Latest Developments

Asia
The Economic Times

Bank of India Flexi Cap among 5 flexi-cap funds that deliver over 15% annualised return in 3 years

The top five flexi cap funds delivered over 15% annualised return in the last three years. Here is a detailed breakup of top five performers, as ETWealth (Data as of August 26, 2026) Bank of India Flexi Cap Fund, the topper in the list, delivered an annualised return of 20.5% in the last three years. Motilal Oswal Flexi Cap Fund delivered an annualised return of 19.9% in the mentioned time period. Invesco India Flexi Cap Fund delivered an annualised return of 18.5% in the mentioned time period. ITI Flexi Cap Fund delivered an annualised return of 18.2% in the mentioned time period. ICICI Prudential Flexi Cap Fund delivered an annualised return of 18.1% in the mentioned time period. There were five laggards in the last three years. UTI Flexi Cap Fund, Sundaram Flexi Cap Fund, SBI Flexicap Fund, Shriram Flexi Cap Fund and Samco Flexi Cap Fund delivered returns ranging between (2.4%) to 9.7% in the said time period.

Bank of India Flexi Cap among 5 flexi-cap funds that deliver over 15% annualised return in 3 years
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Two-way bilateral trade is over $15 billion, grown tenfold in 20 years: Brazil Consul General in Mumbai

Brazil Consul General Jose Mauro da Fonseca Costa Couto on Saturday said that bilateral trade between India and Brazil has grown tenfold over the past 20 years, from $1.5 billion in 2004 to over $15 billion at present. Speaking to ANI on the sidelines of the Global Impact Forum: Edition II-Civilisation Legacy in Mumbai, Couto highlighted the growth in trade between India and Brazil. He said, "I'll tell you one thing, in very tangibly, in 2004, when I first came to India, bilateral trade, two-way trade, was $1.5 billion. Nowadays, two-way trade is over $15 billion. So we've grown tenfold in 20 years." "So congratulations to India and to Brazil for moving so fast, so rapidly, into bringing people together from India and Brazil," he added. Couto also congratulated the organisers of the event, saying it promotes closer ties between people from different countries and provides a platform to discuss their respective pathways to development. "I'd like to congratulate the organisers of this event, which further promotes and approximate peoples of different countries together so they can discuss their own pathways to development without interference from other countries," he said. He further referred to the gathering as a "warm-up" summit ahead of the larger BRICS Summit in Delhi on September 12-13. "So basically, congratulations for hosting this summit, which is one of the, let's say, warm-up summits towards the larger BRICS summit, which will take place in Delhi quite soon," Couto said. The Global Impact Forum Edition II, organised by AP Globale, is being held on September 5-6 at the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai under the theme "Civilisational Legacy". The forum brought together participants from business, government, policy and academia, with discussions around investment, entrepreneurship, diplomacy and international cooperation.Before the launch of the forum, AP Globale Director Janhavi Pawar spoke to ANI and said it has been designed keeping the BRICS theme in mind, with a focus on soft power and investment in India. Highlighting the business relevance of cultural understanding, Pawar said, "When it comes to soft power, it helps retain trade, investments and talent in a country even during geopolitical instability." She said understanding local cultures and sentiments is particularly important for companies entering new markets, adding that the forum aims to build greater understanding and trust between participating countries and delegations. India’s BRICS Chairship is guided by the theme: 'Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability', reflecting the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a people-centric approach rooted in the spirit of "Humanity First", said the Ministry of External Affairs in a press release earlier. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Two-way bilateral trade is over $15 billion, grown tenfold in 20 years: Brazil Consul General in Mumbai
North America
CNBC Finance

