economy: schools, clinics, and SMEs. Agency: Developing “AI literacy” so users can move from consumers to builders. The CEO’s visit next week is expected to culminate in high-level agreements with the government. These partnerships will likely align with the IndiaAI Mission, a ₹10,371 crore ($1.25 billion) state-led initiative designed to bolster sovereign compute capacity and multilingual AI applications for healthcare and agriculture. A Sovereign AI Play Altman’s overtures come at a critical time. The Indian government has been vocal about its “Full-Stack AI” approach, treating compute power and datasets as essential national infrastructure rather than just private commodities. By positioning OpenAI as a partner to the state, Altman is navigating a complex regulatory landscape where “data sovereignty” is a recurring theme. The company’s new free tool for scientific research, Prism, has already seen its fourth-highest global adoption rate in India, suggesting that the country is moving beyond simple chatbots into high-level R&D. The Global AI Impact Summit, starting Monday, will host over 15 heads of government and 100 global CXOs.
Apple announces March 4 event for likely low-cost MacBook, iPhone| Business News
Apple Inc. is set to unveil a slew of new products — from low-cost MacBooks to cheaper iPhones — at an event scheduled for 4 March. The Apple invite for the March 4 event doesn’t specify whether a keynote will be streamed online. (Apple) The company invited media to gatherings in New York, Shanghai and London, saying it is holding an in-person “experience”. The invitation implies a more low-key showcase than the typical launches held at its campus in Cupertino. The invitation doesn’t specify whether a keynote will be streamed online, as has been typical since 2020 when Apple had to adjust its event strategy due to covid. Apple has been planning to release several new products in the first half of 2026, including new MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, a low-cost MacBook in several colours and new iPad models. Apple is also soon planning to release an iPhone 17e, an update to its mid-tier smartphone.
Inside India’s bid to rewrite the global AI playbook| Business News
At the Bharat Mandapam—the same stage where the G20 shifted the global tectonic plates—India is preparing to host what is being billed as the “Bretton Woods moment” for the silicon age. Beautification work underway near Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, ahead of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, scheduled for 16-20 February. (Sonu Mehta/HT) Starting tomorrow, the India AI Impact Summit will transform New Delhi into the gravity centre of the technology world. While previous summits in Bletchley Park, Seoul, and Paris focused heavily on the “existential risks” of rogue algorithms, India’s pitch is decidedly more pragmatic. In the eyes of the Modi govenrment, AI isn’t just a frontier to be fenced in, it is a utility to be deployed—the “electricity” of the 21st century. For the global investor community, the stakes are binary. As AI begins to bite into the traditional margins of India’s $250 billion IT services sector, the summit represents New Delhi’s formal pivot from being the world’s “back office” to becoming its “AI laboratory”. The power list: Silicon Valley descends on Delhi The attendee list reads like a Who’s Who of the generative AI boom: Sundar Pichai (Alphabet Inc.), Sam Altman (OpenAI), Demis Hassabis (DeepMind), and Dario Amodei (Anthropic) are all slated to attend. Their presence — alongside heads of state including France’s Emmanuel Macron and Brazil’s Lula da Silva — underscores a shift in tech diplomacy: A global AI standard cannot do without India’s 900 million internet users and its massive data exhaust. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has increasingly linked Viksit Bharat 2047 goals to technological sovereignty, is expected to engage in a series of closed-door “CEO firesides”. “The key message,” IT Secretary S. Krishnan told reporters ahead of the event, “is that AI needs to be human-centric. We are pushing for democratic access to resources. This isn’t just about safety; it’s about equity.” The ‘Innovation-First’ Doctrine Investors are closely watching India’s regulatory trajectory. While the European Union has opted for the “AI Act”—a dense thicket of risk-based classifications—and the US relies on a market-driven executive order model, India is carving out a third way: The Development-First Model. New Delhi’s “Innovation-First” approach suggests that regulation will be “light-touch” until a specific harm is identified. This is designed to provide a “regulatory sandbox” for the country’s burgeoning startup ecosystem. “If we need to legislate, we can do it quickly,” Krishnan said, “but our goal is to use existing laws to ensure we don’t stifle the very innovation that will drive our growth”. However, the industry remains on edge regarding recent amendments to IT rules. Issues like mandatory labelling of AI content, accountability for deepfakes, and the liability of platform providers are expected to be flashpoints during the summit’s high-voltage deliberations. Sovereign AI and India Stack 2.0 A central theme of the summit is Sovereign AI. India is wary of “digital colonialism” — a scenario where a few Silicon Valley giants own the foundational models that power Indian healthcare, agriculture, and finance. To counter this, the IndiaAI Mission is pumping capital into local compute capacity and “AI Commons”. Recently, PM Modi chaired a roundtable with 12 homegrown startups focused on: Multilingual LLMs: Building models that speak India’s 22 official languages, not just English. Vertical AI: Specialised applications in healthcare diagnostics and engineering simulations. GenAI for Commerce: Using text-to-video and 3D modeling to digitize India’s massive retail sector. By creating indigenous foundation models, India aims to ensure that its strategic sectors aren’t reliant on foreign proprietary black boxes. The Demographic Edge vs The Displacement Fear The summit arrives at a period of nerves for India’s tech stocks. Markets have turned volatile as investors weigh the disruptive potential of AI against the traditional “linear growth” model of Indian software exports. With 65% of its population under the age of 35, India’s demographic dividend is its greatest hedge. The summit will feature more than 700 sessions focused on “Workforce Readiness”. The goal is a massive reskilling pivot: moving millions of coders from “maintenance” tasks to “AI-augmented” development. The success of this transition is vital. If India can successfully integrate AI into its Digital Public Infrastructure—the same system that gave UPI and Aadhaar—it could set the global benchmark for how a developing nation skips a generation of technological evolution. The Global South focus This is the first major AI summit hosted in the Global South, and New Delhi intends to use the pulpit to represent the “Global Majority”. The expected outcome? A Joint Declaration that moves beyond the “doomsday scenarios” of Western labs and focuses on “AI for All”. Expect proposals for shared compute infrastructure and “Trusted AI” tools that can be exported to other emerging economies in Africa and Southeast Asia.
