The article titled "War doesn’t need sensationalism" is found on page 2 in the New Delhi First section of the sources. Here is the text as it appears:
War doesn’t need sensationalism
Social media has been awash with “Dubai Cancelled” and similarly sensationalist content following the US-Israel attacks and Iran’s retaliation, and Dubai, among others in the region, is caught in the crossfire. Sujata Assomull was at home in her apartment in the multistorey Dubai Marina last weekend when debris from an intercepted drone hit the top floor. She was terrified, yes, but she writes that the municipality swung into action in an orderly fashion and quickly made residents feel safe. Dubai is a city that has provided livelihoods and homes to thousands of Indians across the board, and instead of spreading fear, writes Assom-.
The article titled "Don’t teach so close to me," written by Raja Sen, is a review of the Netflix series Vladimir starring Rachel Weisz., The article is reproduced below from the sources:
Don’t teach so close to me
Rachel Weisz has the kind of classical beauty that could launch ships or sink them, cheekbones like alabaster and eyes that smoulder by default, but her real genius is making that face a canvas for the uncontainable. In The Favourite (JioHotstar), her Lady Sarah is a political shark written like a Jane Austen heroine who’s mislaid her patience. She’s the mad queen’s lover, handler, speech writer, counsellor, bully and best friend, a single person embodying court, cabinet and confessional. It’s objectively absurd, yet Weisz sells it with cold authority. Across her career she’s done klutzes, idealists, addicts, cheats and twins, but Lady Sarah may be the purest expression of her singular gift: to make women who should be “too much” feel precisely, dangerously right.
In Disobedience she wrestles faith, lust and loss in a sweaty, selfish knot; she turns pulp peril into personal triumph in The Mummy; in The Constant Gardener she burns righteous; in Deep Blue Sea she crumbles gorgeously; in Dead Ringers, she—spectacularly—plays twins who devour life, a grand opera of double-derangement. Weisz never dials down her characters’ hunger or mess, instead amplifying it to truth, turning excess into essence. These are literary fever-dreams made flesh: too ambitious, too broken, too alive to be mere heroines.
In the new Netflix dramedy Vladimir, Weisz plays a hungry professor. Over eight snappy episodes, as she wrestles with lust (and guilt) for a younger, married colleague, the actress gives us a quick course in desire. It’s well worth attending. As we know from college, even when the course doesn’t specifically teach you anything new, the right professor is worth your time. Two minutes in, it’s clear that this is a Fleabag facsimile, an aging academic take on that magnificent Phoebe Waller-Bridge series. Weisz keeps breaking, and confiding in, the fourth wall, and her character is never referred to by name—something that may have worked well in the books, but loses its charm when the subtitles constantly refer to her as protagonist (“Protagonist sighs”). We first meet Weisz midway through what looks like a crime, and then we the viewers are swiftly whisked—in trite-and-tested Netflix ways—to when the chaos began.
“It was a different time.” These words appear on screen, in parenthesis, below the “Six Weeks Earlier” text, and that bracketed phrase forms the narrative backbone—not least because far too many of the characters keep saying it. That “back in my day” consideration is one many ageing characters (and viewers) lean on too heavily to explain and dismiss and make sense of and hide behind to excuse sins that, one may have hoped, would be past their sell-by date. The lens for acceptable behaviour has shifted, though what Vladimir tries to emphasise—as it props up competing arguments from competing generations against one another—is that everyone has a lens entirely their own.
The series is named like a Putin biography because of the object of the protagonist’s attentions: Vladimir Vladinski, a young and fit professor with a name as absurdly alliterative as the characters in Nabokov’s Lolita. The protagonist is immediately drawn to this hunk of man-meat, a Vladimir who quotes Vladimir, and her hunger pangs manifest themselves in quick, hot cutaways where she imagines that the two of them weren’t merely discussing salads in front of the faculty but instead making loud and passionate love.
