Category Archives: Business

India’s Fertiliser Dilemma: Self-Reliance Push Signals Policy Reset, but Execution Will Decide Outcomes

New Delhi, April 15 (BNP): India’s fertiliser policy rarely makes headlines, but the recent brainstorming session by the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences signals something more consequential than routine review. It points to a system under strain—and, more importantly, to a policy establishment that seems ready to rethink its foundations.

For decades, fertilisers have been central to India’s agricultural rise. The gains of the Green Revolution were built on assured access to chemical inputs, especially urea. That model delivered food security. But it also locked India into a structure that is now proving costly, inefficient and environmentally fragile.

At the heart of the problem is dependence. India consumes roughly 33 million tonnes of fertilisers annually, yet relies heavily on imports for key nutrients like phosphorus and potassium. Even urea, often seen as domestically secure, is tied to global markets through imported natural gas.

This leaves the country vulnerable to geopolitical shocks and price swings. Recent global disruptions have made that vulnerability hard to ignore. Fertiliser security is no longer a technical concern. It is a strategic one, sitting alongside food and energy security.

The fiscal burden reflects this reality. A subsidy bill of ₹1.71 lakh crore is not just a budgetary line item; it is the cost of sustaining an increasingly inefficient equilibrium.

The bigger issue is not just how much India imports, but how it uses what it imports.

Subsidy structures have long favoured nitrogen, particularly urea, leading to a skewed nutrient balance. Farmers, responding rationally to price signals, overapply nitrogen while underusing other essential nutrients. The result is declining soil health and diminishing productivity gains.

Low nutrient-use efficiency compounds the problem. A significant share of fertilisers never reaches the crop, lost instead to the air, water or soil processes. This raises costs for farmers and creates environmental damage that policy has historically overlooked.

In effect, India is spending more each year to get less out of its soils.

What makes the NAAS discussions noteworthy is not just the diagnosis, but the willingness to consider structural change.

Bringing urea under a nutrient-based subsidy regime would be a major departure from the current system. So would linking subsidies to soil health metrics or moving toward direct benefit transfers. These ideas have circulated before, but rarely with this level of institutional backing.

Together, they suggest a shift from input-centric policy to outcome-oriented policy—where the goal is not just to provide fertilisers, but to ensure they are used efficiently and sustainably.

The push for Integrated Nutrient Supply and Management (INSAM) reinforces this direction. Replacing a quarter of mineral fertilisers with organic alternatives within three years is an ambitious target. More importantly, it reflects a conceptual shift: from dependence on chemical inputs to a more balanced nutrient ecosystem.

Technology is expected to play a central role in this transition. Precision agriculture tools, AI-driven advisories and sensor-based systems could help farmers apply the right nutrients in the right quantities at the right time.

This matters because India’s agricultural extension system has historically emphasised increasing input use rather than optimising it. Digital platforms offer a chance to correct that imbalance by delivering tailored, real-time guidance at scale.

But technology is not a silver bullet. Adoption will depend on affordability, usability and trust—factors that have limited the impact of past innovations.

If the direction is becoming clearer, the path remains uncertain.

Fertiliser reform, particularly around urea, has long been politically sensitive. Any attempt to rationalise subsidies risks immediate resistance from farmers, even if the long-term benefits are clear.

Similarly, scaling organic inputs and bio-fertilisers requires more than policy targets. It demands reliable supply chains, quality assurance and behavioural change at the farm level. Farmers will shift practices only if they see consistent results.

This is where many well-intentioned reforms falter—not in design, but in execution.

What makes this moment different is the convergence of pressures. Fiscal constraints, environmental degradation and global supply risks are all pushing in the same direction. That alignment creates a window for reform that is both rare and time-bound.

The NAAS roadmap does not offer quick fixes. Instead, it outlines a transition—away from a subsidy-heavy, input-driven system toward one that prioritises efficiency, resilience and soil health.

Whether that transition succeeds will depend less on policy announcements and more on coordination: across ministries, between Centre and states, and most critically, with farmers themselves.

India’s next agricultural transformation will not be about producing more at any cost. It will be about producing better, with fewer resources and greater resilience. The fertiliser debate is where that shift is beginning to take shape.