Gen Z, locked out of home buying, puts its money in the market| Business News
A generation of young people locked out of homeownership has found another way to build wealth: putting money into the stock market. Helen Bovington in her Manhattan apartment. The share of people 25 to 39 years old making annual transfers to investment accounts more than tripled between 2013 and 2023 to 14.4 percent, outpacing increases for those 40 and over, according to data from the JPMorgan Chase Institute. The share of 26-year-olds who transferred funds to investment accounts since turning 22 shot up from 8% in 2015 to 40% as of May 2025. The numbers don’t include people investing in 401(k)s. “We’ve seen really strong, surprisingly strong growth in retail investing in recent years among people who may otherwise be first-time home buyers,” said George Eckerd, the research director for wealth and markets at the institute. There is overlap in the numbers between investors and homeowners, but Eckerd was struck by the rise in young and lower-income investors at the same time that home buying activity has fallen. That, he said, has tilted the balance of wealth accumulation toward financial markets for young people. The stock market’s recent record-breaking performance, he added, plus easier access to trading technology are also likely fueling the upswing among young investors. After the amount of money Laura Wight thought she needed for a down payment on a condo in Chicago kept increasing, she put roughly $10,000 she had earmarked for a home into index funds instead. “What you get for your money right now and how much of it is just going to interest feels hard,” said Wight, who is 33 and works in marketing for a frozen-foods company. Watching her returns swell 66% in the almost six years since she started contributing to her Charles Schwab portfolio has changed her thinking on whether she will give priority to homeownership in the future at all. As did the knowledge that she would be able to quickly liquidate some of that money in an emergency, especially after she had to drop $2,100 on emergency dental surgery and other veterinary care for her senior dog a few months ago. (In the end, she was able to pay for it using the money in her high-yield savings account.) Laura Wight with her dog, Lucy. “I can just keep renting and having more flexibility with my money,” Wight said. She now thinks she could be content never buying a home. Homeownership has long been many Americans’ primary strategy for generating long-term wealth, both because home values generally increase over time and because paying down a mortgage is a way of forcing people to save. But not everyone is convinced it is the future. “I feel like my money is safer in the stock market than in a house,” said 23-year-old Helen Bovington, who rents an apartment in Manhattan. Though she knows the market can be volatile, she believes in its long-term growth. The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 50000 for the first time earlier this month. Bovington is less convinced about the future of real estate. Growing up in Helena, Mont., with the constant seasonal threat of wildfires destroying her family’s rural lake cabin a few hours away, Bovington says her fears about climate change mean the only real estate she thinks would be a foolproof investment is a plot of land. She has managed to amass about $30,000 after around six years of investing in a fund that excludes fossil fuel companies. “There is a certain amount of security I feel that I’ve already taken care of myself in that way,” Bovington says. If she never invested another penny, she added, that $30,000 would turn into over $1 million by the time she is in her 60s, assuming a steady 10% rate of return. The math on owning versus renting for 30 years and investing the difference works out in Bovington’s favor, a Moody’s Analytics analysis for The Wall Street Journal showed—with some caveats. Helen Bovington commutes to work in Manhattan. Moody’s took two hypothetical people, each earning $150,000 annually, to see whether the homeowner or investor came out ahead after 30 years. To do the calculation, the firm assumed the owner had purchased a $500,000 house, with 20% down and a 6.25% mortgage rate. Additional expenses including insurance, property taxes and upkeep brought his monthly total outlay to $3,546. The investor, on the other hand, would be spending $2,500 each month in rent on a comparable home, and could expect a 3% rent hike each year. She would be investing the difference between the cost to rent and the cost to own each month, assuming a 10% rate of return. After 30 years of monthly payments, the renter would be wealthier—by $1,194,126. Her final net worth: $2,815,825. The owner’s: $1,621,699 after paying off his mortgage, assuming he doesn’t sell, accounting for a 4% annual rate of appreciation on his home. Actual rates of return on both a house and a stock market portfolio are highly variable. But the biggest and most problematic assumption in this analysis is that it assumes a level of discipline for the investor group that many would find difficult to stick with, especially early on, says Cristian deRitis, Moody’s Analytics’ deputy chief economist. “It’s much easier to pause monthly stock market savings than it is to stop paying a mortgage,” deRitis said. In Brooklyn, 32-year-old Alex Wedel tries to put at least a few hundred dollars into his Fidelity investment account and his Roth IRA every month. But the amount varies based on what gigs he brings in as a freelance content strategist. So does the timing. “It’ll pop into my head and I’ll be like, ‘Oh! I should put $500 or $1,000 in if I have it in my account,’ ” Wedel said. He found the confidence to open the account a year and a half ago after hearing about how well the market was performing, and feeling as though he was missing out. “I wish I had started sooner,”