Vladimir is played by Leo Woodall, a sort of muscular Charlie Brown figure with a “gosh, shucks” kind of scruffy appeal, the kind of man who flirts openly and then immediately walks it back with an exaggeratedly friendly emoji. He doesn’t seem particularly charismatic or witty or even nice, from what he texts to the way he treats his wife, but in the protagonist’s eyes, raising him to the pedestal of a literary lover, he can do no wrong. He seems unworthy of Weisz, but then who wouldn’t be?
John Slattery plays, in his trademark way, her husband John, another creepy but worldly silver fox, the kind of man calls for whose cancellation would be drowned out by calls for his tell-all memoir. He is facing a disciplinary trial for bedding students over the years, and Weisz—while privately repelled—is by his side because they had an open marriage (called, in different times, “an arrangement”) and because, as she plaintively tells confused students who wonder why she isn’t calling him out, the consensual affairs he had “were fun not despite the power dynamic, but because of it.”
Their marriage is prickly but plausible. She tells him to do something about his eyebrows, he suggests she get her privates waxed. Their intimacy, their repugnance, their pettiness, all feels lived-in. The actors are, however, better than the series. Weisz is wonderful as the articulate cougar, playing it with just enough of a Nigella Lawson oversexedness. She makes the fourth wall feel like a confessional, but the show itself feels eminently forgettable. The kind of airport-read that the Wharton-wielding protagonist would never read.
The world of academia and cancellation is mired frequently for fiction these days. The Chair (Netflix), starring Sandra Oh, is a superb satire on academia and entitlement, that successfully skewers both sides instead of, like this [series]...
The article titled "Can AI make speakers truly smart?", written by Abhishek Baxi, is located on page 2 in the New Delhi First section of the sources. The text available in the sources is as follows:
Can AI make speakers truly smart?
The first wave of voice assistants promised a future where we would talk to our homes as naturally as we talk to each other. Instead, we got a decade of reminders, timers and weather updates. Now, with artificial intelligence reshaping every corner of consumer tech, the smart speaker is poised for a reboot.
AI-powered assistants like Alexa+ and Gemini could deliver the truly conversational, context-aware home assistant we’ve been waiting for, writes Abhishek Baxi after spending time using Amazon’s new Echo Show 8. The custom-designed AZ3 Pro chip is clearly built for heavier workloads and the new edge processing capabilities.
The article titled "Tax dept’s nudges trim refund claims by ₹2,000 crore," written by Gireesh Chandra Prasad, is found on page 14 of the sources. It is reproduced below:
Tax dept’s nudges trim refund claims by ₹2,000 crore
In FY26, 91.2 million income tax returns were filed up to 28 February. The tax department has issued ₹3.34 trillion in tax refunds this financial year, up to 10 February.
More than five million income tax returns were revised after the tax department flagged incorrect or bogus deduction claims last year, lowering refund claims by ₹2,000 crore, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairperson Ravi Agrawal told a parliamentary committee. He said the department had two choices when it found bogus claims: initiate a scrutiny or request taxpayers to update returns based on information with the authority; and it chose the latter, per a report tabled by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance in Lok Sabha on Thursday.
The report, quoting the CBDT chairman, said that in July 2025 the department carried out verifications into bogus deduction claims, including donations and deductions under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961, which covers contributions to charitable organisations and relief funds. The exercise shows a substantial number of fraudulent or incorrect claims, he said. The issue before the department was how to proceed and enforce the necessary corrections, and identify high-risk refunds, the chairman said.
“Notwithstanding the fact that we had the information, one option before us was to proceed with scrutiny, but we did not adopt that course. Instead, we nudged the taxpayers and requested that they review the income tax returns they had filed and modify the returns, if required,” the report quoted the chairman as saying.
The department has issued ₹3.34 trillion in tax refunds this fiscal year, up to 10 February; about 19% lower than the refunds issued a year ago. These are refunds on returns filed in FY26 pertaining to income earned in FY25. In FY26, 91.2 million tax returns were filed up to 28 February. This is seen up by end March; in FY25, 91 million returns were filed.
