All you need to know about business, economy and finance before you start your day
Good morning! Delhi MLAs just got iPhone 16 Pros, iPads, and shiny new tablets as the Delhi assembly goes fully digital and solar powered. Though, while the House lit up, social media melted down with people wondering why paperless has come at a premium from tax payers. Not sure we understand why babus are getting gadgets most people pay off in 24-month EMIs, but hey, digital right?! Well, apparently, the new digital system to run the assembly will include features like smart mics, voting panels, instant access to documents on iPads … and a digitally inflatable neck-pillow for some well earned shut-eye. Ok fine, we made the last one up.
Now, let’s get into the Dispatch! 🚀
Today’s reading time is 7 mins.
Markets 🔔🐂🐻
As of the Indian market close on Aug 6th
The Indian market saw a redish trend for two consecutive days on Wednesday, as the RBI is playing cool, holding its key repo rate at 5.5% amid the US tariffs. Unfazed by that, the central bank is projecting a steady 6.5% GDP growth and has lowered its inflation forecast to 3.1%.
Finance and Banking
Holiday loans and Gen Z: Swipe now, sort later
Image credit: CNBC TV18
Once upon a time, borrowing was a last resort. Now? It’s the first click. From EMIs for iPhones to loans for beach selfies, India’s youth may be swiping their way into debt - with vacations being one of the top reasons why. A new survey by Paisabazaar reveals a surprising stat: 27% of Indians now take personal loans just to travel. That’s more than 1 in 4 borrowers choosing leisure over necessity - outpacing even medical and home-related loans.
Swiping In: Leading the charge - Gen Z and millennials, who are not only borrowing more often but also borrowing bigger. Among Gen Z, vacation loan usage doubled in two years, while millennials now account for 47% of all holiday loans. In 2025, nearly 30% of travel loans were between ₹1–3 lakh, a sharp rise from just 13% in 2023.
What’s driving the trend? Borrowing has become frictionless. Thanks to fintech apps, Buy Now Pay Later schemes, and “instant approval” offers, mini-loans are now just a tap away. Private-sector salaried professionals, make up 65% of these borrowers. With steady incomes and access to credit, they’re most likely to “swipe now, sort later.” Interestingly, the surge is no longer restricted to metros. Tier-2 and tier-3 cities contributed 71% of all holiday loan applications in early 2025, signalling how wanderlust is going mass-market.
The flip side: Household savings are at a 50-year low, while unsecured loans (like personal loans and credit cards) are booming. Delinquency rates are also up: credit card defaults hit 2.9% as of June 2023, showing cracks in the repayment system. This has birthed a new industry – enter - debt resolution companies. From consolidating dues to negotiating with lenders, they’re the new-age firefighters for a generation that may be playing with financial fire.
As India speeds into a credit-first economy, the writing is on the wall: fast loans offer instant gratification, but may come with long-term pain. The price of that Maldives trip might just be financial peace of mind.
Environment
Uttarkashi Disaster: An avoidable tragedy?
Image credits: NDTV
This week, Dharali in Uttarkashi district became the epicentre of a devastating flash flood and debris avalanche. Over 60 people are missing, rescue operations are underway, and the scale of destruction is massive. Experts are saying this wasn’t an unpredictable natural tragedy, but rather a natural event made catastrophic by man-made violations.
The destruction: Dharali lies in the Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ), a protected 4,157 sq km stretch from Gangotri to Uttarkashi town, notified in 2012 to safeguard the ecology of the Ganga river basin. The ESZ status is meant to regulate development. However, regulations can mean little when enforcement is absent and ecological concerns are routinely bulldozed in the name of "progress."
The warnings: Environmentalists have long flagged illegal construction in this region - multi-storey hotels, helipads, and bypass roads being built right on river floodplains. Mallika Bhanot, member of the ESZ monitoring committee, called this “a natural event turned into a disaster which is due to man-made reasons.”