Nikhil Kamath, Yuval Noah Harari discuss fragile global order, trust crisis at Davos| Business News
A discussion between Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath and historian-author Yuval Noah Harari at the World Economic Forum in Davos focused on the weakening of global institutional trust and the growing fragility of the international order, according to a press release issued on the conversation. The conversation was part of Nikhil Kamath’s ‘People by WTF’ series Recorded on the sidelines of the Davos summit, the exchange examined how global cooperation can endure amid rising geopolitical tensions, polarization, and skepticism toward democratic and financial institutions. The conversation forms part of Kamath’s “People by WTF” podcast series. Harari said that large-scale human cooperation is built primarily on shared belief in institutions and common narratives rather than force. Financial systems, nation states, and legal frameworks function because of collective trust, he noted, warning that when this trust erodes, predictability and stability decline. He also cautioned against the shift from institution-driven governance to personality-driven politics, arguing that democratic resilience depends not only on elections but also on confidence in processes, shared facts, and institutional continuity. Artificial intelligence was another key theme, with the discussion highlighting risks around AI-generated information and its potential impact on governance and public truth. Kamath drew a parallel between markets and geopolitics, saying both are ultimately sustained by confidence. The full episode has been released online.
India’s moment to re-engineer AI for human impact, writes IIT-K director ahead of Delhi summit| Technology News
The India AI Impact Summit 2026 arrives at a rare inflection point. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has crossed the threshold from promise to pervasiveness, yet the questions before us are no longer just about what AI can do; but for whom, at what cost, and with what accountability. An AI data labeller working on her computer in Ranchi. India, which will host an international AI summit this month, has ambitious plans in the tech sector. (Photo: Representative/AFP ) By hosting the world’s first major global AI summit in the Global South, India is not merely convening a conversation; it is reframing the grammar of AI itself: from scale to significance, from benchmarks to human benefit. Anchored in the three Sutras—People, Planet, Progress — and operationalised through seven Chakras spanning human capital, inclusion, safe AI, science, sustainability, and economic growth, the summit signals a decisive shift. This is not an AI showcase driven by computational bravado alone. It is a blueprint for AI as a development instrument, designed to work under real-world constraints of data sparsity, infrastructure asymmetry, linguistic diversity, and affordability. Why India’s AI path matters to the world India’s AI journey is structurally different from that of advanced economies. Our scale is vast, our margins thin, and our diversity unparalleled. These constraints force innovation to be frugal, interpretable, multilingual, and robust. In effect, India is stress-testing AI under the toughest possible conditions. Solutions that succeed here, across rural healthcare, agriculture, governance, and education, are inherently global, portable to other regions of the Global South and beyond. The AI Summit’s emphasis on translating global principles of responsible AI into practical, interoperable governance frameworks is particularly timely. Trustworthy AI cannot remain a theoretical construct embedded in policy documents; it must be engineered into algorithms, datasets, validation pipelines, and deployment protocols. This is where academia has a pivotal role, not as passive commentators, but as system architects of credibility. Medical Technologies: From Precision to Access My work, for instance, in applied AI for medical technologies sits precisely at this intersection of rigor and relevance. In resource-constrained healthcare systems, the central challenge is not accuracy alone, but deployability at scale. An AI model that performs well in a tertiary hospital but fails in a district clinic or in an extreme resource-constrained setting, due to poor imaging quality or missing metadata, is not innovation; it is exclusion. Over the past decade, our research has focused on physics-informed and data-efficient AI models for diagnostics; systems that embed domain knowledge of physiology, fluid dynamics; and transport phenomena into learning architectures. This approach reduces dependence on massive labelled datasets and enhances interpretability, robustness, and regulatory confidence. In applications ranging from low-cost respiratory diagnostics to AI-assisted imaging and point-of-care screening