The trend also comes after a rejig in personal income tax slabs and a hike in tax rebate in the FY26 budget meant to benefit taxpayers, including the middle class. The tax cuts necessitated enhanced monitoring and compliance to widen and deepen the tax base.
The article titled "Indian seaweed is having a moment," written by Sayoni Bhaduri, is found on page 8 of the sources. It explores how chefs and mixologists are beginning to prize local species for their umami and climate-smart profile.
Indian seaweed is having a moment Chefs and mixologists are using the local species in garnishes and broths, and to flavour miso, crackers and cocktails
When Giles Knapton, the founder and director of Coco Shambhala, a luxury boutique property in Sindhudurg, Maharashtra, discovered the diversity of seaweed along the Konkan coast, it felt both nostalgic and full of culinary possibilities. “I grew up eating dulse, a dark-red seaweed, in Ireland, first as a snack and later paired with drinks. Seaweed here reminded me of home, yet presented a new terroir of waters, textures and flavour profiles,” he says.
The team at Coco Shambhala, which opened in 2017, is running trials of risottos, salads, stir-fries and fritters that highlight the natural umami of local seaweed. They’re even trying out a seaweed-infused varan (dal). Some of these kitchen experiments will eventually make it to the menu.
With an approximately 12,000km coastline, India has largely overlooked seaweed as an ingredient, relying instead on imported varieties like nori and wakame from Japan, and gim from South Korea. India has a thriving seaweed economy through agar—a vegan alternative to gelatin widely used in icing, ice creams and marshmallows. According to data from the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, the country’s total seaweed production was 72,385 tonnes in 2023. With the help of marine specialists, entrepreneurs and chefs, India’s ulva and sargassum seaweed species are making their way on to our plates.
LITTLE LOCAL LORE There are more than 800 varieties of seaweed flourishing in the Indian waters, but there is very little recorded of it in regional foodlore. There are fleeting anecdotal mentions, as Arnav Mariwala, the founder and CEO of MariTide, a seaweed cultivation and processing company in Devgad, Maharashtra, found. “A family from Ratnagiri said they make shaivalachi bhaji with jawla or seaweed with dried shrimp (shaival is Marathi for seaweed/algae and jawla baby shrimp), but we couldn’t verify it with locals,” he says.
“Coastal communities always had an abundance of fresh vegetables and seafood,” says Poornima Somayaji, founder of Aragma restaurant in Pune. “There simply wasn’t a need to look for greens under the ocean.” The disinterest is perhaps also due to seaweed’s taste, an intense savoury flavour. While the spatoglossum seaweed carries mouth-puckering tartness of a raw mango, dictyota is chewy with bitter notes, and can be used as a supporting ingredient to add contrast and complexity to salads and seafood dishes. The most common species of edible seaweed in India is sargassum, which is widely available in the Arabian Sea. It is the most popular Indian seaweed genus used by chefs, most commonly for stocks and dashi. Beyond broths, seaweed can also be brined as pickles, seasoned with spices as garnishes, or used with condiments like the Japanese furikake.
American chef Jay Spenard, who hosts private cooking classes in Goa, prepares a dashi made with sargassum and shiitake mushrooms for a mushroom risotto. “Shiitake is already an umami-bomb, but by adding the seaweed to the dashi, there is a subtle oceanic oomph in the risotto,” he explains.
FOOD AND SCIENCE Mariwala discovered the potential of seaweed in California while studying coastal ecosystems and climate-resilient engineering. Back in India in 2023, he launched MariTide, a regenerative seaweed cultivation startup that is scaling up edible seaweed supply chains with the help of technology. The company annually harvests about two tonnes of ulva, or sea lettuce, from the open sea. He supplies dehydrated seaweed, priced at ₹800-1,000 for 100g, to restaurants such as Ground Up in Pune, Lovefools in Mumbai and Yazu in Mumbai, Goa and Indore. Mariwala plans to open an online shop in April.