Char Dham highway project: A flagship initiative that cuts through ecologically fragile terrain has also been central to this tragedy. Reports suggest that despite expert objections, the Supreme Court cleared the project, and the Border Roads Organisation continued road widening on the Gangotri stretch without a fresh Environmental Impact Assessment. Scientists had warned against widening roads in slope-prone regions like Bhatwari block - saying outright: don’t touch it.
Locals voiced concerns: Citizens opposed the felling of 6,000 Deodar trees for a new bypass near Dharali. Their letters to the Supreme Court-appointed committee were not responded.
Cause not clear: No received anomalous extreme rainfall was recorded in the area that day, and experts believe the likely causes were a mudslide triggered by a cloudburst / glacial lake outburst flood type event made worse by fragile slopes and potentially unregulated construction. An investigation is underway and the final cause will only be revealed once that is concluded.
Food and Nutrition
Paneer, Protein and the Pretender
Image credits: The Mint
According to data from annual reports of listed dairy companies via The Mint, India’s panner market is set to cross Rs 2 trillion by 2030. This is a huge leap from its Rs 64,810 crore valuation in 2024. With a global push towards protein-rich food, paneer proves to be a great alternative, especially for vegetarians. However, recent controversies surrounding adulterated paneer have created a trust deficit among consumers.
A deeper dive: While paneer is healthy, it also comes at a significant price tag, considering the rigorous process and ingredients that are used. This can be a big deterrent, especially for small stall and restaurant owners. Here comes the ‘analogue paneer’, who aspired to be paneer but couldn’t make the cut-off. It uses non-dairy components such as vegetable oils, milk solids, and starch as primary ingredients instead of milk fat. It is legal to sell and procure analogue or synthetic paneer; however, the government is pondering a plan where eateries are required to declare in bold whether they use real paneer or an artificial substitute such as analogue paneer.
How does ‘analogue paneer’ affect your health?
Additives such as starch can lead to bloating and indigestion.
Excess use of synthetic ingredients could disrupt hormonal balance, causing metabolic diseases.
Long-term consumption could potentially harm the liver and kidneys.
Regular ingestion of trans fat in analogue paneer could lead to insulin resistance (a precursor to type 2 diabetes).
Paneer will likely remain a staple in Indian kitchens, but its booming market also raises risks of quality compromises. As demand for protein grows, balancing affordability with health will be key to ensuring paneer’s place in India’s passionate love story with food.
Business India: Dhanda Hai Yeh!
Image credit: ET
Dalal Street’s Gen-Zs: India's Demat accounts just crossed a whopping 20 crore milestone, with young investors leading the charge. A massive 75% of all new accounts are being opened by people under the age of 30; however, the pace of growth has slowed in 2025 as compared to 2024.
Musk Vs Modi in court: Musk's X is suing the Indian government, calling its expanded takedown powers an unconstitutional "censorship portal". X claims the government is stifling free speech by ordering the removal of posts critical of officials, a charge the government denies.
Paytm turns full desi: Paytm is now "as desi as Tata" after Chinese billionaire Jack Ma's Antfin cashed out, selling its final 5.84% stake for around ₹3,803 crore. The move comes right after Paytm posted its first-ever profitable quarter.
The EV scorecard: To supercharge India's EV goals, NITI Aayog has launched its e-Mobility Preparedness Index. It ranks states on everything from policy to charging infrastructure, aiming to spark "competitive federalism" and get them racing to the top of the leaderboard.
A Kiwi-India handshake: India and New Zealand are boosting their partnership, holding their first-ever Defence Strategic Dialogue to deepen cooperation in the defence industry and maritime security. The move builds on a March 2025 MoU and parallels progress on a free trade deal.
Uncle Sam is taking ‘Do guna Lagaan’: Making good on his threat, Trump slapped an additional 25% tariff on India for its continued purchase of Russian oil, bringing the total levy to a hefty 50%. The White House order cited the oil deals as a threat to US national security.