tools, the goal has been consistent: clinical-grade intelligence at population-scale affordability. The Summit’s strong focus on AI in healthcare — spanning remote diagnostics, medical imaging, disease forecasting, and personalized therapies — resonates deeply with this philosophy. India’s healthcare AI must be judged not by leader board metrics, but by metrics of access: reduced time-to-diagnosis, lower cost per test, and measurable improvements in outcomes across underserved populations. Academia as the trust rngine of AI One of the most consequential, yet under-discussed, themes of the Summit is the Chakra of Science. AI is rapidly reshaping how discovery itself is conducted, but access to compute, data, and reproducibility remains deeply unequal. Indian academia must step forward as a neutral, trusted intermediary, curating open datasets, validating algorithms across demographics, and training a new generation fluent in both AI and ethics. Institutions like IIT Kharagpur are already evolving into living laboratories where AI research, startups, public platforms, and policy co-design coexist. This convergence is essential. Trustworthy AI ecosystems cannot be assembled sequentially; they must be co-created, from whiteboard to the ward, from code to community. Summit to systemic change What distinguishes the India AI Impact Summit is its insistence on outcomes. Regional AI conferences, global impact challenges such as ‘AI for All’ and ‘AI by Her’; youth initiatives like ‘YUVAi’, and the ‘AI Compendium’ collectively ensure that ideas do not dissipate after plenaries — that they compound into pipelines. The deeper message is clear: India does not seek to dominate AI by owning the largest models, but by shaping the most meaningful ones. Models that are energy-aware, bias-audited, regulation-ready, and socially embedded. As we move toward 2047, the centenary of Independence, India’s AI leadership will be defined not by technological sovereignty alone, but by moral and developmental credibility. If we succeed, AI will no longer be seen as an abstract force to be regulated after the fact, but as a public-good infrastructure, engineered with intent, deployed with empathy, and governed with wisdom. The India AI Impact Summit 2026 is thus not an event. It is a statement: that the future of AI will be written not only in lines of code, but in lives improved. — (Views expressed are personal. The author, Suman Chakraborty, is director of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. Professor Chakraborty is a globally renowned academician and a distinguished faculty member from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Kharagpur. Recipient of several prestigious national and international honours, his work on the intersection of fluid mechanics, biomedical engineering, and technology-driven societal applications has earned him particular recognition.)
U.S. futures edge up as public holidays dim trading| Business News
Global stock markets and U.S. futures largely edged higher as traders in parts of Asia, the U.S. and Canada take a breath for public holidays. U.S. equity and bond markets shuttered for Presidents Day, though futures tied to equities rose in early European trade. Lunar New Year celebrations closed trading floors in mainland China and South Korea. The dollar rose slightly but remained within its recent range in holiday-thinned trade. Friday’s soft U.S. inflation print helped push gold back above $5,000 an ounce, while oil traded flat as geopolitical risks linger. Investors are looking ahead to the publication of Federal Reserve meeting minutes on Wednesday followed by advance U.S. fourth-quarter gross domestic product figures and PCE inflation data on Friday. —Futures tied to major U.S. indexes were up early on Presidents Day morning. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were up 0.4% premarket, while futures for the tech-heavy Nasdaq were up 0.35%. The Nasdaq is currently on its longest closing streak since May 2022, with the index’s fall to Friday’s close marking five consecutive losing weeks. —Asian equities were mixed, with Japan’s stocks giving up early-morning gains after fourth-quarter GDP data showed a modest rebound, fueling concerns over potential interest-rate hikes. The Nikkei 225 ended 0.2% lower, dragged down by banking shares, though SoftBank Group closed up 6.8%. Elsewhere, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.5% at midday, before closing early on the eve of Lunar New Year. Major regional markets, including mainland China and South Korea, remained closed for the holiday. Chinese equity markets will remain closed through Monday Feb. 23. —Europe’s blue-chip indexes started the week up as defense stocks gained and financial stocks rebounded after slipping Friday. The FTSE 100 nudged up 0.2% in London, with NatWest Group up 3.8% while Barclays gained 2.4%. Banks pushed the Spanish IBEX 35 up 0.9%, with Santander climbing 2.5% and defense-tech company Indra Sistemas up 2.25%. Italy’s FTSE MIB rose 0.6% on bank gains. Unicredit—the index’s largest constituent—rose 2%. The French CAC 40 was up 0.3% as luxury stocks rallied alongside banks. Luxuries bellwether LVMH climbed 1.9%. Germany’s DAX rose 0.35%, led by a 2.2% rise for Deutsche Bank. Software company Scout24—up 1.8%—was among a clutch of software stocks to rally at market open. —The dollar rose slightly but