Based on the Hindu BusinessLine article dated October 14, 2026 (Page 1) titled "FM's remarks on LTCG Tax and STT lift markets", here is a reproduction of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's remarks regarding Long-Term Capital Gains (LTCG) tax, Securities Transaction Tax (STT), and related market conditions:
Openness to Market Stakeholder Dialogue: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman expressed a willingness to hear the debate on the Long-Term Capital Gains (LTCG) Tax and the Securities Transaction Tax (STT), which contributed to boosting investor sentiment.
Timing Ahead of the Budget: Addressing a question on equalizing taxation across asset classes during the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi on Saturday, she noted:
"We are very close to the Budget, and the preparation for the Budget has started. It may not be the best time for me to say what I will or what I will not consider."
Debate on Asset Class Parity: Acknowledging the ongoing discussion around rationalization across investment avenues, she added:
"Rationalisation of LTCG tax on equities and Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on the market, debate on the debate, debate on the various asset classes, security, and the question of treating all asset classes, similarly, has been a very well-discussed topic."
Objectives of Tax Structure: She explained the core considerations guiding tax policy decisions:
"The objective was to ensure that investors did not choose one asset class over another merely because of differences in tax treatment. It's healthy to listen to all sides... I am keenly hearing them." She further noted that the issue was about ensuring different asset classes are brought onto a more equal footing, which remains a key consideration for the ministry.
BR Shetty files $15 billion suit against Bank of Baroda
SERIOUS CHARGES. Alleges fraud, says bank ignored anti-money laundering/KYC flags
Our Bureau
Mumbai
NMC Healthcare founder BR Shetty has filed a multi-billion-dollar civil suit in the Bombay High Court against Bank of Baroda and 25 other defendants, seeking $15 billion in damages from the state-run lender of failing to stop non-transparent transactions linked to the collapse of the NMC and UAE Exchange groups.
THE ALLEGATION
In the suit, valued at $15 billion (approximately ₹1.31 lakh crore), Shetty, acting through his attorney-power attorney Shirish Shetty, has alleged that Bank of Baroda served as an "instrument of fraud" through which former senior executives, including brothers Prasanth Manghat and Promoth Manghat, along with other associates, siphoned funds from group entities, concealed debt, and exposed him to liabilities through allegedly forged documentation.
The 84-year-old businessman, once among the most influential Indian-origin entrepreneurs in the Gulf, alleged that Bank of Baroda permitted anti-money laundering alerts, permitted suspicious round-tripping transactions, opened and operated unauthorized account shun suppliers, and failed to prevent large-scale diversion of funds between NMC, UAE Exchange, Finablr, and related entities.
According to the plaint reviewed by BusinessLine, Bank of Baroda's internal teams and regulators had flagged complex and unusual transactions years before NMC's collapse in 2020. The suit alleges that despite these warnings, the lender continued extending credit, rolled over facilities without adequate security, and concealed its true exposure from auditors.
Shetty has further contended that several loan guarantees relied upon by the bank bore forged signatures and that certain accounts were operated without his authorization. He has cited forensic reviews, a graphologist's reports, and ongoing investigations by enforcement agencies to support allegations that signatures and instructions were fabricated.
"WEAKENS EFFORTS"
The suit was filed shortly after Bank of Baroda reached a settlement of about $600 million with NMC's joint administrators in Abu Dhabi to resolve outstanding claims and alleged AML failures. Shetty contends that the settlement was reached without any admission of liability, and he argues that it weakens the recovery process for creditors like him who faced personal guarantees arising from the collapse.
Apart from direct and consequential damages, Shetty is also seeking an additional $500 million by way of damage for the alleged loss of reputation and goodwill.
Bank of Baroda did not respond to BusinessLine's email on the matter.
A BIRD'S EYE VIEW
The issue: Relates to a large-scale diversion of funds between the NMC and UAE Exchange groups.
NMC Healthcare: Founded by Shetty, collapsed in 2020 after a short-seller report on its debts and accounting fraud.
Shetty: Was once among the most prominent Indian entrepreneurs in the Gulf.
The suit: Comes after the bank and NMC administrators arrived at a $600-million settlement in July 2026.