Gabriella D’Cruz, a Goa-based marine conservationist, who founded The Good Ocean in 2022, says seaweed is a nutrient powerhouse and a sustainable ingredient. “Some species of seaweed can have up to 30-40% protein content, which is comparable to soy. These species can be selectively harvested if vegan protein is the goal,” she adds.
Her dehumidifying drying technique locks in all the nutrients and keeps the dehydrated seaweed shelf stable for two years. The Good Ocean has collaborated with Atmosphere Studio, a Delhi-based kombucha and vegan snacks brand, to create almond flour seaweed crackers, inspired by the Japanese seasoning furikake, combining sesame, garlic, chilli, and local sargassum. Both Mariwala and D’Cruz are working with chefs to create dishes that highlight the umami-rich, earthy flavour of local seaweed. D’Cruz also conducts workshops for chefs and food enthusiasts. She recently partnered with Goa’s Bar Outrigger for a workshop, where the bar team made three cocktails with seaweed.
Arijit Bose, co-founder of Bar Outrigger, says: “We used Gabriella’s seaweed furikake as a component in our Picante and Punch. The Picante worked with the spices in the furikake, while the pineapple juice in the Punch worked very well with the seaweed salt.”
ON THE MENU Seaweed has the potential to be the next soy sauce, a flavour that deeply impacts our palates, believes Sarita Pereira, chief executive chef at Mumbai’s Lovefools restaurant. She is preparing to relaunch her chef’s table this month, for which she plans to create a dish with local seaweed sourced from MariTide.
For his monsoon menu in 2024, Amit Ghorpade, head chef of Aragma in Pune, was inspired by the Kolhapuri pandhra rassa. “Pandhra rassa is all about umami for me,” he says. “The umami of the seaweed was a natural fit in the dish, quite similar to how you would use it in ramen.” Ghorpade served the pandhra-style broth with masoor dal and chicken meatballs. In another seafood-themed menu, he concluded the meal with a dessert starring Indian seaweed from The Good Ocean. “It was a watermelon and strawberry dessert where I had used sargassum seaweed in a pickle form.”
Gayatri Desai, the chef and founder of Pune’s Ground Up restaurant, is also working on a seaweed miso that she will launch on the restaurant’s e-shop in the next few weeks. Desai has been experimenting with the seaweed miso in desserts and salads, and will introduce it in her tasting menus. Her experiments have led her to infuse seaweed into tamari or soy sauce. “I recently discovered that one of the seaweed varieties has a flavour similar to matcha, when we were trying to make different teas with rice,” she adds.
For Knapton, Indian seaweed tends to be “naturally sweeter and milder compared to Irish varieties.” Perhaps one of the first chefs to experiment with the local genus is Varun Totlani of Mumbai’s Masque restaurant. A free-diving excursion in Goa with D’Cruz in 2023 led to a culinary revelation for him. In the same year, he served Seaweed and Ponkh Bhel, a salad of cucumber, green tomato and raw mango topped with pickled seaweed, crispy ponkh, and crushed seaweed.
Totlani’s tasting menus often spotlight a variety of seaweed—ulva and sargassum from The Good Ocean. The biggest challenge, according to him, is that it is a delicate ingredient and “building a consistent supply chain to get it from the coast to the kitchen while it is still fresh, takes a lot of time and effort.” He also lists perception as a hurdle, where vegetarians instinctively compare the taste to seafood. Last year, at Bar Paradox, the sister bar of Masque, he served sea grapes as a final touch on his barramundi ceviche.
Indian seaweed has the potential to become the next big ingredient in dining, thanks to its deep umami flavour, strong nutritional value and sustainable nature. Reliable year-round access can transform this coastal gem into a premium staple on modern Indian tables.