remained within its recent range in holiday-thinned trade. Ahead of U.S. inflation and growth data due later this week, markets will be looking for clues on the timing of the next interest-rate cut by the Fed in the wake of last week’s strong U.S. jobs data and lower-than-expected inflation data. The DXY dollar index rose 0.1% to 96.967. The European Central Bank’s move to boost the euro’s global role is positive for the single currency, ING’s Francesco Pesole said in a note. The exchange rate is “strictly tied to capital rotation from the U.S. to Europe,” Pesole said. The euro traded flat at $1.1863. —Eurozone government bond yields edged lower in early trade, awaiting fresh drivers. As well as closed U.S. markets, there is no eurozone government bond supply and the data calendar is thin. “Bunds may take a breather amid stabilizing risk sentiment and the U.S. holiday, but the constructive duration backdrop is likely to extend ahead of the data reality check on Friday,” Commerzbank’s Rainer Guntermann said in a note. On Friday, flash estimate French, German and eurozone purchasing manager indices will be released for February. The 10-year German Bund yield edged down 0.7 basis points to 2.750%, while the 10-year French OAT yield fell 1.3 basis points to 3.331%, according to LSEG data. In Japan, the current Japanese government bond curve is no longer embedding any “country risk premium,” Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note. The 10- to 30-year segment is now back to fair value, while the two- to 10-year curve is only 10-15 bps steeper than fair, they said. “The resolution of uncertainty [in the recent Lower House election] in itself was likely sufficient in removing some long-end risk premium,” they said. —Bitcoin edged lower as investors remained reluctant to push the crypto currency much higher amid fears about the potential artificial-intelligence disruption. Bitcoin fell 0.3% to $68,688, LSEG data showed. —Oil prices were broadly unchanged in early morning European trade. Brent crude traded flat at $67.75 a barrel, while WTI rose 0.1% to $62.44 a barrel. A large risk premium is still priced into the market given uncertainty over U.S.-Iran tensions, ING analysts Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a note. President Trump’s comments that regime change would be the best outcome for Iran will add to concerns, they wrote. However, peace talks between Ukraine and Russia seem more de-escalatory and could remove some of oil’s risk premium, the analysts said. Should the risk premium reduce, it will allow more bearish oil fundamentals to take center stage and push prices lower, they said. —Gold traded back above $5,000 a troy ounce after getting a boost from weaker-than-expected U.S. inflation data. This raises the likelihood of near-term Federal Reserve rate cuts, ANZ analysts wrote. Lower borrowing costs typically support non-yielding assets like gold. Swap traders are pricing in about 50% chance of a third rate cut by December, they added. Rate cuts will support inflows into the precious metal, while geopolitical and economic uncertainties will fuel additional demand, they said. In New York, gold futures were down 0.4% at $5,024 a troy ounce. Write to Barcelona Editors at barcelonaeditors@dowjones.com
The importance of ‘restoration benefit’ in your health insurance policy| Business News
The beauty of an unlimited buffet is that you can refill your plate with food servings as many times as you wish after finishing each serve. What if the same thing applies to your health insurance cover? Yes, in a health insurance policy, the restoration benefit does that. It replenishes your health insurance cover after the initial cover has been exhausted from earlier claim(s). In this article, we will understand what the restoration benefit is, how it works, and why you should have it in your health insurance policy. The restoration benefit replenishes your exhausted health insurance coverage. What is the restoration benefit? The restoration benefit replenishes your health insurance cover after it has been exhausted by hospitalisation claim(s). In a health policy without the restoration benefit, the cover is restored at the start of the next policy year. However, in a health policy with a restoration benefit, the cover is restored in the same policy year once the initial cover has been exhausted due to previous claims. The restoration benefit is referred to by various names, such as restoration, refill, replenishment, recharge, reinstatement, reset, etc. The restoration benefit acts like a backup. It kicks in once the initial cover has been used up. For example, Rajesh has a health insurance policy with a sum assured of Rs. 5 lakhs. He is hospitalised and makes a claim of Rs. 5 lakhs, using up the entire cover. The restoration benefit reinstates Rajesh’s health insurance cover to Rs. 5 lakhs. During the same policy year, Rajesh is hospitalised again, and the bill is Rs. 3 lakhs. Rajesh’s claim was paid from the reinstated Rs. 5 lakhs cover. Some health insurance plans have the restoration benefit in-built, while some offer it as an optional rider or add-on. What is the need for the restoration benefit? In India, medical inflation has been growing faster than the general inflation rate, mostly in double digits, year after year. Hence, if you don’t take an adequate amount of health insurance cover, a single hospitalisation