Epson to Emphasise ROIC and Seek Sustained Growth by Redesigning Its Business Portfolio and Focusing Resources on Growth Domains

Epson introduces the ENGINEERED FUTURE 2035 Long-Term Corporate Vision and Mid-Term Business Plan, Phase 1

SYDNEY, Apr 14 – Epson has unveiled ENGINEERED FUTURE 2035, a Long-Term Corporate Vision that maps out the company’s strategy to 2035, along with a new Mid-Term Business Plan (2026-2028) that represents the first phase of work under the vision. In line with this plan, Epson will use ROIC as a management metric to optimise capital allocation, redesign its business portfolio, and focus resources on strategic growth domains. By transforming the earnings base and leveraging its precision technologies to expand in growth domains, the company aims to sustain corporate value growth.

Long-Term Corporate Vision ENGINEERED FUTURE 2035
Refining our technologies, engineering the future and delivering real-world value

Epson sees the next decade as one in which volatility is the norm. Environmental and geopolitical risks will rapidly change, resources and energy will be increasingly constrained, and demographic changes will result in labour shortages worldwide. In developed economies, the labour pool continues to shrink. Meanwhile, emerging economies face critical challenges to develop foundational capabilities such as skills, education and infrastructure.

Under these conditions, the sustainability of society and industry will increasingly depend on how effectively Epson can use limited resources, energy, and human potential. It is not enough to evolve technology itself. Driving advances in the technology itself will not be enough. The ability to design and optimise technology so that it genuinely functions within society is becoming increasingly critical. It is precisely because of the many constraints that Epson believes the future should not be left to chance but must be methodically engineered, starting with technology that is conceived in the field and continuously refined and implemented in the real world.

That is why Epson seeks to leverage the efficient, compact, and precise technologies and philosophy it has developed over more than eight decades, building on the foundation of “Sho-Sho-Sei,” to create value that supports the transformation of society and industry through real-world implementation. The essence of Epson lies not in advancing technology for its own sake, but in translating advanced technology into things that are genuinely useful in the real world. Engineering is the force that connects the philosophy of efficient, compact and precise innovation to meaningful social implementation.

Epson will deliver new value to the world by combining its efficient, compact, and precise technologies with designs optimised for real-world uses. From industry and across learning, working, and living, Epson will enhance productivity and reliability and expand the world’s possibilities. So that people and the planet can continue to advance together, Epson will simultaneously raise both social value and corporate value. That is the future that Epson envisions in ENGINEERED FUTURE 2035.

Mid-Term Business Plan, Phase 1 (2026-2028)
Achieving both growth and capital efficiency by optimising capital allocation based on disciplined ROIC management
Epson’s Mid-Term Management Plan, Phase 1 (2026-2028), is the first stage of the company’s journey toward realising the ENGINEERED FUTURE 2035 long-term vision.

Until now, Epson’s business structure has been highly dependent on mature markets, presenting challenges in terms of resource allocation to growth areas, execution speed, and capital efficiency. In Phase 1, Epson will confront these challenges head-on, transforming the earnings base and focusing resource allocation on growth domains. Management will emphasise capital efficiency, using ROIC as the primary management metric. By exercising disciplined ROIC-based management, Epson will aim to achieve a ROIC of 8% by fiscal 2028 and to build a solid foundation for sustainable growth.

Specifically, Epson will review its fixed cost structure and asset efficiency, redesign global operations and the supply chain, and strengthen sales in emerging markets. It will simultaneously expand and enhance recurring business and solutions. These efforts will enable Epson to reduce invested capital while enhancing the earning power of its businesses. At the same time, the company will prioritise the allocation of the cash generated to future growth domains, accelerating the transformation of its business portfolio. Capital will be optimally allocated, with investment and business decisions made based on disciplined ROIC.

Cash created through this transformation of the earnings base will be actively deployed, under disciplined capital allocation, to projects that maximise long-term value creation. In addition to strategic investments in things such as mergers and acquisitions, Epson will invest a total of ¥280 billion over the three-year period in growth domains, including in the Precision Innovation segment as the primary growth engine and the Industrial & Robotics segment, which will be a key growth driver for the next phase.

Throughout the period of the mid-term business plan, Epson will reinforce its management discipline and execution capabilities to sustain growth and increase corporate value, while driving structural transformation toward 2035.

