The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has announced the successful launch of Demat 2.0, a pilot project for tokenised corporate bonds that seeks to test a new way of issuing, holding, trading and settling bonds in India. The announcement was made jointly by RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra and Sebi Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai.

For investors in corporate bonds, the launch of Sebi’s Demat 2.0 pilot could change how bond transactions are settled and how payments are received. The tokenised bond system is designed to enable faster settlement, quicker access to funds from secondary-market transactions and automated processing of interest and redemption payments.

What is Demat 2.0?

Demat 2.0 is a new market infrastructure developed to test the tokenisation of corporate bonds.

Under the system, a bond is created as a digital token on a distributed ledger. The ledger is a shared electronic record maintained simultaneously by market infrastructure institutions using distributed ledger technology (DLT), while the ledger is owned by the depositories.

Demat 2.0 is connected to the RBI’s wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC), or e-rupee, through the Unified Market Interface.

This enables atomic settlement, where the bond and money move instantaneously.
For investors, this means the securities and corresponding funds can move at the same time, removing the gap between the completion of the two sides of a transaction.

Faster access to funds after selling bonds

One of the key changes for investors is the time taken to receive money from secondary-market transactions.

Sebi said investors can receive funds immediately in secondary-market transactions under Demat 2.0. Under the earlier process, funds generally took two to three days to be received.

The shorter settlement timeline means funds from a completed secondary-market transaction can be deployed elsewhere immediately.

Interest and redemption payments can be automated

Demat 2.0 also seeks to change how investors receive interest and redemption payments on their bonds.

Currently, the issuer or its registrar needs to obtain the list of bondholders from the depositories, calculate the amount payable to each holder and route the payments separately through the banking channel.

Under Demat 2.0, bondholder details are visible to authorised institutions on the shared ledger. Smart contracts — instructions written into the ledger that execute automatically — can trigger interest and redemption payments.

ALSO READ: Sebi launches Demat 2.0 pilot for tokenised corporate bonds

Sebi said payments in e-rupee can reach bondholders’ CBDC wallets on the due date.

For investors, this means interest and redemption payments can be processed automatically through the new infrastructure.

Settlement risk eliminated

Atomic settlement is another feature that Sebi has highlighted.

Under the system, the bond and money move instantaneously. Sebi said this eliminates settlement risk, as one side of the transaction does not remain pending after the other side has been completed.

Three issuers have raised Rs 1,025 crore

Three companies have issued tokenised bonds so far under the pilot, raising a combined Rs 1,025 crore.

REC was the first issuer on September 7, 2026. The public sector NBFC raised Rs 500 crore from 18 investors.

L&T was the second issuer on September 9, raising Rs 500 crore from four investors.

IIFL was the third issuer on September 9, raising Rs 25 crore from one investor.

The pilot is being implemented in phases. The first phase is currently focused on issuances. Later phases will extend the system to buying and selling tokenised bonds through existing request-for-quote (RFQ) platforms and eventually to retail investor access.

What Demat 2.0 means for investors

From an investor’s perspective, the pilot introduces several changes to the way corporate bond transactions and payments can be handled.

Immediate secondary-market funds: Investors can receive funds immediately from secondary-market transactions, compared with the earlier two-to-three-day timeline.

Simultaneous settlement: Atomic settlement allows the bond and money to move instantaneously.

Lower settlement risk: Sebi said settlement risk is eliminated because the two sides of the transaction do not remain pending separately.

Automated interest payments: Smart contracts can trigger interest payments on the due date.

Automated redemption: Redemption payments can also be triggered through smart contracts.

Direct e-rupee payments: Interest and redemption payments can reach bondholders’ CBDC wallets in e-rupee on the due date.

India’s approach to tokenised bonds

Sebi said tokenisation pilots and commercial launches have taken place globally, including Project Helvetia III in Switzerland and Project Evergreen in Hong Kong. Tokenised treasury bonds and bonds from BlackRock, JPMorgan and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank are also among the global examples cited by Sebi.