claim can consume the entire or most of your cover. What if there is another hospitalisation event in the same year, and you run out of your health insurance cover? In the absence of the restoration benefit, you will have to pay the bill amount from your own pocket. If the hospital bill is high, it can disrupt your financial planning journey and set you back by a few years or more. For some people, the impact can be severe, wiping out all the savings and investments. The worst that can happen, a person is left with no savings and has to take a personal loan to pay the partial or entire hospital bill. However, with the restoration benefit, you can avoid the financial difficulties outlined above. The restoration benefit replenishes your exhausted health insurance coverage. In the event of multiple hospitalisations and initial cover being exhausted, the health insurance cover will still pay from the restored cover. Types of restoration Not all health insurance plans with the restoration benefit offer it the same way. The restoration benefit can be structured in different ways. Hence, it is important to read the policy wording to understand how the restoration benefit is being offered for that particular health insurance product. Some ways in which the restoration benefit is offered include the following A. Once a year or unlimited times: Some health insurance plans offer the restoration benefit only once in a policy year. On the other hand, some plans offer it unlimited times during the policy year. Plans that offer unlimited restoration provide better value than plans with restoration once a year. However, the premium for plans with unlimited restoration will be higher than those with restoration once a year. B. Applies to the same illness or a different illness: Some health insurance plans allow the use of the restoration benefit for a different or unrelated illness. For example, suppose a person is hospitalised due to Tuberculosis (TB). Let us assume the cover got exhausted for the current hospitalisation bill settlement, and the restoration benefit has kicked in. In this case, if the person gets hospitalised again during the same policy year due to TB, they cannot avail the restoration benefit. However, if the person is hospitalised again during the same policy year due to an unrelated or different illness (other than TB in this case), they can avail of the restoration benefit. Some health insurance plans allow the restoration benefit to be used for the same illness. Suppose a person is hospitalised due to TB. Let us assume the cover got exhausted for the current hospitalisation bill settlement, and the restoration benefit has kicked in. In this case, if the person is hospitalised again during the same policy year due to TB, they can still avail the restoration benefit. Health insurance plans that allow the use of the restoration benefit for the same illness provide better value than those that allow use for a different illness. C. When does it apply — full or partial cover exhaustion: In some health insurance plans, the restoration benefit kicks in only after the entire health insurance cover has been exhausted. For example, suppose a person has a health insurance cover of Rs. 5 lakhs. In this case, the restoration benefit will kick in only after the entire Rs. 5 lakhs cover is exhausted. In some health insurance plans, the restoration benefit kicks in even if the health insurance cover is partially used up. For example, suppose a person has a health insurance cover of Rs. 5 lakhs. The person is hospitalised, and the bill is Rs. 1 lakh. In this case, the restoration benefit will kick in, and the policy sum assured will be reinstated from Rs. 4 lakhs to Rs. 5 lakhs. Health insurance plans with a restoration benefit for partial cover exhaustion offer better value than those with a restoration benefit for full exhaustion. In the above section, we discussed the different types of
The rationale for investing in Nexus Select Trust REIT| Business News
If you live in a big city like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, New Delhi, or Hyderabad, you are likely to have been to a Nexus Mall. You may be a regular visitor to a Nexus Mall as a customer. But, did you know you can be an investor in the Nexus Select Trust REIT, and participate in India’s retail consumption growth story and benefit from it? In this article, we will understand what the Nexus Select Trust REIT is, its growth, its share performance, and whether you should invest in it. A shopping mall in New Delhi. (Reuters) What is the Nexus Select Trust REIT? The Nexus Select Trust is India’s first publicly listed retail real estate investment trust (REIT). It has a portfolio of 19 malls spread across 15 cities. The list of malls includes: West Region: Nexus Ahmedabad One, Treasure Island (Indore), Nexus Indore Central, Nexus Seawoods (Navi Mumbai), Nexus Westend Complex (Pune) East Region: East Region Nexus Esplanade (Bhubaneshwar) South Region: Nexus Whitefield (Bengaluru), Nexus Koramangala (Bengaluru), Nexus Shantiniketan (Bengaluru), Fiza by Nexus (Mangaluru), Nexus Vijaya Complex (Chennai), Nexus Hyderabad, Nexus Vega City (Bengaluru), Nexus Centre City (Mysuru) North Region: Nexus Amritsar, Nexus Select CityWalk (New Delhi), MBD Complex (Ludhiana), Nexus Elante Complex (Chandigarh), Nexus Celebration (Udaipur) The malls have a gross leasable area of 