India isn't a zero in AI
SHAPING UP. Domestic firms are making progress in sovereign, voice, semiconductor and specialised AI models
AJAI CHOWDHRY
There has been talk that India is zero in AI. Chairman of Rockefeller International and global investor Ruchir Sharma’s observation that foreign investors view India as a “loser in the AI race” triggered a lively debate, with critics arguing that this underplays India’s strengths in AI talent, data, adoption and digital infrastructure. The comments captured an anxiety already playing out in the markets: foreign capital was flowing to US tech everywhere, while Indian IT stocks faced heavy sell-offs on AI concerns.
But India is not zero in AI. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has described it as the world’s third-largest AI power, a view supported by India’s third-place ranking in Stanford University’s Global AI Vibrancy Index. Yes, we have some gaps in compute, frontier models and AI consumption. But there are standard areas where considerable work is happening.
One is sovereign AI. In February this year, the Government announced 12 organisations and consortia to develop indigenous LLMs across 10 languages, including large and small language models. A PIB report mentions government support worth about ₹2,194 crore for these 12 projects. Sarvam AI, Krutrim, BharatGPT, Swecha, Bhashini and others are making steady progress in developing models using Indian datasets.
The benefit of having our own sovereign AI models is huge. It allows us to access these technologies tomorrow. There is a huge strategic advantage, as relying on global LLMs could become increasingly expensive, geopolitical or national-security risks could arise when models are updated or altered. Also, the Indian dataset is so rich that AI trained on it is uniquely capable of serving our diverse population.
EXPANDING IN INDIA
Look at global LLM companies expanding in India. ChatGPT has attracted a huge user base, and both OpenAI and Anthropic are pushing their products through advertising and promotion. The strategy is to get users hooked with free or low-cost offerings and as they see value, sell them premium subscriptions, like a land-grab strategy.
Does it mean foreign models cannot be beaten? Not necessarily. Look at cloud infrastructure. Global hyper-scalers are investing heavily in India — over $60 billion in setting up data centres in India! We need to see what India gets in return. These facilities use our land, power and water, while the data generated here becomes valuable to the companies operating them. Also, data centres are highly automated and will not create jobs on a scale commensurate with the resources and investment involved. The white space is clear: we need to focus on local AI infrastructure. But Indian companies like Yotta, Adani, CtrlS, Sify and Nextra are stepping up.
There is another area in India that is developing beautifully: voice AI. CoRover, one of the early players in conversational AI, pioneered conversational ticketing in IRCTC with AskDISHA, in 2018. It enabled passengers to book railway tickets conversationally using voice or text. Today, companies such as Gnani.ai, Corover, Sarvam AI, Bhashini AI and Skit.ai are building speech and conversational AI solutions for Indian and global markets.
The opportunity is significant. Rajan Anandan, managing director at Peak XV Partners, estimates that the addressable market for voice AI in India’s BFSI sector alone is at least ₹50,000 crore. “Voice AI will be the first $1 billion revenue Enterprise AI category (outside coding) in India,” he recently posted on X (formerly Twitter). India’s AI opportunity lies in affordable, localised AI, with voice AI and India-specific applications driving mass adoption. The next wave is moving beyond generic AI ‘wrappers’ towards deep domain-specific applications that solve local problems.
For example, SaaS startup ToT, an AI-powered recruitment platform based in Bengaluru, that lets hiring teams search resumes and candidate pools using plain, everyday language, Tail.ai, a conversational WhatsApp agent, automating recruitment and candidate engagement, and Health AI which adds AI to healthcare by combining medical knowledge with physical infrastructure to make care more affordable and accessible.
SEMICONDUCTOR AI LAYER
Significant work is also underway at India’s semiconductor AI layer. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), through CDAC, is funding the development of an indigenous Indian GPU, with SD Sadasivan, Executive Director of CDAC Bengaluru, leading the effort, targeting GPU specification by 2029 and a fully indigenous HPC system by 2030. C-DAC’s AI inference chip has already entered trial production in partnership with HCL. Alongside this, tech firms like Mindtree, Tata Elxsi and Wipro are working on AI accelerators, including Agran, Morphing Machines, SandLogic, and Netra Semi, many founded by experienced semiconductor veterans returning from global chip companies.
At the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, the AI Research Organization (AIRO) has developed SAMVIT, a platform that enables companies to build specialized small AI models faster. For specific domain applications, small AI models can be fast and efficient. Small AI could give India an opportunity to carve out a distinct position in the global AI ecosystem. We can be world leaders here.
This becomes particularly important as enterprises worry about sensitive data leaving their systems. Small models run on-premise on custom or standard systems, including machines based on AMD’s Strix Halo platform and NVIDIA’s DGX Spark, reducing dependence on external cloud infrastructure and expensive, power-hungry mega-GPUs. Inference can be run on low-cost AI notebooks.
