Adani triples LNG price for industrial users as Iran war disrupts supply| Business News
Adani Total Gas Ltd. has tripled LNG prices for industrial consumers exceeding their daily quota, in what is seen as a direct fallout of an escalating Iran war choking India’s energy supply. The corporate headquarters of Adani Group in Ahmedabad. (Reuters) The city gas distributor—a joint venture between billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate and France’s TotalEnergies SE—raised LNG rates for volumes consumed beyond 40% of daily contracted limits to ₹120 per standard cubic metre from ₹40, Bloomberg reported citing sources. The price revision took effect at 6:00 am on Wednesday. A spokesperson for Adani Total Gas did not immediately respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment. Qatari Supply Crunch The price surge underscores India’s acute vulnerability to maritime disruptions. Domestic consumers are facing a severe supply squeeze after Qatar’s Ras Laffan plant—the world’s largest LNG terminal—halted operations following an Iranian drone strike. The outage is particularly bruising for New Delhi, which relies on imports for half of its natural gas needs, with Qatar accounting for 50% of those overseas shipments. Industrial and commercial units represent roughly 30% of Adani Total’s demand profile. Unlike the residential segment, which receives priority allocation of cheaper domestic gas, this bulk demand is met entirely through expensive LNG imports purchased on the spot market. Force Majeure Risks The crisis is rippling through India’s energy infrastructure. Peers including Petronet LNG Ltd. and Gujarat Gas Ltd. have already invoked force majeure clauses to limit deliveries, citing an inability to secure scheduled shipments. Adani Total currently operates across 53 geographical areas, reaching roughly 14% of India’s population through its direct footprint and a separate venture with Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. The sudden cost escalation is expected to pressure margins for energy-intensive sectors, including ceramics, glass, and chemicals, which rely on the company’s network for steady fuel.
Morgan Stanley cuts 2,500 jobs amid record revenue but the reason is not AI| Business News
Morgan Stanley has effected layoffs to cut about 3% of its workforce, or roughly 2,500 employees, despite a record year for revenue. As on 31 December 2025, Morgan Stanley had 82,992 employees. (Reuters) The job cuts were across the bank’s three major divisions: investment banking and trading, wealth management, and investment management, but do not affect its financial advisors, WSJ reported. The Morgan Stanley layoffs are based on strategy and individual performance, and the bank intends to add headcount in other areas. As on 31 December 2025, Morgan Stanley had 82,992 employees. The Morgan Stanley layoffs come against the backdrop of a record year for revenues the US-based investment bank. It also beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit in January, fueled by a 47% jump in investment banking revenue as dealmaking surged and debt underwriting fees nearly doubled. Banking executives had struck an optimistic tone for 2026 on the back of healthy pipelines for M&A deals as well as IPOs. Meanwhile, volatile markets amid worries of AI disruption to legacy technology businesses and geopolitical turmoil continue to boost trading desks as clients reposition portfolios to hedge against risks. There have been massive layoffs across US companies since the start of this year, as they streamline operations amid rising adoption of AI tools.