10.6 million square feet. Apart from the malls mentioned above, the REIT also operates the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chandigarh and Westend Offices (commercial office space) in Pune. Nexus Select Trust began operations in 2015 with 2 malls: Nexus Ahmedabad One and Nexus Amritsar. Over the years, it has grown its portfolio with the acquisition of various malls. Nexus Select Trust’s business model involves the plug-and-play approach: Acquire the asset (mall) Upgrade it through strategic capex Reposition it by premiumising the brand offering Focus on innovative activations and marketing outreach Optimise cost by implementing best practices Increase rental yield and improve overall profitability Financial performance In February, Nexus Select Trust reported its FY 2026 third-quarter financial results, with 15% year-on-year growth in its Net Operating Income (NOI) at Rs. 4.5 billion (Rs. 3.9 billion in Q3 FY 2025). Nexus Select Trust has a strong leased occupancy with 97% space in the malls leased out to tenants. It acquired two malls in 2025 (Nexus Vega City and Nexus MBD Neopolis) that are performing well. To continue growing its portfolio, Nexus Select Trust continues to evaluate various malls for acquisition. It has a robust pipeline of more than 10 assets across 8 states for potential acquisitions. Share price performance Nexus Select Trust REIT got listed on the stock exchanges (BSE and NSE) on 19th May 2023. The shares were offered with an issue price of Rs. 100 per unit. As of 9th February 2026, the share price closed at Rs. 160. Thus, it has delivered an absolute return of 60% to its shareholders since its listing. Distributions As per SEBI Regulations, REITs must distribute at least 90% of their Net Distributable Cash Flows (NDCF) as distributions to their shareholders. Some investors refer to the distributions as dividends. With its FY 2026 Q3 financial results, Nexus Select Trust declared a distribution of Rs. 3,586 million (Rs. 2.367 per unit), its highest quarterly distribution since listing. In the current quarter, it distributed 100% of its NDCF as distribution to shareholders. At the start of the financial year 2025 – 26, Nexus Select Trust guided for a distribution per unit (DPU) of Rs. 9.10–Rs. 9.20, a 10% year-on-year growth. So far in FY 2025 – 26, it has made distributions of Rs. 6.80 per unit and has said it is on track to meet the annual guidance. Financial Year Distribution per unit (DPU) FY 2024 Rs. 7.07 FY 2025 Rs. 8.356 FY 2026 (9 months) Rs. 6.795 Total distribution Rs. 22.221 If we add the Rs. 22.22 DPU to the share price gain of Rs. 60, the total return comes to 82%. Nexus Select Trust’s Vision 2030 During its ‘Capital Markets Day’ in May 2025, Nexus Select Trust outlined its Vision 2030 plan to double the mall portfolio by 2030 by expanding the number of malls to 30-35. The expanded malls portfolio will double the existing Net Operating Income (NOI). It is enhancing category depth in jewellery, beauty, food & beverage, and experiential retail. As of February 2026, Nexus Select Trust has a robust pipeline of 11 assets (malls) for inorganic growth through potential acquisitions. Four retail assets covering 2 million square feet area are currently under due diligence. Should you invest in Nexus Select Trust shares? Before considering investing in Nexus Select Trust REIT or any other REIT, you should be aware of specific SEBI guidelines. As per these guidelines, a REIT must: Invest a minimum of 80% of its funds in completed, income-generating assets. It leads to predictable and stable cash flows. Distribute a minimum of 90% of net distributable cash flows (NDCF) semi-annually. Nexus Select Trust REIT has been following the above SEBI guidelines. They have been making quarterly distributions to shareholders. Over the last 10 quarters (as of February 2026), it has maintained a 100% NDCF payout ratio to its shareholders. Nexus Select Trust has low leverage with an 18% Loan-to-Value (LTV) and a strong AAA/Stable credit rating. It has close to USD 1 billion of debt headroom, making it well-positioned to execute the next phase of its inorganic growth strategy. As of September 2025, the net asset value (NAV) is Rs. 159 per unit. The current share price is Rs. 160 per unit. So, the share price is trading near the NAV per unit. The management has said they are on track to meet the FY 2025-26 DPU guidance of Rs. 9.10–Rs. 9.20 per unit. At a share price of Rs. 160, the dividend yield works comes to 5.7%. As mentioned earlier, Nexus Select Trust has outlined Vision 2030 of doubling the number of malls and Net Operating Income (NOI). If it is able to achieve it in a sustainable and profitable
What explains the spike in bond yields despite 125 bps in RBI repo rate cuts| Business News