Investor competition for commercial real estate sees strongest growth in a year

Investors are flooding back into the commercial real estate market, powered by a steep rise in liquidity from sources across the finance spectrum. That's despite stubbornly high borrowing rates. Bidding for properties in June posted its strongest monthly improvement in a year, according to quarterly bidding and credit indexes released Tuesday from JLL. Also, July saw the second highest count of unique bidders in the index's five-year history. Competition among lenders is also well above previous record highs, according to JLL. "An interesting finding with the most recent data in this index is the lessening divergence between the credit intensity index and bid intensity index," said Lauro Ferroni, JLL's head of capital markets research for the Americas. "We've actually found that the credit intensity index is a leading indicator for the bid intensity index, because credit availability sets the tone for liquidity." Even though macro uncertainty and volatility continue to show up in the broader economy, bidding keeps rising. Ferroni said that's likely because the weight of active capital in the market is counteracting and potentially working as a stronger force than that ongoing volatility. Credit is now flowing more freely from commercial mortgage-backed securities, insurance companies, government agencies and debt funds. This was not the case in the first few years following the pandemic, thanks to distress in several CRE sectors and then higher interest rates starting in 2022. "It's because they like real estate. They want to increase their real estate books. In some cases, they can generate more of a yield there," Ferroni said. "They've seen how the sector has played out. There was not a big wave of distress or defaults or anything like that. So they're coming back into the sector." CNBC's Property Play with Diana Olick covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, delivered weekly to your inbox. Specifically, investors are flooding into retail and industrial. Retail is a newer phenomenon, as it had been one of the worst performing sectors due to the growth of e-commerce during the pandemic. Retail is getting more competitive because owners like the returns they're getting and therefore have no interest in selling, according to JLL. Industrial has already been strong for several years, due to the explosion of e-commerce, but also because of recent reshoring and reindustrialization. Companies are moving or expanding manufacturing closer to the U.S. to shorten lead times, reduce supply-chain risk and, in some cases, reduce tariff exposure, according to a midyear report from CBRE. The report shows manufacturing leasing was up 27% year over year. The weakest sector for bidding and credit activity continues to be multifamily. The sector is still working its way through a historic supply of new construction. Vacancies are finally falling nationally, but that is largely driven by new properties. Stabilized vacancies, which strip out properties still in lease-up, were up 34 basis points in the second quarter of this year, according to CoStar. Ferroni said he doesn't see any major warning signs for competition in overall CRE. The U.S. Treasury Department's move last week to buy long-term bonds could help those currently underwriting property transactions. It also boosts confidence among investors that they can be more competitive in their bidding. "There's quite a bit of gas left in the tank for further growth, and we think it'll be gradual, not explosive momentum," Ferroni said. "It doesn't appear to be frothy at all."

Investor competition for commercial real estate sees strongest growth in a year
Europe
The Guardian

Wiped out: US faces surging toilet paper prices amid trade war with Canada

A customer picks up a pack of toilet paper from a store shelf in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on 2 March 2025. Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenA customer picks up a pack of toilet paper from a store shelf in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on 2 March 2025. Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty ImagesTrump tariffsWiped out: US faces surging toilet paper prices amid trade war with CanadaPaper products among hardest-hit sectors after trade negotiations broke down, with 25-50% tariffs estimated Using the bathroom or having a cry is about to become more expensive for North Americans as the US and Canada enter a full-fledged trade war that threatens to flush away decades of peaceful trading between the two nations. After trade negotiations broke down between the two countries last weekend, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, vowed to match US tariffs “dollar for dollar” and unveiled a list of nearly 900 American goods that will face 25% to 50% tariffs starting on 8 September. Paper products are among the hardest-hit sectors, with Canada threatening to put tariffs of between 25% and 50% on “toilet paper or face tissue stock” from 8 September in retaliation for a 50% hike from Washington DC. Though American toilet paper and tissues are often made domestically, they heavily rely on lumber-rich Canada for raw materials. Procter & Gamble, the owner of Charmin toilet paper, said last year that it would have to increase prices amid tariffs that were in place at the time. The US imported $328m worth of toilet paper from Canada in 2024, according to the World Bank, making it by far the largest exporter of the product to the US. Retailers including Costco source much of their paper products from the country. The US accounts for more than 20% of global tissue consumption despite having only 4% of the world’s population. The average American uses 141 rolls of toilet paper per year, making them No 1 for No 2s globally, just ahead of Germans, each using an average of 134 rolls annually. It’s not just paper products that could rise in price. The trade war highlights the deep economic ties shared between the two countries as consumers continue to worry about inflation on both sides of the border. US tariffs are specifically affecting Canadian liquor, including popular whiskey brands Crown Royal and Canadian Club, which are currently under a 50% tariff. While Canada has not introduced a tariff on American liquor, most Canadian provinces have introduced their own bans on American alcohol, in retaliation for earlier tariffs on Canadian products. Donald Trump used these province-wide bans on American alcohol as part of his legal justification for his new tariffs against Canada. Carney has asked province leaders to consider putting American liquor back on the shelves, though as the Nova Scotia premier Tim Houston told CBC News: “Whether Nova Scotians or Canadians will actually buy it when it’s back on the shelves, that’s a whole other discussion.” Trump also said that his new tariffs are in retaliation for Canadian levies against the American dairy industry. He introduced a 50% tariff on nearly all Canadian dairy products, with the exception of Canadian cheese.