The Wealth Company Mutual Fund Launches their Specialized Investment Fund ‘WSIF’

Mumbai, April 14: The Wealth Company Mutual Fund, part of Pantomath Group announced the NFO launch of its SIF – ‘WSIF’ with two differentiated investment strategies, WSIF Equity Long-Short Fund and WSIF Equity Ex-Top 100 Long-Short Fund, marking its entry into a new and evolving category within the investment landscape.

The WSIF introduces investment strategies that combines long-term equity investing with tactical short exposure, with an aim to help investors to participate in market upside while actively managing downside risks.

The WSIF Equity Long-Short Fund aims to generate long-term capital appreciation through a diversified portfolio of equities complemented by selective short positions. The investment strategy maintains a

predominant allocation to equities (80–100%) with flexibility to take up to 25% unhedged short exposure via derivatives, along with tactical allocation to debt and money market instruments for liquidity.

The WSIF Equity Ex-Top 100 Long-Short Fund focuses on opportunities beyond the top 100 companies by market capitalization. With a minimum of 65% allocation to mid and small cap stocks, complemented by limited long-short flexibility, the strategy seeks to capitalize on inefficiencies in broader markets while maintaining risk controls.

Both strategies are designed with a dynamic portfolio construction approach, combining fundamental research-driven stock selection with derivative overlays with an aim to deliver consistent, risk-adjusted outcomes across market cycles.

Specialized Investment Funds (SIFs) represent a structural shift in the Indian mutual fund industry.

From an investor standpoint, SIFs bring greater sophistication into regulated mutual fund structures by enabling tools such as short selling, dynamic hedging, and flexible asset allocation. These features allow portfolios to better navigate volatility, seek to reduce drawdowns, and aim to generate more consistent outcomes across market cycles.

Elaborating on the launch of investment strategies Ms. Madhu Lunawat, Founder, MD & CEO, The Wealth Company Mutual Fund, said,

“The launch of our SIFs reflects our commitment to bringing more evolved and institutional-grade investment strategies to investors. Given that this is a new category, it also creates a unique opportunity for distributors to engage with clients on differentiated strategies without legacy biases, enabling more meaningful portfolio construction.”

Adding to it Mr. Chinmay Sathe, CIO – SIF, The Wealth Company Mutual Fund, said,

“Our long-short strategies are built for adaptability across market cycles. By combining high-conviction long ideas with tactical short exposures, we aim to deliver more consistent performance while actively managing downside risks. The flexibility within the strategy allows us to dynamically hedge or take directional calls, and in the Ex-Top 100 strategy, we see a strong opportunity set in the broader market where inefficiencies may be more pronounced.”

With this launch, The Wealth Company Mutual Fund strengthens its commitment to innovation-led investing by introducing strategies that go beyond conventional frameworks. While traditional mutual funds remain the foundation of long-term wealth creation, SIFs add a powerful satellite layer that may enhance portfolio outcomes and equips investors to navigate increasingly complex market environments.

MP Awards INR 5.14 Cr Narmada Survey Project to Matrix Geo

Bhopal, Apr 14 (BNP): Technology firm Matrix Geo Solutions has secured a major contract from the Madhya Pradesh government to carry out an advanced aerial survey of the Narmada Parikrama route.

The company has received a formal letter of acceptance for the project, which is valued at over ₹5.14 crore and is expected to be completed within six months.

As part of the assignment, Matrix Geo Solutions will use a combination of drones, aircraft, and helicopters, along with advanced LiDAR technology, to capture high-resolution geospatial data across the survey area.

The project is aimed at supporting various state government initiatives by providing accurate mapping and data insights, which can be used for planning, infrastructure development, and environmental monitoring.

The use of modern aerial surveying techniques is expected to improve efficiency, precision, and coverage compared to traditional methods, marking a significant step in the adoption of advanced geospatial technologies for public projects.

UPI Powers India’s Rise as Micro Payments Economy

Apr 14 (BNP): India is fast emerging as a global hub for digital micro-payments, with UPI transactions reaching 228 billion in 2025, according to a report by Worldline.

The surge reflects the growing shift toward cashless transactions, especially for small, everyday payments. From local shops to street vendors, UPI has become a preferred mode of payment due to its speed and ease of use.

