Moneylife News Bites

Has India’s market regulator truly turned a corner? In this audio, Sucheta Dalal examines the first year of SEBI chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey after a turbulent period for the regulator. While the year has been marked by stability and dozens of regulatory changes, key reforms remain pending. From the delayed conflict-of-interest code for SEBI’s leadership to the unresolved enforcement case involving...

Is India’s stock market entering a “Golden Age” — or is that narrative too optimistic? In this audio, Debashis Basu examines a popular theory circulating in financial circles: that India is poised for decades of 8% growth, low inflation and a stable rupee, creating extraordinary returns for foreign investors. The idea suggests global funds could potentially multiply their investments many times ov...

आजकल AI-powered smart glasses तेजी से लोकप्रिय हो रहे हैं। लेकिन क्या आप जानते हैं कि कुछ स्मार्ट चश्मों में लगे कैमरे आपकी जानकारी के बिना वीडियो रिकॉर्ड कर सकते हैं? हाल ही में प्रकाशित एक जांच रिपोर्ट में खुलासा हुआ कि AI स्मार्ट ग्लासेस से रिकॉर्ड हुए वीडियो क्लिप्स को human reviewers देख सकते हैं, ताकि AI सिस्टम को बेहतर बनाया जा सके। इसका मतलब है कि कई बार ऐसे वीडियो भी देखे जा सकते हैं जिनम...

The arrest of Fino Payments Bank MD & CEO Rishi Gupta in a GST case has triggered fresh concerns about enforcement overreach in India. Angel investor TV Mohandas Pai publicly questioned the action, tagging Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who responded that she would examine the issue. Yet the incident raises deeper questions: Are enforcement agencies increasingly using arrest as a tool ev...

At the India AI Impact Summit 2026, a claim by Galgotias University about developing a robotic dog triggered nationwide embarrassment and sparked a larger debate about credibility in India’s education system. The incident exposed deeper concerns about inflated research claims, patent filings for rankings, manipulated placement data and regulatory gaps. In this episode of Crosshairs, Sucheta Dalal...

India’s stock market is witnessing a striking paradox. Large-cap stocks appear resilient despite weak earnings growth, while small- and micro-cap companies—many reporting strong sales and profit growth—have seen their stock prices decline sharply. In this analysis, Debashis Basu examines how this divergence emerged after the September 2024 peak, the impact of reduced government capex, US tariffs,...

For over two decades, bank mis-selling in India has thrived under weak enforcement, empty warnings and regulatory hesitation. From toxic ULIPs and forced insurance bundling to aggressive fee-income targets, countless savers have seen their wealth quietly eroded. Now, after blistering observations by the Supreme Court in the ₹58,000 crore ‘digital arrest’ fraud cases, the Reserve Bank of India has...

India’s trade deals with the US and the EU have lifted a major overhang on the stock market — and foreign money may slowly return. But is this the turning point for a new bull run, especially in small caps? In this sharp analysis, Debashis Basu explains why trade relief reduces risk but does not automatically create growth. With weak domestic demand, cautious private capex and stretched valuations...

India once had a powerful consumer movement that shaped landmark laws like the Consumer Protection Act of 1986. But over the years, judicial delays, regulatory capture and weakening class action mechanisms have diluted its impact. Now, Artificial Intelligence is being positioned as the next big hope — from AI-powered helplines and chatbots like Grahak-Nyay, to fraud detection systems and fake revi...

India has everything going for it — history, culture, landscapes and medical expertise. Yet, global tourists are staying away, while Indians increasingly choose Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore for holidays and even medical care. In this hard-hitting analysis, Sucheta Dalal examines India’s tourism paradox: grand announcements in Budget 2026 versus the grim reality on the ground. From failed flags...

India’s splashy presence at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos is sold as a global investment triumph — with claims of over ₹30 lakh crore in MoUs. But how much of this is real investment, and how much is political theatre at public expense? In this hard-hitting analysis, Sucheta Dalal peels back the optics to reveal that most ‘mega deals’ announced at Davos are commitments by Indian conglom...

Can India really triple its merchandise exports by 2035? What would it take to sustain export growth of 13% a year for nearly a decade? In this audio, Debashis Basu examines India’s export ambitions through the lens of history—drawing lessons from export champions such as South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. These countries achieved extraordinary export growth under very specific c...

