Good morning. A busy week ends with money matters at the top of the pile and some cheer further down.
In today's newsletter: forex reserves take an $18.3 billion hit, G7 opens its emergency oil stocks, and Gujarat gets a Uniform Civil Code.
Closing levels · 1 October 2026
Sensex 71,909.70 ▼ 0.79% |
Nifty 50 22,421.95 ▼ 0.88% |
USD/INR 96.30 ▲ 0.08% · rupee weaker |
Brent Crude $102.70 ▲ 0.38% |
Sensex and Nifty each fell close to 1% on Thursday, while the rupee weakened slightly to 96.3 a dollar and Brent stayed above $100.
India's forex reserves fall $18.3 billion in a week as RBI defends the rupee
India's foreign exchange reserves fell $18.34 billion to $747.56 billion in the week ended September 25, RBI data released on Friday showed.
The RBI has been selling dollars to defend the rupee. It was the third weekly fall in a row, and reserves have now dropped $38.15 billion in three weeks from a record $785.71 billion on September 4.
The pressure on the rupee is coming from several sides. Foreign portfolio investors pulled out ₹35,860 crore from Indian equities in September, after investing ₹29,630 crore in August.
A weaker rupee makes imported goods like fuel, electronics and foreign travel or tuition dearer. With retail inflation rising, experts expect the RBI to raise the repo rate by 25 basis points next week, which would push up EMIs on floating-rate loans.
This fall came straight after a $14.9 billion drop the week before, which was itself the sharpest weekly decline since November 2024.
G7 agrees to release up to 100 million barrels of oil and diesel
G7 leaders agreed on Friday to release up to 100 million barrels of crude and diesel from emergency stockpiles, after US President Donald Trump threatened to cut off American diesel supplies.
France announced the deal after talks chaired by Emmanuel Macron. The barrels will be released over the next four months.
For India, which imports most of its oil, any easing in global prices helps the rupee and household budgets. Oil prices fell on Friday after the announcement.
Gujarat becomes the second state with a Uniform Civil Code
President Droupadi Murmu has given assent to Gujarat's Uniform Civil Code Bill, making it the second state after Uttarakhand to enact a comprehensive UCC.
The BJP-dominated assembly passed the bill in March, after a debate in which the Opposition objected. A common civil code replaces separate religion-based personal laws on matters such as marriage, divorce and inheritance with one set of rules.
Breaking.exe
Apple vs AI agents. Apple is tightening macOS Full Disk Access controls, warning that capable AI agents make broad access to your files, messages, mail and browsing history riskier. |
OpenAI cleanup. OpenAI has alerted over 100 groups about rogue AI agent activity and is searching about 50 petabytes of data to understand its full scope. |
Indian space startups. Payloads from Dhruva Space, TakeMe2Space, Satleo Labs and Eon Space Labs flew aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare from California. |
UPI keeps growing. UPI handled 145 billion transactions in April to September, up 27% from 114 billion a year earlier, NPCI data showed. |
Finance 101
Exporter support. The government has extended RoDTEP export support till December 2026; the scheme refunds taxes exporters pay that are not otherwise returned to them. |
Reliance borrows. SBI bought about 40% of Reliance Industries' ₹13,000 crore bond issue, top-rated debt paying 7.90% a year, roughly ₹5,000 crore worth. |
Cipla setback. Maharashtra's drug regulator cancelled Cipla's Pune drug sale licence over alleged violations in storage, packaging and record-keeping. |
More NPS choice. Bank of Baroda has entered the pension fund business, giving NPS savers another fund manager as the regulator targets up to 4 crore new subscribers in two to three years. |
Pangaea Revisited
US hiring slump. The US added just 29,000 jobs in September and unemployment rose to 4.2%, cutting bets on a Federal Reserve rate hike this month. |
Horn of Africa. Ethiopia and Eritrea cut diplomatic ties as Ethiopian forces battle rebel fighters across the country's northern region. |
Nepal floods. After deadly floods, Nepal plans to drain four glacial lakes through gated structures, work that could take up to six years. |
Sudan war. Sudan's army says it has captured al-Mazroub, a Rapid Support Forces stronghold in North Kordofan, as it tries to cut the paramilitary group's supply lines. |
Also, Also, Also
Hockey gold. India's women beat China to win hockey gold at the Asian Games, their first in the event in 44 years. |
Ladakh map names. India has standardised the names of 28 places in Ladakh, including 11 peaks, two glaciers and two passes. |
Sickle cell care. CSIR-CCMB has built an India-specific tool to predict sickle cell severity, since international scoring systems do not reflect how the disease shows up in Indian patients. |
Food app fine. A Delhi consumer court ordered Swiggy and a restaurant to pay ₹1 lakh in compensation for unfair trade practices over a misleading 'cost for two' listing. |