In December 2025, India’s Monetary Policy Committee cut the Repo Rate by 25 basis points. RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra referred to India’s macroeconomic situation as a rare Goldilocks period, with low inflation at 2.2% and GDP growth at 8%. However, the Government is getting limited benefit from the Goldilocks period, as the yields on Government bonds (G-secs) have not moved down in sync with the RBI repo rate cuts. In this article, we will understand why G-secs yields have risen in the recent months despite the RBI repo rate cuts. A customer holds ₹100 notes near a roadside currency exchange stall in New Delhi. (Reuters) RBI repo rate cuts in 2025 The RBI started the current interest rate-cutting cycle in February 2025 with a 25-basis points cut in the Repo Rate from 6.50% to 6.25%. Since then, the RBI has cut the Repo Rate multiple times, bringing it down to the current level of 5.25% (February 2026). Over the last one year, while the RBI cut the Repo Rate by 125 basis points from the peak, the yields on G-secs have not moved in tandem. (Source: https://tradingeconomics.com/india/government-bond-yield) The above chart shows that yields on the 10-year G-secsfell in the first half of 2025, along with the Repo Rate cuts. The 10-year bond yields fell from levels of around 6.74% in February 2025 to around 6.24% in June 2025. In the June 2025 MPC meeting, the RBI cut the Repo Rate by 50 basis points to 5.50% and changed the policy stance from ‘accommodative’ to ‘neutral’. Since June 2025, yields on 10-year G-secs have changed direction and started going up. From June 2025, the 10-year G-sec yields have climbed from levels of around 6.24% to the current (February 2026) level of around 6.75%. So, the entire yield decline has reversed, and gone back to where it was a year back in February 2025. Why have the 10-year G-sec yields risen? In the earlier section, we saw how the 10-year G-sec yields have risen in the last few months. Now, let us understand the reasons for the rise in yields. 1. Change in MPC stance in June 2025 The MPC changed its monetary policy stance from ‘accommodative’ to ‘neutral’ in June 2025. The markets interpreted that as the RBI will go for a long pause, with the probability of any future rate cuts low and inflation data dependent. As a result, the G-secs bond yields rose by 10-12 basis points in a couple of days, post the MPC meeting. 2. US tariffs on Indian goods in August 2025 In August 2025, the US Government imposed 50% tariffs on Indian goods. First, a 25% reciprocal tariff was imposed, and later an additional 25% penalty tariff was imposed for Russian crude oil purchases. The tariffs led to the Indian Rupee depreciating against the US Dollar. As a result, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) sold Indian G-secs, to cut losses, resulting from the Indian Rupee depreciation. FPI selling of G-secs has pushed down prices and increased yields. 3. GST rates rationalisation in September 2025 In August 2025, in his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced next-generation reforms, including the rationalisation of GST rates. Post the announcement, the GST Council announced the GST rate reduction on many goods and services from 12% to 5%, and nil rate (0%) on some, effective from 22nd September 2025. While the GST rate cuts benefitted customers, markets feared that the rate cuts will lower the Government’s GST collections. The bond markets feared that lower tax collections would increase the fiscal deficit and that the Government may borrow more. As a result, the G-secs yields went up. 4. India;s inclusion Bloomberg Bond Index delayed The Indian G-secs were expected to be included in the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Bond Index. However, in January 2026, Bloomberg announced the decision has been delayed due to operational and market-infrastructure issues. It said the decision will be reviewed and an update will be provided by mid-2026. The inclusion of G-secs in the global bond index would have steadily brought in billions of US Dollars in Indian G-secs steadily over the months. However, the delay spooked sentiment, leading to a rise in G-sec yields. 5. Higher Government borrowing in Budget 2026 On 1st February, the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, presented Budget 2026. For FY 2026-27, the Government’s gross market borrowings are estimated at Rs. 17.20 lakh crores, and net market borrowing from G-sec bonds is estimated at Rs. 11.70 lakh crores. The borrowing numbers are higher than market estimates. On Budget Day, the bond markets were closed as it was a Sunday. However, on Monday, bond yields spiked following the Government’s budget announcement of the borrowing planning for 2026-27. 6. MPC announcement in February 2026 In its February 2026 meeting, the MPC left the Repo Rate unchanged at 5.25% and the ‘neutral’ policy stance. The RBI upped the FY 2026 GDP growth forecast to 7.4%. The inflation forecast for Q1 FY 2027 has been raised from earlier 3.9% to 4.0%, and for Q2 FY 2027 from earlier 4.0% to 4.2%. The increase in inflation forecast to 4% and above, which is close to the RBI’s target, reduces the probability of future Repo Rate cuts. As a result, the bond yields hardened post the MPC monetary policy announcement. Where are G-sec yields headed? During the course of FY 2026-27, the bond markets will keep a close watch on how the Central Government proceeds with its borrowing program. The markets will also track the issuances of State Development Loans (SDLs) by various State Governments. A higher supply of G-secs from the Central Government and SDLs from the State Governments than market expectations will keep yields at higher levels or push them further higher. On the other hand, lower bond issuances by Central and State Governments, liquidity management measures by RBI, a Repo Rate cut by RBI, inclusion of Indian G-secs in global bond indices, an increase in FPI investments in Indian G-secs, etc., can bring down yields.