For years, CAG reports have exposed massive fraud, mismanagement and leakage in India’s biggest welfare schemes—from GST and DBT to housing, healthcare, skills training and drinking water projects. Yet, unlike the past, these revelations barely trigger outrage or accountability. In this hard-hitting audio, Sucheta Dalal explains how digital systems meant to prevent corruption are increasingly enab...

India appears stable on the surface—record-high markets, busy malls, rising asset prices. But beneath this calm lies a convergence of risks that could redefine the country’s growth story. In this audio, Debashis Basu breaks down five powerful forces shaping India’s economic future: rising government debt, slowing revenues, falling household savings, geopolitical pressure, and the return of domesti...

Despite official claims that 89% of NH66 is complete, the reality on the ground tells a far more disturbing story. In this audio, Sucheta Dalal examines the decades-long failure of NH66, the crucial Mumbai–Goa highway that has remained a deadly work-in-progress for nearly 20 years. Through the extraordinary Rasta Satyagraha undertaken by Chaitanya Patil, the video exposes construction lapses, dang...

India celebrates growth, rankings and grand infrastructure—but what is the real price of human life in a so-called Viksit Bharat? In this hard-hitting piece, journalist Sucheta Dalal examines how civic negligence, infrastructure failures and regulatory apathy repeatedly lead to avoidable deaths—from contaminated water in Indore to bridge collapses, train accidents and industrial disasters. While p...

India’s markets are stuck in an unusual bind. Even as the Reserve Bank of India cuts rates and injects massive liquidity, bond yields remain stubbornly high and equity markets refuse to rally. What’s going wrong? In this audio, Debashis Basu explains how a surge in state government borrowing is undermining the RBI’s easy-money policy. While the central bank is pumping liquidity through bond purcha...

As 2025 comes to a close, India stands at a crossroads between ambition and execution. Infrastructure expansion, aviation growth, labour reform, environmental protection, digital transformation and legal reform all promised progress—but delivery often faltered, and in many cases, was rolled back. In this audio, Sucheta Dalal examines how grand policy announcements collided with weak institutions,...

SEBI’s new chairman has signalled a major shift: making corporate disclosures simpler, clearer, and easier for ordinary investors to understand. The goal is ambitious—countering the growing influence of unregulated finfluencers who now shape the investment decisions of a majority of retail participants. In this audio, Sucheta Dalal examines whether Securities and Exchange Board of India can reclai...

The government is quietly moving to give SEBI sweeping new powers through the proposed Securities Markets Code—but crucial details remain hidden from the public. There is no draft Bill, no white paper, and no clarity on how expanded authority will be balanced with accountability. In this audio, Sucheta Dalal examines why consolidating India’s securities laws may be necessary—but dangerous—if gover...

India’s stock market is at record highs—but why do so many investors feel poorer? In this sharp, data-driven analysis, Debashis Basu dismantles three deeply held beliefs about Indian equities: that Nifty returns reflect investor portfolios, that economic growth automatically translates into corporate earnings, and that earnings growth guarantees strong market returns. In this audio Debashis Basu e...

India’s aviation sector is facing one of its most alarming crises yet — and this time, the turbulence comes not from the skies, but from a single airline’s power over the system. In this hard-hitting analysis, Sucheta Dalal exposes how IndiGo, which controls nearly two-thirds of India’s domestic market, triggered unprecedented nationwide chaos by refusing to comply with long-pending pilot fatigue...

India’s new labour codes were supposed to modernise the country’s workforce regulations by replacing 29 outdated laws with four streamlined codes. On paper, they promise simpler compliance, wider social security, and more flexibility for businesses. But as Debashis Basu explains, India has a long history of great policy design collapsing at the execution stage—whether it was GST, IBC, RERA, Swachh...

India’s insolvency system seems to operate with two rulebooks — one for honest small borrowers who lose their livelihoods, and another for powerful defaulters who walk away with massive “one-time settlements”. In this audio, we break down Sucheta Dalal’s exposé on the shocking contrast between the treatment of a Mumbai doctor couple—driven to ruin by an ARC—and the extraordinary leniency shown to...

India’s GDP is soaring—but corporate revenues are barely crawling. In this audio, Debashis Basu breaks down the striking disconnect between headline GDP growth and muted corporate performance. Why are top-line numbers stagnating when the economy is supposedly booming? The answer lies in the composition of GDP itself: consumption-heavy growth, government-led capex, weak private investment, and stag...