Xiaomi Vision GT, Stuffcool’s Zeno 65W and rooting Android| Business News
Opening thoughts. Motorola is partnering with GrapheneOS. That’s the headline, which may have probably got more folks to sit up and take notice in 2014 than it does in 2026, but it’s important nonetheless. The Xiaomi Vision Gran Tourismo concept. Clearly, Xiaomi is now making cars that would worry European automakers as well as a brand that seemingly has a superiority complex—Tesla. (Handout) Motorola, a Lenovo company, is well-known in the Android smartphone ecosystem. GrapheneOS Foundation builds what it says is a privacy and security-focused mobile OS that’s based on Android. What does this mean? Future Motorola smartphones will support this OS, if a user wishes to switch. GrapheneOS says the first such Android devices under the Motorola brand name will arrive at some point in 2027, though it isn’t confirmed if anything from the current portfolio will adopt this OS support anytime soon. Are we returning to the days when Android enthusiasts could really tweak their phones? A more refined version of “rooting”, perhaps? EDITOR’S CORNER Xiaomi Vision Gran Tourismo There is something quite crazy happening at the intersection of electric mobility and technology companies, and I’ve a few opinions on that. Xiaomi Corp., along side an impressive 17 Series smartphones as well as a few other product line-ups, also made another move in the automotive space. Even as they confirm that more than 500,000 EVs were delivered by the company in 2025—the company’s EV portfolio includes the SU7 sedan and its variants, the SU7 Ultra high-performance sedan and the YU7 SUV—they clearly are learning fast about making cars that would worry European automakers as well as a brand that seemingly has a superiority complex—Tesla Inc. At the Mobile World Congress, the company showed off their all-electric hypercar concept—the Xiaomi Vision Gran Turismo. Jaw-droppingly impressive. The silhouette, contours, the cutouts and sculpting of finer elements, need to be absorbed and appreciated, rather than just looked at as you typically would in a car. “Electric hypercars must answer a fundamental question. Do we pursue extreme low drag for straight-line speed, or maximum downforce to conquer corners? The optimal solution lies in finding the perfect balance between the two,” Tianyuan Li, design head of Xiaomi EV, said at the unveil. While it is primarily a digital-only concept, Xiaomi has detailed the high-performance architecture underpinning the design. The powertrain is built on Xiaomi’s proprietary 900V Silicon Carbide (SiC) platform, and power levels are expected to be close to 1,900 horsepower—a theoretical beast in the making. The cockpit includes a “sofa racer” driver’s seat and a butterfly-shaped steering wheel with integrated display, as well as a panoramic screen stretching across the dash, and a drive selector styled like an aircraft throttle. The driver will interact with the Xiaomi Pulse system, which uses light and sound. This is a strengthening of Xiaomi’s Human X Car X Home philosophy. And a first for a tech company, that puts it in the same hypercar conversation as the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut, the Bugatti Tourbillon, the Pagani Zonda as well as the upcoming Ferrari F80 and McLaren W1. That is no mean feat. TECH SPOTLIGHT Stuffcool Zeno 65W There’s an age old adage, good things come in small packages. The smartphone industry doesn’t seem to believe much in that anymore, but the accessory ecosystem surely does. Stuffcool’s latest gallium-nitride (GaN) charger, the Zeno 65W, follows the template of something we’ve had a conversation about earlier, the Zeno 30W charger. The key difference, you’d have perhaps figured this out with the naming scheme itself, is that there’s now more power, which makes this a better fit for fast charging smartphones, tablets and even enough grunt for certain laptops. In terms of size, there’s negligible difference between the siblings, while retaining the uniqueness of a retractable USB-C type cable with the flat design that extends as much as 25 inches. The key is to be gentle with this extension and retraction. This is essentially an incredibly versatile travel accessory and a workstation charger, with the retractable cable plus a USB-C port on the charger itself. Each method will deliver 65W charging speed when used singularly, and will be shared at around 30W when both are in use. At ₹2,999 for the Zeno 65W (this is PD PPS output, or Power Delivery Programmable Power Supply Standard), it is hard to argue against its utility, value and convenience. After an initial surge for a couple of minutes, it is impressive how this compact charger manages to stay cool. If you travel a lot, with a couple of phones or indeed a phone or tablet combination in tow, you would be hard-pressed to find a charger that’s so capable, whilst being this compact. Every gram matters, when you’re lugging that weight around an airport. SECOND THOUGHTS Leica Leitzphone, powered by Xiaomi Those of you who follow my pieces on Hindustan Times regularly would remember what I had written about the Xiaomi 17 Ultra By Leica edition a few weeks ago. That was an early access at the version of the smartphone