Wiped out: US faces surging toilet paper prices amid trade war with Canada
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Who played the ‘most expensive joke’ on Anand Mahindra, the fallible chess player?

Comedian Samay Raina challenged Anand Mahindra during an online interaction in 2020 to create a global chess league. Mr Mahindra took him seriously. “Usually, comedians provoke laughter but Samay in a way provoked a global chess league,” said Anand Mahindra, Chairman of the Mahindra Group, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd and Tech Mahindra Ltd, speaking at the fourth season of the Global Chess League in Bengaluru. Four seasons later, the challenge has become a Tech Mahindra-FIDE joint venture with a $1-million annual prize purse and a projected five-year business value exceeding $40 million. “If it is a joke then it’s the most expensive joke anyone has ever played on me,” Mahindra said. And he appears happy to be on the receiving end. “I’m in fact enjoying the fruits of the success of that expense and effort.” There was reason to take a comedian seriously. Mahindra had been watching Raina and chess commentator Sagar Shah stream the 2020 Chess Olympiad and noticed their audience swelling. “I saw that in every 15 minutes the crowd of people watching grew larger,” he recalled. Then the joke attracted some serious company. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich “somehow got hold of my email” and asked whether Mahindra was serious about starting a league. He was. Months of conversations followed. Viswanathan Anand, India’s five-time world champion, then “unhesitatingly” came aboard. The league now has six franchises and has travelled from Dubai to London, Mumbai and Bengaluru. A comedian supplied the provocation, Mr. Mahindra spotted the audience, and some of chess’s biggest names helped turn the punchline into reality. The joke may have created a league of grandmasters. It hasn’t made Mahindra one. “I personally feel the effects of that loss every day as I battle the bots on chess.com and I’m brutally mocked for making blunders,” he said. Mahindra consoles himself that his defeats make a small contribution to ensuring that the “vulnerable, the fallible human element is kept alive in the game of chess.” He even enjoys seeing grandmasters occasionally blunder because, he said, it makes them “endearing and more like us, fallible as it were.” Bengaluru offered an apt backdrop. Long before today’s AI boom, chess was a test of whether machines could match human intelligence. Machines won that battle, but Mr Mahindra argues that perfection isn’t why people watch chess. “We gather not to watch machines play. We gather to watch human beings play,” he said .“A machine can tell us what the best move is but it’s only people who make us care about it.” Perhaps that is why the “most expensive joke” still makes Mahindra laugh. A comedian made the opening move, an industrialist played along, and a global chess league followed.