The article titled "Trai plans to make telcos pay for bulk spam calls," written by Jatin Grover, is found on page 16 of the sources. It is reproduced below:
Trai plans to make telcos pay for bulk spam calls
Jatin Grover New Delhi
The telecom regulator has proposed an additional charge and penalty on operators that allow bulk spam calls and messages, as the menace has exploded with the rise of automation.
A 5 paise per minute termination charge will have to be paid by the operator from whose network robocalls originate—from numbers other than 1400 or 1600 series—to the carrier which receives such calls, according to the proposal released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday. No termination charge is levied on domestic voice calls in India currently. Trai has also proposed financial penalties on operators who improperly register or allow the use of wrong SMS headers and content templates for promotional SMSes.
“The bulk callers take advantage of cheaper routes meant for normal person-to-person (P2P) calls, and misuse them for unsolicited A2P (application-to-person or automated) calling,” Trai said in a consultation on draft Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference (Third Amendment) Regulations, 2026. It has invited comments by 12 April. “Accordingly, it felt necessary to have a deterrent in the form of termination charge, since A2P calls are made in bulk at the OAP (originating access provider) end and passed onto the network of the TAP (terminating access provider),” the regulator said.
The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR) 2018 allow the regulator to impose penalties of up to ₹10 lakh per instance on operators for failure to curb spam. While Trai noted technical challenges operators face in differentiating robotic calls from normal calls, it proposed that bulk callers must pre-declare their use of A2P calling. “In case the bulk caller fails to declare use of A2P calling, all such calls shall be treated as UCC (unsolicited commercial communication) and action shall be taken by the access providers as per the regulatory provisions,” Trai said.
The termination charges for such A2P calls will be exempted if originated at the direction of the central and state governments, constitutional bodies, Trai or any agency authorized by the authority, in the larger public interest. The regulator wants the telecom companies to strengthen the use of AI/ML-based systems to detect spam calls and messages. So far, operators use AI to warn customers about suspected spam, but now they must also take regulatory action against senders when AI detects possible spamming activity, Trai said.
It has been proposed that the telecom operator must re-verify the sender’s know-your-customer (KYC) documents and, if the activity continues, conduct physical verification of the sender. If the AI system has flagged a sender as suspected spam in the last 10 days, action can start with just three customer complaints (against five needed earlier), allowing faster action against spam senders.
Key indices lose 5.5% in worst week in 15 months as oil surges FUELLING CRISIS. FIIs sell relentlessly; ₹20 lakh crore wiped out in m-cap; volatility rises
Anupama Ghosh Mumbai
Markets capped their worst week in over 15 months on Friday, with investors losing about ₹20 lakh crore in market capitalisation over five sessions as the US/Israel-Iran conflict drove crude oil past $100 per barrel and pushed the rupee to an all-time low. The BSE Sensex plunged 1,470.50 points, or 1.93 per cent, on Friday to close at 74,563.92, while the Nifty 50 fell 488.05 points, or 2.06 per cent, to settle at 23,151.10 — a fresh 10-month low. The BSE market-cap dropped to ₹430.02 lakh crore on Friday alone, a single session wipe-out of ₹9.7 lakh crore. For the week, the Sensex shed 7,375 points, or 5.5 per cent, and the Nifty lost 1,300 points, or 5.3 per cent — marking Nifty’s worst weekly fall since the Covid pandemic crash of March 2020.
ALL SECTORS IN RED Sectoral damage was sweeping. Nifty Bank fell 7 per cent; Nifty Auto plunged over 10.5 per cent, its worst weekly performance since March 2020; Nifty Midcap shed 4.6 per cent; and Nifty SmallCap fell 3.65 per cent. On the BSE, 3,439 stocks declined against 858 advances; 563 stocks hit 52-week lows.
Three developments shook the markets. One, the closing of the Strait of Hormuz that sent Brent crude surging, a critical blow for India, which imports nearly 88 per cent of its oil.