otherwise meant for China, but, well, the extraordinary camera capabilities don’t change regardless. The same phone will now arrive in some markets, as the Leica Leitzphone powered by Xiaomi. Leica’s heritage doesn’t make its red dot logo available for a product, just like that. In my book, the big takeaway is the evolution (and strengthening of) the Xiaomi and Leica partnership, at a time when OnePlus has lost the Hasselblad ticket and Zeiss’ alignment with Vivo is more about maintaining status quo. All the ingredients are there on the camera front, something I had detailed in my experience piece. The Leica and Xiaomi collective philosophy that tugs at the strings of my heart—hardware and image processing finesse cannot be replaced by AI. And to that point, AI is kept absolutely optional in the Leica Leitzphone powered by Xiaomi. No prizes for guessing, I’d kept it off even at 120X zoom levels. That’s all folks. Stay tuned for next week’s Neural Dispatch
MacBook Neo marks Apple’s bold return to affordable laptops| Business News
The Apple MacBook Neo, not to be confused with a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, marks the return of a truly affordable laptop to Apple Inc.’s portfolio. The Apple MacBook Neo, with a 13-inch screen, is available in two variants (differentiated between 256GB and 512GB storage), priced at ₹69,900 and ₹79,900, respectively. At $599, or ₹69,900, onwards, the Apple Macbook Neo is very relevant for some markets, including India—the attempt is to compete with the troika of mid-range Windows 11 laptops, Google Chromebooks as well as some Android tablets with a keyboard slapped on. The approach straddles a blend of Apple’s iPad and iPhone elements too, including a foundation provided by the A18 Pro chip that also powers the iPhone 16 Pro series. Apple MacBook Neo: The specifications The MacBook Neo, with a 13-inch screen, is available in two variants (differentiated between 256GB and 512GB storage), priced at ₹69,900 and ₹79,900 respectively. The A18 Pro chip is configured with a 6‑core CPU including 2 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, a 5‑core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine for Apple Intelligence. The suite, along with the Siri voice assistant, is expected to receive significant updates in the coming weeks. “We’re incredibly excited to introduce MacBook Neo, which delivers the magic of the Mac at a breakthrough price,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. “There is simply no other laptop like it.” There is an element of historical significance underlining the 2026 return of the MacBook Neo albeit with a modern naming scheme, as it takes forward a legacy of the original polycarbonate MacBook that was sold between 2006 and 2012, and the 12-inch MacBook with the Retina display, that was in the market from 2015 to 2019. The MacBook Neo also has a 13-inch Liquid Retina display with 2408 x 1506 resolution, 500 nits of brightness, and support for 1 billion colours, Apple confirms. The company also claims up to 16 hours battery life with the MacBook Neo, though true to Apple’s style, capacity details haven’t been specified. It’ll ship with a 20-watt USB-C adapter. Focus remains on portability with a fanless design, tipping just 1.22kg on the scales, despite the aluminium chassis. There are two USB-C ports, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack, while wireless connectivity is ticked off with Wi-Fi 6E. By utilising the A18 Pro silicon, on the 3-nanometer architecture, Apple has repurposed a chip that was otherwise advancing towards being filed as a previous generation spec. Performance will be significantly different from an iPhone, considering the larger chassis it resides in, with an elaborate active and passive cooling architecture in support. Apple’s attempt to offer a more stable and performance oriented experience at price points where Windows laptops tend to offer certain compromises, and Chromebooks as well as Android tablets have platform limitations, may resonate with potential buyers. Apple has Intel in its sights, noting that apps including Messages, WhatsApp, Canva, Excel, Safari, and other everyday tasks, will be up to 50% faster “than the bestselling PC with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5”. “And for more demanding activities, it’s up to 3x faster for on-device AI workloads and up to 2x faster for tasks like photo editing.” There is also the element of colours, something that’s been a regular feature with the iPad and iPhone lines, and further helps with the personalisation aspect. At this time, the MacBook Neo rolls out with the option of Silver, Blush, Citrus, and Indigo. The MacBook’s launch is likely to bookend a slew of announcements by Apple this week, including the iPhone 17e, a refreshed iPad Air, new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips that arrive with the new MacBook Pro range, updates to the Studio Display and Studio Display XDR, as well as the MacBook Air refresh that arrives with the M5 chip. In fact, the recalibrate pricing of the new MacBook Air with M5, at ₹1,19,900 onwards and higher than the ₹99,900 launch price of last year’s M4 chip powered edition, opens a wider window for the new MacBook to slot in to.