DuniyaDIARY 🌏📒
Image credit: CNBC
Syria -Tariffs On, Logic Gone: In Donald Trump’s trade tactics, Syria has now taken center stage and not in a good way. Just months after lifting sanctions on the war-ravaged country, Trump slapped a jaw-dropping 41% tariff on Syrian imports - the highest rate of any nation. Let that sink in. Syria, a country struggling to stand after 13 years of war, sectarian violence, and ongoing Israeli strikes, barely does business with the U.S. In 2023, it exported just $11.3 million worth of goods to America, while importing a modest $1.29 million - giving the U.S. an almost comically small trade deficit. And yet, Trump decided this was the trade imbalance worth correcting? So, does the 41% tariff hurt Syria’s economy - Barely. But does it undermine trust, complicate diplomacy, and reinforce the image of the U.S. as an unpredictable global actor? Absolutely. In the end, it’s not just Syria left confused - it’s the rest of us trying to decode a playbook where the rules seem to changing as fast as the tweets.
OpenAI’s GPT-5, a Giant Leap or Just a Step: OpenAI is gearing up to release GPT-5, the much-anticipated successor to GPT-4. While early testers have praised its coding, science, and math capabilities, they noted the jump isn’t as dramatic as the leap from GPT-3 to GPT-4. The smaller performance leap may stem from challenges in scaling up. Unlike earlier models, GPT-5 reportedly ran into a “data wall”—with limited new high-quality internet data available for training, despite increasing computing power. Backed by Microsoft and valued at $300 billion, OpenAI hasn’t confirmed a release date, but the launch is expected imminently. OpenAI's Boris Power recently posted, “Excited to see how the public receives GPT-5,” suggesting a debut is just around the corner.
Pakistan’s Not Picking Sides—Yet: As Trump courts Pakistan with oil deals and warm words, China isn’t sweating - at least not publicly. After back-to-back visits to the US and China, General Asim Munir’s diplomatic dance has raised eyebrows. But Chinese experts insist Islamabad won’t jeopardise decades of “all-weather friendship” with Beijing just for Trump’s overtures. For now, Pakistan’s playing both sides—but Beijing knows where the real lifelines lie.
Bangladesh Sets Poll Date for Feb 2026: Caretaker leader and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has announced Bangladesh’s next general elections will be held in February 2026, ahead of Ramadan, bowing to pressure from key political parties. Marking a year since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ousting, Yunus vowed to hand over power to an elected government after the vote. Earlier, elections were tentatively set for April, but Yunus said the interim government is committed to a “New Bangladesh” and a celebratory, citizen-driven vote.
Titan Tragedy Was Preventable: More than two years after the implosion of the Titan submersible, which killed all five people aboard during a descent to the Titanic wreck, a damning 335-page U.S. Coast Guard report has concluded that the disaster was entirely preventable. The probe found OceanGate - the private company behind the expedition - guilty of ignoring established safety protocols and engineering standards, choosing instead to operate with minimal oversight and questionable materials. Rob McCallum, a deep-sea expert and former OceanGate advisor, noted that the audible creaks and pops during earlier dives should have been red flags. “Each dive with a weakened hull was a roll of the dice,” he said. “Mathematically, it was certain to fail.”
Aur Batao 📰
Uncle Sam’s India bet: Despite calling India a "dead" economy, the Trump Organisation is tripling its Indian real estate footprint to 11 million sq ft via a zero-risk brand licensing model. This year alone, projects totalling 4.3 million sq ft have launched in Pune, Gurugram, and Hyderabad.
Brazil dials to Modi, Xi: Amid a tariff showdown, Brazil's President Lula snubbed Trump’s offer for a call to discuss a 50% US tariff on Brazilian goods. Lula countered that he'd prefer talking trade with his BRICS partners, PM Modi and China's Xi.
End of registered post: It's the end of an era. To streamline its logistics network, India Post is discontinuing its five-decade-old Registered Post from September 1, merging all its features into the faster, but roughly 25% pricier, Speed Post.
PM Modi to visit China: PM Modi is heading to Tianjin for the high-stakes SCO summit from Aug 31 to Sept 1, his first visit to China since 2019. With escalating US tensions against both China and Russia, all eyes will be on his potential informal sideline meetings with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.