RUPEE AT NEW LOW Two, the rupee hitting an all-time low of 92.45 per dollar amid relentless FII outflows even as the RBI intervened by selling dollars. According to provisional data, FIIs off-loaded shares worth ₹10,716.64 crore. Three, the Trump administration’s trade investigation into India added another layer of uncertainty. The India VIX climbed above 22, up over 13 per cent for the week.
GOLD, SILVER DOWN Gold prices fell by ₹1,904 on Friday to ₹1,58,399 per 10 g against ₹1,60,303 logged on Thursday due to a weak trend in the global markets. Similarly, silver was down at ₹2,60,488 per kg against ₹2,68,301, according to the Indian Bullion and Jewellers Association of India.
Vikram Kasat, Head Advisory at PL Capital, said the sell-off appeared more sentiment-driven than fundamental. “The correction appears more sentiment-driven rather than a reflection of weakening domestic fundamentals. Any meaningful correction should be seen as an opportunity for long-term investors to gradually accumulate quality large-caps and sector leaders with strong earnings visibility,” he added.
Dilip Parmar, Senior Research Analyst at HDFC Securities, pointed out that the pressure on the rupee will not go away soon. “Surging global crude oil prices and sustained foreign fund outflows, amid heightened risk aversion, have kept the rupee under significant pressure,” he said.
‘STRAIT’ TALK: PM Narendra Modi calls Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, flags Hormuz blockade risks to LPG supplies
RAY OF HOPE. Tehran says expect good news on energy supply in near future after Modi dials Iranian President
Rishi Ranjan Kala New Delhi
India has stepped up negotiations with Iran, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi dialling Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and the government conceding that continued blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is a “matter of concern”, especially with regard to LPG supplies. On Friday, Iran’s Ambassador to India Mohammad Fathali, said: “We are trying to solve the problem and you can expect good news in the near future".
Meanwhile, domestic refineries have increased production of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and the government has maintained that there is “no crisis” or “shortage” for households. “This is an issue of concern for us, particularly with a major portion of our imports [of LPG] coming from the Strait of Hormuz. The closure of SoH is a little matter of concern,” said Sujata Sharma, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, on Friday.
India consumed 33 million tonnes (mt) LPG in FY25, of which 20.67 mt was imported. Of the total imports, almost 90 per cent came from West Asia via the Strait. “The government’s highest priority is to ensure uninterrupted LPG supplies to households. Supplies are also being ensured for critical sectors like hospitals, educational institutions and other essential services,” she said.
SUFFICIENT STOCKS
Sharma noted that domestic LPG production from refineries has increased by over 30 per cent (since March 5) compared to production before the crisis. Based on Oil Ministry’s data, India’s average daily production of LPG stood at 37,355 tonnes in January 2026. Compared with January’s output, India’s average daily LPG production may have increased to 48.562 tonnes.
The MoPNG official stressed that the country has no shortfall of natural gas (liquefied natural gas). Besides, India’s crude oil supply is in “good position” and refinery inventory is “fine”. She also emphasised that there is “no shortage” of piped natural gas (PNG), which is supplied to households for cooking.
Sharma said there are roughly 60 lakh LPG-using households that are near city gas distribution (CGD) centres and can “immediately” switch to PNG. More than 1.5 crore PNG households in India are currently being provided with natural gas and this will continue without any hindrance.
“In order to ease supply concerns related to LPG, the government is directing CGD entities to offer new PNG connections to the affected commercial and industrial consumers in urban centres,” she added. The government has also requested all concerned local bodies, highway authorities and State governments to expedite clearances for laying of pipeline by CGD entities.
IRAN PARLEYS
As India rushed to manage its limited LPG supplies, PM Modi on Thursday night dialled Iranian President Pezeshkian over the “serious situation” in West Asia. “Had a conversation with Iranian President, Masoud Pezeshkian, to discuss the serious situation in the region. Expressed deep concern over the escalation of tensions and the loss of civilian lives as well as damage to civilian infrastructure,” the Prime Minister posted on social media platform X.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Thursday and Friday. Both leaders have spoken four times since the US-Israel offensive against Iran began (February 28). On Friday, Iran’s Ambassador to India Fathali said, “We are trying to solve the problem, and you can expect good news in the near future”.
