Good morning. A quieter holiday Friday at home, but a big leadership call in banking and a few strong economic numbers give you plenty to chew on.
In today's newsletter: HDFC Bank gets a new chief, GST collections cross ₹2 lakh crore, and US court blocks the $100,000 H-1B fee again.
Closing levels · 1 October 2026
Sensex 72,480.29 ▼ 0.07% |
Nifty 50 22,620.45 ▼ 0.42% |
USD/INR 95.93 ▼ 0.13% · rupee stronger |
Brent Crude $102.44 ▼ 1.05% |
Indian shares slipped slightly in the last session, while the rupee firmed a touch and Brent eased about 1% but stayed above $100.
RBI approves Anup Bagchi as HDFC Bank's next MD and CEO
The RBI has cleared Anup Bagchi as MD and CEO of HDFC Bank for three years, starting October 27. He currently runs ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.
Bagchi was one of two names sent to the regulator, alongside the bank's own Deputy MD Kaizad Bharucha. He succeeds Sashidhar Jagdishan, who chose not to seek a third term.
The decision ends weeks of speculation at a bank caught in several controversies in recent months.
Investors approved: HDFC Bank's US-listed shares rose 5.4% on the news.
Nothing changes for your account, loans or cards. If you own HDFC Bank shares, or funds that hold them, the 5.4% jump in its US-listed shares hints at how investors may react at home.
On the same day, Kotak Mahindra Bank also named an Anup, Anup Kumar Saha, as its chief. Both men are ICICI alumni, so two of ICICI's biggest rivals will now be run by its former executives.
GST collections cross ₹2 lakh crore in September, up 14.7%
India's gross GST collections rose 14.7% from a year earlier to ₹2.04 lakh crore in September. Net revenue, after refunds, grew faster still, up 18.1% to ₹1.77 lakh crore.
The finance ministry now expects GDP growth of 7.3% for July to September, above the RBI's 6.4% forecast, while flagging trade, crude and AI risks.
It is not the only strong signal: car sales rose 21% year on year and factory activity hit a seven-month high, pointing to solid consumer demand going into the festive season.
US court blocks Trump's $100,000 H-1B fee for a second time
A US federal judge in Oakland has blocked the $100,000 H-1B visa fee, ruling that US immigration authorities skipped required rule-making steps.
This is the second court setback for the fee. In June a Massachusetts judge ruled that only Congress can impose such a charge, but that order was paused days later while the government appealed.
The ruling is relief for Indian IT firms and tech workers who rely on the visa, though the legal fight continues.
Breaking.exe
SoftBank pays up. SoftBank has completed its $30 billion investment in OpenAI, the last instalment of its commitment to the ChatGPT maker's latest funding round. |
Chips in space. SpaceX launched Google's AI chips into orbit on Planet Labs satellites, Google's first step towards data centres in space. |
Cheap 4G phone. Jio is selling its JioBharat 4G phone for ₹1,499 as a 10th anniversary offer, bundled with six months of free recharges including 14GB of data a month. |
Google wins in court. A US judge dismissed antitrust suits by Chegg and Penske Media that accused Google's AI Overviews of draining traffic from their websites. |
Finance 101
Factories speed up. India's manufacturing PMI rose to 55.1 in September, a seven-month high, on stronger orders at home and abroad; any reading above 50 means factory activity is growing. |
Foreign money leaves. Foreign investors pulled ₹35,860 crore out of Indian shares in September, taking 2026's outflow to ₹2.69 lakh crore. |
Bank stake rules. The RBI finalised simpler bank shareholding rules, letting mutual funds, insurers and pension funds get a single approval to build stakes of up to 10% in a bank. |
Fuel costs rise. The commercial LPG cylinder price rose by ₹65 and jet fuel climbed from ₹121 to ₹137 a litre, which could push up restaurant bills and airfares. |
Pangaea Revisited
G20 on food. G20 trade ministers agreed a statement opposing the weaponisation of food, with India pushing to keep legitimate food-security curbs separate from coercive trade actions. |
Gulf oil flows. Crude exports from the Strait of Hormuz have largely returned to pre-war levels through pipelines and ship-to-ship transfers, though diesel and other refined fuels remain constrained. |
Ukraine power cuts. Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy grid killed seven people and forced emergency power cuts in Kyiv and three other regions ahead of winter. |
Af-Pak strikes. Pakistan says its airstrikes in Afghanistan killed 22 terrorists, while the Taliban government says nine Afghan civilians, including women and children, died. |
Also, Also, Also
World Cup fixtures. India will open the 2027 ODI World Cup against Australia on October 7 and face Pakistan on October 10. |
Beach tragedy. Eight Class 11 and 12 students from a Pune coaching class drowned at Diveagar beach in Raigad during an outing. |
Activist freed. British Sikh activist Jagtar Singh Johal walked out of a Delhi jail after nine years without a full trial, once a court warned the government of contempt. |
Indore report. A judicial panel found the Indore water contamination deaths were preventable, blaming institutional failure and two former civic water officials. |