Who played the ‘most expensive joke’ on Anand Mahindra, the fallible chess player?
North America
CNBC Economy

Stanley Druckenmiller leads doubters who think Bessent's bond ploys will fail

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's bond market interventions have generated a modest decline in yields along with a growing chorus of derision from those who think they won't work over the long haul and could have dangerous repercussions. Wall Street has been generally skeptical that Treasury has enough firepower to manage a fixed income market that saw some $4.8 trillion in debt issued in 2025 alone, a level that could be exceeded this year. Bessent has proposed at least doubling the department's buyback efforts for longer-dated debt issues. Treasury also intervened in currency markets in late July to support the yen so the Bank of Japan didn't have to sell Treasurys, which likely would have raised yields on U.S. debt. The efforts have pushed longer-dated yields off recent peaks that were the highest since before the global financial crisis in 2008, but market experts see the moves as doomed to fail, particularly if the U.S. does not address a fiscal situation in which total debt just eclipsed $40 trillion and the budget deficit is well on its way to top $2 trillion for 2026. The latest critic to pile on: Stanley Druckenmiller, the prominent head of Duquesne Family Office and, perhaps more significantly, Bessent's investing mentor. The two, along with George Soros, famously orchestrated the bet against the U.K. pound in the early 1990s. Druckenmiller warned that without fiscal discipline, efforts to tamp down yields are dangerous for markets — and also for the Treasury Department's credibility. "If the 30-year must trade at 5.5% to clear, that isn't a crisis. It is an invoice," he wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece. "Then do the only thing that durably lowers long-term yields: address the primary deficit." In the essay, titled "Let the Bond Market Speak," Druckenmiller urged Bessent to abandon the buyback scheme announced Aug. 19 and allow the market the opportunity, free of the government's hand, to set the proper price for government debt. "Every basis point of artificial yield suppression is a subsidy to procrastination," he wrote. "Once markets believe Treasury is defending a price, every rise in yields becomes a test of official resolve, and the operations must grow to survive the tests." "Governments defending prices against fundamentals always lose. The only variable is how much they spend before conceding," he added. The Treasury Department didn't immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment on Druckenmiller's column. Bessent's initial plan was to double Treasury's usual $2 billion buybacks of off-the-run — or previously issued — securities, a program begun two years ago under his predecessor, Janet Yellen.

Stanley Druckenmiller leads doubters who think Bessent's bond ploys will fail
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Intellectual freedom gaining strength, India no longer seeks permission to study its heritage: Sitharaman

With intellectual freedom gaining strength, India is today “self-assured and quite unapologetic” and has stopped waiting for anyone else’s permission to study its own heritage, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday. “In 1991, we had our economic independence; it is only now that intellectual freedom is gaining strength...intellectual freedom has to give us the right to know ourselves,” she said while addressing the annual history prize awards ceremony organised by the Foundation for Indian Historical and Cultural Research here. She also pitched for the inclusion of thinkers from all perspectives to engage in debate, allowing a clash of ideas before a discerning public that is trusted to weigh the evidence for themselves. “India today is self-assured and quite unapologetic about it, and we have stopped waiting for anybody else’s permission to study our own heritage,” she said. “We are reading our inscriptions again, working out our maritime trade, going back to our mathematics and telling these stories with real pleasure, as well as real precision. This, I think, is what decolonisation ought to mean. It cannot simply be a matter of swapping one prescribed textbook for another,” she said. “It has to mean a wider archive, more languages, harder questions, and a much larger circle of scholars who actually get read. Above all, it should mean no establishment gets to decide beforehand what evidence is allowed to see,” she said. On the occasion, the Finance Minister also delivered the SL Bhyrappa Memorial Lecture. Bhyrappa never sought to mobilise an army of followers; he sought to refine how human beings perceive truth, Sitharaman said. The finest tribute we can pay to our teachers and thinkers on September 5th is to keep both wings of India’s intellectual stage brightly lit, she said. “Let the churning continue and let evidence, rigour and conscience have the final word. And together, let us carry India forward into its golden era of intellectual swaraj,” she said. SL Bhyrappa was a noted novelist, philosopher and screenwriter who wrote in Kannada and died in 2025 at the age of 94. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

Intellectual freedom gaining strength, India no longer seeks permission to study its heritage: Sitharaman
North America
CNBC Finance

HHS plans new FDA deputy commissioner roles for technology and drugs, sources say 