LLMs will continue to serve general-purpose needs, but enterprise applications can address many specific needs through smaller AI models at significantly lower costs. India does not need to build its own ChatGPT; it needs to focus on small models. It can build an AI ecosystem based on its own strengths — sovereign models, voice, applications and Indian languages and smaller, affordable AI. So, is India zero in AI? Certainly not.
(The author is Co-founder of HCL, Chairman of the Steering Committee of the National Quantum Mission, Chairman of the IIDT (Indian AI Research Organisation) and author of the bestselling book 'Just Aspire')
South Korea's Kospi crashes 5.5% in chip sell-off
Reuters
Seoul
South Korea’s benchmark Kospi tumbled on Tuesday, triggering a temporary trading curb as concerns over rising US technology competition and interest rates triggered a sell-off in AI-linked stocks, particularly heavyweights.
The benchmark index fell as much as 5.46 per cent after falling as much as 7.4 per cent earlier in the day and setting a losing streak to a fifth straight day in its longest run of declines since September 2024.
TRADE HALT
Earlier, the Korea Exchange halted programme-backed sell orders for five minutes at 11:47 am local time after the Kospi 200 futures index fell 1.08 per cent, or 5.12 points, to 955.02.
The sell-off came after US memory-chip maker Micron Technology fell on low-guidance reports of rapid technological advances by Chinese rival ChangXin Memory Technologies.
“Selling of a billion of two concerns growing Chinese competition threatening memory pricing power and investors unwinding crowded AI trades,” said Sung-Zin, an analyst at BNP Paribas Asset Management. “The sell-off reflects a sharp reset in expectations rather than a sudden deterioration in underlying fundamentals.”
Investor sentiment was further dampened after President Yoon Suk Yeol said higher interest rates were likely unavoidable.
Chipmaker Samsung Electronics fell 7.39 per cent, while peer SK Hynix lost 10.29 per cent. Among other index heavyweights, battery maker LG Energy Solution climbed 2.06 per cent, while Hyundai Motor fell 1.56 per cent and Kia Corporation rose 0.19 per cent.
Indonesia's supply warning casts shadow on palm oil prices next year
Amit Vijay Mohile
Mumbai
A potential palm oil supply squeeze in Indonesia is casting a shadow over the high input costs for FMCG majors. Major edible oil business, including AWL Agrotech, Patanjali Foods, Bunge and ADM Agro Industries, face a downstream challenge as the world's largest producer warned of a possible 4-5 million-tonne production decline in 2027.
Mohamad Fadhil Hasan of the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI) projected the decline if El Niño-related disruptions materialise, following a broadly stable output in 2026. Additionally, domestic consumption could increase by another 2 million tonnes if its B50 biodiesel blending programme is fully implemented, prompting export constraints and pushing average palm oil prices above 2026 levels.
However, Dorab Mistry, Director, Godrej International, cautioned against expectations of a runaway price rally. "The outlook for 2027 is bullish, but not super bullish," he said at the recent Globoil India 2026 conference in Mumbai, arguing that elevate prices could weaken consumption while a strong dollar might restrain commodity markets.
Sanjeev Asthana, Chief Executive Officer, Patanjali Foods, told businessline higher edible oil prices remained a concern because of their potential impact on FMCG companies' margins. The broader outlook remains worrying and requires close monitoring. The convergence of constraints leaves Indian manufacturers with a difficult choice: secure supplies ahead of a possible shortage or wait for weaker demand to compress prices.
FUTURE COSTS
The projected shortage coincides 2027, not the current festive season. But procurement managers need to start coming months could influence the price expectations pay for future supplies.
Mistry welcomed India's reduction in import duties on crude and refined edible oils while cautioning domestic refining margins.
Indonesia's evolving trade relationship with the European Union adds more uncertainty, GAPKI outlined an initial annual preferential quota of 1.9 million tonnes of Indonesian crude and processed palm oil for Europe, increasing 3 per cent annually for three years, subject to implementation and sustainability requirements.
The arrangement could strengthen European buyers' access to supplies, although any resulting diversion from India remains unclear.
The Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) has called for closer cooperation with India as producing nations balance edible oil exports against domestic energy requirements.
"India is much more than an export destination for palm oil producing countries," CPOPC Secretary-General Izhana Salleh said, emphasising food security and resilient supply chains.
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