Iran’s Supreme Leader in India, Abdul Majid Hakeem Ilahi said: “A complete solution is that leaders of the world have to come together”. They should convince President Trump that this war is against civilians and that it has to stop, he added. “They should also put pressure on the Zionist regime to stop this war. We didn’t create this war. We are ready to share our blood on the earth, but not ready to sell our dignity,” he said.
Sugar industry urges govt to raise ethanol blending
SECTOR DEMAND. Deliberations begin with Food Minister to increase it above 20%, stressing ethanol’s role in energy security and farmer support
Prabhudatta Mishra New Delhi
Encouraged by a higher share of ethanol supplied against commitments compared with grain-based distilleries, the sugar industry has urged Food Minister Pralhad Joshi to consider raising ethanol blending beyond the current 20 per cent. Government sources indicated that deliberations have begun on increasing ethanol usage, as significant production capacity remains under-utilised due to lower demand. One option under consideration is raising the blending level above E20. Joshi is learnt to have assured industry representatives that the government would take up the ethanol issue once the current pressures on LPG and crude oil ease.
On March 11, Indian Sugar & Bio-energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA) President Niraj Shirgaokar and Director-General Deepak Ballani met Joshi and discussed challenges facing the sugar and bio-energy sector, the industry body said in a social media post.
BIOFUELS’ ROLE
“India’s heavy dependence on imported crude oil and LPG makes the country vulnerable to geopolitical disruptions and price volatility. Domestic biofuel production, particularly ethanol from sugarcane, must therefore be viewed not only as an agricultural or environmental initiative but as a strategic pillar of national energy security,” Ballani told businessline.
The ethanol blending programme has already helped cut crude import dependence, save foreign exchange and provide a stable income stream to farmers, he said. “A clear policy roadmap to scale up ethanol usage will help cushion the country against global fuel shocks while strengthening rural economies and accelerating the transition to cleaner energy,” Ballani added. The meeting also discussed the evolving geopolitical situation in global energy markets, the need to accelerate ethanol blending in India, expansion of blending infrastructure and the roadmap beyond E20, ISMA said earlier.
SUPPLY PROGRESS
According to industry sources, the sugar industry supplied 119 crore litres of ethanol — 41 per cent of its committed quantity of 292 crore litres — during November-February of the current ethanol supply year (ESY). This included 94 crore litres from sugarcane juice, 21 crore litres from B-heavy molasses and 4 crore litres from C-heavy molasses supplied to oil marketing companies (OMCs).
In comparison, grain-based distilleries supplied 209 crore litres — 27 per cent of their committed 766 crore litres. This comprised 123 crore litres from maize, 69 crore litres from FCI rice and 17 crore litres from 100 per cent broken rice.
RURAL ECONOMY
ISMA said on Friday that the ethanol blending programme (EBP) is emerging as a transformative initiative that reduces reliance on imported fossil fuels while creating new opportunities for the sugar, bio-energy and agricultural sectors. Expanding ethanol blending and building a robust bioenergy ecosystem can play a strategic role in cutting fossil fuel imports while strengthening the rural economy, it said.
“Ethanol supply has increased from 38 crore litres in 2014 to over 660 crore litres, generating ₹1.18 lakh crore in payments to farmers and saving about ₹1.36 lakh crore in foreign exchange through reduced crude imports,” the association said.
Can US afford Trump’s Iran war?
PERILOUS PATH. It will considerably dent the US budget at a time when the country’s public finances are unsustainable
Desmond Lachman
Until recently, one of the MAGA movement’s most deeply held convictions was that American blood and treasure should not be expended abroad when Americans — and the American Dream — are suffering at home. Yet now the movement’s leader, President Donald Trump, has rushed headlong into a costly war against Iran.