The Department of Health and Human Services is planning to create two new deputy commissioner roles at the Food and Drug Administration, one of which would focus on technology and the intersection of health and artificial intelligence, CNBC has learned. The other new position is for a deputy commissioner for drugs, according to two sources familiar with the plan. The agency already has several deputy commissioners, including an acting deputy commissioner for food, though it is unclear who will step into that role permanently. HHS officials would appoint the new leaders in what some in the Trump administration view as a bid to exert greater influence over the agency, according to the sources, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly. No final decisions or formal announcements about the new roles have been made, the sources said. Jared Seehafer, a senior advisor to the FDA and medical devices industry veteran, is the leading candidate for the technology role, according to three people familiar with the matter. Seehafer is a co-founder and former CEO of Enzyme, a life sciences compliance software company, and most recently worked at a venture capital firm in San Francisco before stepping into his FDA advisory role in August of last year. Kyle Diamantas was most recently the deputy commissioner for food before stepping in as the acting FDA commissioner in May after Marty Makary's resignation over the agency's authorization of fruit-flavored vapes. It's unclear if Diamantas would return to that role. CNBC could not learn of any specific candidates for the deputy commissioner for drugs role. The two new positions would report to President Donald Trump's pick for FDA commissioner, Heidi Overton, who still needs to be confirmed by the Senate, according to two people familiar with the plan. The agency has faced intense scrutiny over its handling of a multistate cyclospora outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce, which exacerbated broader concerns about federal budget and staff cuts hindering the agency's ability to rein in foodborne outbreaks. The FDA has also been under the spotlight for a series of decisions around certain new drug products. For example, the FDA earlier this month granted accelerated approval to Replimune for its melanoma drug, Tudriqev, following a high-profile regulatory battle with the company and two prior rejections of the treatment. In March, the FDA also drew sharp backlash from the biotech industry after demanding an extra clinical trial – including a fake or "sham" brain surgery placebo – for an experimental Huntington's disease treatment from UniQure. The agency later reversed its stance and greenlit UniQure to file for accelerated approval based on mid-stage data.

HHS plans new FDA deputy commissioner roles for technology and drugs, sources say 
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Fosun Pharma sells 4.5% stake in Gland Pharma for Rs 2,121 crore

Fosun Pharma Industrial sold a 4.55 per cent stake in Gland Pharma for Rs 2,121.50 crore through block deals, reducing its holding to 47.22 per cent. Chinese pharmaceutical major Fosun Pharma has pared its holding in Gland Pharma by selling a 4.5 per cent stake for Rs 2,121 crore through separate block deals on BSE. Fosun Pharma Industrial Pte Ltd, one of the promoters of Gland Pharma, offloaded 75,05,500 shares in 11 tranches, representing a 4.55 per cent stake in the Hyderabad-based pharma company. The transactions were executed on Friday at an average price of Rs 2,826.60 apiece, taking the combined transaction value to Rs 2,121.50 crore. The stake sale brought Fosun Pharma’s shareholding in Gland Pharma below the 50 per cent mark to 47.22 per cent from 51.77 per cent. The shares found buyers among a clutch of domestic mutual funds, insurance companies and foreign investors, which collectively acquired an equal number of shares at the same price. Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund emerged as the biggest buyer, picking up 27.93 lakh shares, amounting to nearly 1.7 per cent for Rs 789.47 crore. Axis Mutual Fund purchased 13.57 lakh shares for Rs 383.57 crore, while ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund acquired 10.39 lakh shares worth Rs 293.68 crore. Paris-based financial services firm Societe Generale and private institutional investment fund NRSGVCC also bought Gland Pharma’s shares. Shares of Gland Pharma ended nearly 1 per cent higher at Rs 2,932.40 apiece on the BSE. Gland Pharma reported a 47 per cent increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 317 crore in the April-June quarter from Rs 215 crore in the year-ago period. Its revenue from operations rose 19.5 per cent to Rs 1,800 crore during the quarter from Rs 1,506 crore a year earlier.

Fosun Pharma sells 4.5% stake in Gland Pharma for Rs 2,121 crore