The report highlights that India’s digital ecosystem is increasingly driven by high-volume, low-value transactions, strengthening financial inclusion and expanding access to formal banking systems.

With rising smartphone usage and improved digital infrastructure, India’s micro-payments economy is expected to grow further in the coming years.

New AI Approach Reveals Ocean Currents in Unprecedented Detail

Scientists have developed a new method to measure ocean surface currents over large areas in greater detail than ever before. Called GOFLOW (Geostationary Ocean Flow), the approach applies deep learning to thermal images from weather satellites already in orbit, requiring no new hardware to achieve what the researchers describe as a major advancement in ocean observation. 

The study, co-led by Luc Lenain, an oceanographer at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Kaushik Srinivasan, a Scripps alumnus now at UCLA, was published today in the journal Nature Geoscience. The study’s two other co-authors, Roy Barkan of Tel Aviv University and Nick Pizzo of the University of Rhode Island, are also Scripps alumni. The project was supported by grants from the Office of Naval Research, NASA and the European Research Council. 

Ocean currents play a huge role in shaping Earth’s weather and climate, transporting heat around the globe, moving carbon between the atmosphere and ocean interior, and redistributing nutrients that sustain life in the sea. Understanding ocean currents are also vital for search-and-rescue operations and tracking the movement of oil spills. Yet measuring currents over large areas of the ocean has remained extremely challenging. Some satellites estimate currents indirectly by measuring variations in sea-surface height, but they typically image the same location only every 10 days or so — too infrequently to track currents that can appear and disappear within hours. Ship-based measurements and coastal radar systems can capture rapid changes but only for limited areas.  

This has left a persistent gap in observations at the scales where most of the ocean’s vertical mixing occurs — when shallower waters are mixed deeper or vice versa. The phenomena that drive vertical mixing can be less than 10 kilometers (six miles) wide and transform in hours. Understanding vertical mixing matters because it powers key processes such as bringing nutrients up from depth to sustain marine ecosystems and pumping carbon dioxide from the surface to deeper waters where it can be stored long-term. 

In 2023, Lenain was examining thermal imagery of the North Atlantic Ocean from the geostationary satellite GOES-East, which is primarily used for observing weather. The images, produced as frequently as every five minutes, showed passing clouds and swirls of warm and cool water evolving on the sea surface. As he looked, Lenain could see the imprint of major currents such as the Gulf Stream in the temperature patterns and began exploring how to convert what his eye could see in those images into a new way to measure ocean currents.

To accomplish this, the team trained a neural network to recognize how ocean surface temperature patterns shift and deform when pushed by underlying currents. The network learned from a high-resolution computer simulation of ocean circulation, which provided examples of temperature patterns and the water velocities that created them. By tracking how complex temperature patterns moved across consecutive images taken by the GOES-East satellite, the trained network could infer the currents responsible for those changes.

“Weather satellites have been observing the ocean surface for years,” said Lenain. “The breakthrough was learning how to turn that time-lapse into hourly maps of currents by tracking how temperature patterns bend, stretch and move from one hour to the next.”

The researchers tested GOFLOW’s accuracy by comparing its output to velocities recorded by shipboard instruments in the Gulf Stream region in 2023, as well as standard satellite methods using ocean topography. GOFLOW’s measurements agreed with the data collected with ships and traditional satellite techniques, and revealed much greater detail for smaller, faster-moving eddies and boundary layers where existing methods showed only blurred averages. This newfound detail allowed the researchers to measure for the first time key statistical signatures of small, intense currents that drive vertical mixing in the ocean that previously had been documented only in computer simulations.

“This opens a range of exciting possibilities in physical oceanography that, until now, were largely accessible only through simulations,” said Lenain. “Using GOFLOW, we can now measure key signatures of these small, intense currents using real observations rather than relying almost entirely on simulations. This opens the door to testing long-standing ideas about how the ocean takes up heat and carbon.”

Because the method works with existing geostationary satellites it does not require new instruments to be launched into space. Over time, GOFLOW could be incorporated directly into weather forecasts and climate models, and may ultimately help improve forecasts by resolving rapidly evolving currents that influence air–sea exchange, marine debris transport and ocean ecosystems.