The US-Israeli campaign against the Islamic Republic is bound to put a considerable dent in the US budget at a time when the country’s public finances already are on an unsustainable path. It is also bound to continue pushing up international oil and gas prices at a time when the US already has an affordability problem. Neither outcome bodes well for US inflation and employment, with the outlook already grim following an unexpectedly negative monthly jobs report.
Even before the start of the Iran war, Trump suggested that the US needed a substantial expansion of its defence budget, proposing to increase it by $500 billion per year from its current level of $1 trillion. Now that the US is engaged in a full-scale war that could drag on indefinitely and upend the world’s geopolitical map, Trump’s case for a significant increase in defence spending would seem to have grown even stronger.
Of course, it is too early to gauge the direct costs of the war, since nobody knows how long and intensive it will be. But we do know that it is currently costing around $1 billion per day. The bill for the month-long conflict that Trump is anticipating therefore would approach $50 billion, with the costs continuing to rise the longer the war continues.
Beyond the direct costs of replacing US ammunition and equipment, there will be other reasons for augmenting the defence budget. For starters, the Pentagon may need to prepare for a scenario in which the entire Middle East is destabilised, especially if the Trump administration follows through on arming the Iranian Kurds, which will antagonise Turkey and perhaps incite other separatist movements within Iran. Second, with America’s attention diverted, Russia and China could see an opportunity to press their claims in Ukraine and Taiwan, respectively, demanding even greater US military spending to maintain deterrence.
NO FREE LUNCHES
As the Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman was fond of saying, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Nowhere is this maxim more aptly applied than to military interventions. The wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan all demonstrated that the US is not good at choosing between guns and butter. It always seems to want both, even though pursuing both risks generating inflationary pressure.
This is an especially relevant concern today. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the US can expect to run budget deficits exceeding 6 per cent of GDP as far as the eye can see. That means it is on track to exceed the debt-to-GDP ratio at the end of World War II.
The Trump administration may not care about America’s deteriorating public finances, but bond markets certainly do. Normally when geopolitical tensions are heightened, international investors rush towards the safety of US Treasuries. But in yet another sign that foreign investors might be losing their appetite for US debt, bond yields have been rising since the start of the Iran war.
With the US government financing a $2 trillion budget deficit and rolling over around $9 trillion in maturing bonds this year, a loss of foreign appetite for its debt is the last thing it needs. The US also is in no position to absorb an energy-price shock. But that is what seems to be in store. In its fight for survival, the Iranian regime is desperately trying to export the war to its Gulf neighbours and disrupt shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil supply passes. On March 4, Goldman Sachs estimated that a five-week closure of this crucial waterway could send oil prices over $100 per barrel. In fact, that threshold has now already been breached.
OIL PRICE WORRIES
Even though the US economy is far less dependent on oil imports than it was during previous energy-price surges, it certainly would not be immune to a near doubling of the oil price since the start of the year. The International Monetary Fund estimates that, “If energy prices sustain just a 10 per cent increase over a period of one year, this would add 0.4 percentage point to inflation and slow economic growth by 0.1-0.2 per cent” globally.
Such stagflationary effects would further compound an already difficult budget situation by reducing tax revenues. The political strategist James Carville famously said that when it comes to winning elections, the economy is everything. If he is still right, a prolonged Iranian war could spell real trouble for Trump’s Republicans in November’s midterms. If the US does get a combination of a bond-market crisis, higher inflation, and an economic slowdown, Trump and his party may come to regret their betrayal of the “America First” agenda.
The writer is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a former deputy director of the IMF. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2026
On Friday, the total market capitalisation loss was ₹9.7 lakh crore. This single-session wipe-out saw the BSE market cap drop to ₹430.02 lakh crore.
While Friday experienced a significant drop, investors lost approximately ₹20 lakh crore in market capitalisation over the course of the full five-session week. This weekly decline was driven by escalating West Asian conflicts, crude oil prices surpassing $100 per barrel, and the rupee hitting an all-time low.
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