The researchers note that cloud cover remains a limitation, since clouds block the thermal imagery GOFLOW relies on. Future work will incorporate other types of satellite data to fill in the gaps when clouds block satellites’ views and achieve continuous coverage. The team is currently working to extend the method globally. The study’s data products and computer code are being made publicly available to support further research and applications.

Auto Market in India Expands to Historic High in FY26

New Delhi, Apr 14 (BNP): India’s automobile industry has recorded its highest-ever annual sales, with total wholesales reaching about 2.83 crore units in the financial year 2025–26, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers).

 The industry grew by around 10.4% compared to the previous year, when total sales stood at approximately 2.56 crore units. All major vehicle categories—including passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, two-wheelers, and three-wheelers—reported record performances during the fiscal year.

SIAM noted that strong domestic demand, stable economic conditions, and policy support helped drive the overall growth in the automobile sector. Improved consumer confidence and better availability of financing also contributed to higher vehicle purchases across segments.

Passenger vehicles maintained steady momentum throughout the year, while two-wheelers and commercial vehicles saw broad-based demand, reflecting stronger mobility needs and economic activity across regions.

However, the industry body also flagged external risks, stating that prolonged geopolitical tensions in West Asia could affect crude oil prices, disrupt supply chains, and influence production costs in the coming months.

Despite global uncertainties, the overall outlook for India’s automobile sector remains positive, supported by rising incomes, urban expansion, and continued infrastructure development.

India Emerging as Second Largest Solar Market by 2026

New Delhi, Apr 14 (BNP): India is expected to become the world’s second-largest solar market in terms of annual installations by 2026, according to the National Solar Energy Federation of India (National Solar Energy Federation of India).

The industry body said India has witnessed its fastest-ever expansion in solar capacity, adding around 50 GW in just 14 months and taking total installed solar capacity to about 150 GW.

This sharp rise highlights a significant acceleration in the country’s renewable energy journey compared to earlier years, when capacity additions were much slower.

NSEFI attributed the strong growth to supportive policy measures, rising investment activity, and wider adoption of solar energy across both large-scale projects and distributed installations.

The trend places India among the fastest-growing solar markets globally and reflects its increasing role in the global clean energy transition.

Officials added that the continued expansion of solar power is expected to improve energy security, reduce dependence on conventional fuels, and support long-term sustainability goals.

Oil Price Spike Has Limited Effect on India Inflation: Crisil

New Delhi, Apr 14 (BNP): Despite a sharp rise in global energy prices driven by the ongoing West Asia conflict, India’s retail inflation has so far remained largely stable, according to Crisil Intelligence.

The report noted that even a month after the escalation in tensions, the transmission of higher global fuel costs into domestic retail inflation has been limited.

It pointed out that Brent crude prices jumped around 45 per cent in March, while international natural gas prices surged nearly 69 per cent compared to the previous month. However, this steep increase in global energy markets has not yet significantly affected consumer prices in India.

Crisil said the muted impact so far reflects limited pass-through of global energy shocks into domestic inflation in the short term.

However, it warned that inflationary pressures could increase if geopolitical tensions persist and energy prices remain elevated for a longer period, potentially affecting price stability in the coming months.

Strong March for Auto Sector as PV and Two Wheeler Sales Rise

New Delhi, Apr 14 (BNP): Domestic automobile dispatches posted strong growth in March, reflecting sustained demand momentum across both passenger vehicles and two-wheelers, according to industry data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

Passenger vehicle dispatches from companies to dealers rose 16 per cent year-on-year to 4,42,460 units in March, compared to 3,81,358 units in the same month last year.

The two-wheeler segment also recorded robust growth, increasing 19.3 per cent to 19,76,128 units in March, up from 16,56,939 units a year earlier.

The strong performance across segments indicates improving consumer sentiment and steady demand in the domestic automobile market, which is a key driver of industrial activity and employment.

Industry experts note that higher vehicle sales typically boost manufacturing output, supply chain activity, and dealership revenues, while also contributing significantly to government tax collections through GST, road tax, and registration fees.

The automobile sector, one of India’s largest employment generators, also supports a wide ecosystem of component makers, logistics providers, and financial services linked to vehicle financing.