According to Sebi, tokenisation in these cases has largely been undertaken by individual issuers on separate platforms.

India’s approach under Demat 2.0 is to issue corporate bonds natively on a distributed ledger, with the record of ownership held by statutory depositories and funds settled in central bank digital currency within the existing regulated market infrastructure.

For bond investors, the pilot is currently focused on issuance, while future phases are expected to bring tokenised bonds into secondary-market buying and selling and eventually extend access to retail investors.

This article has been written by Kumar Gaurav, who is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or an Investment Adviser. Gaurav and his/her ‘relative(s)’ (as defined under Section 2(77) of the Companies Act, 2013) do not hold any financial interest in the companies mentioned in this article as of the date of publication. The views/recommendations mentioned in this article, wherever applicable, are those of the respective SEBI-registered Research Analyst/brokerage and have been reproduced/reported with due attribution. They should not be construed as the views or recommendations of The Economic Times Digital or the journalist. Readers are advised to consider the original research report and make their investment decisions based on their own assessment.

About 2.3 million sour candy bottles are facing a recall over a choking hazard that could lead to serious injury or death, according to federal regulators.

The recall was initiated for Ricky Joy Sour Crush Rolling Liquid Candy Bottles because the rolling ball on the bottles can detach and become a choking hazard, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced on Thursday.

“The rolling ball on the recalled candy bottles can detach, posing a risk of serious injury or death from choking hazard,” the commission warned.

POPULAR SQUISHY TOYS RECALLED OVER POTENTIALLY DEADLY WATER BEAD HAZARD

The plastic candy bottles were sold individually and in packs of three or 12 in blue raspberry, strawberry, green apple and watermelon flavors.

The recalled candy bottles were sold at H-E-B, Forman Mill and other candy stores nationwide, as well as online at Walmart, CandyFunHouse.com, RickyJoy.com and other online retailers from January 2023 through May 2026.

CREAM CHEESE AND DELI SALADS RECALLED OVER POTENTIAL LISTERIA CONTAMINATION

They were sold for about $3 per bottle and between $13 and $32 for a pack.

The bottles contain 1.85 fluid ounces of sour liquid candy to be applied through the bottle’s rollerball top.

The Ricky Joy logo, “EXTREME SOUR,” “SOUR CRUSH” and the flavor name are printed on the front of the bottle along with the image of a green monster with its tongue sticking out.

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No injuries have been reported thus far in connection with the recall effort.

Consumers are urged to stop using the candy bottles immediately, take them away from children and contact The Ricky Joy Company for a refund.

NEW YORK — Ceremonies marking 25 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are underway Friday at the three sites forever associated with that day, and multiple broadcast, cable and streaming options are available for Americans hoping to watch the commemorations live from home.

The main ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan began at 8 a.m. Eastern time, with families gathering on the Memorial Plaza to read aloud the names of the 2,983 men, women and children killed in the 2001 attacks and the earlier Feb. 26, 1993, bombing of the World Trade Center. This year’s ceremony includes seven moments of silence rather than the traditional six, with a newly added pause honoring those who have died in the years since from illnesses tied to their exposure at Ground Zero. The previous six moments of silence continue to mark the exact times each World Trade Center tower was struck, when each tower fell, and the moments corresponding to the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.

Viewers can stream live coverage of the New York ceremony beginning at 8 a.m. through ABC7 New York and wherever ABC7’s livestream is available, including on Disney+ and Hulu. NBC News is also providing special coverage throughout the day, beginning at 7 a.m. Eastern with a special edition of “Today,” anchored by Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin, with viewers able to stream NBC’s coverage through DirecTV or Fubo, both of which offer five-day free trials. A separate one-hour ABC News special hosted live from New York by “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir, “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts and anchor Diane Sawyer is scheduled to air later in the day, culminating in live coverage of the Tribute in Light, with performances from Cyndi Lauper, Lainey Wilson and John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting from the base of the light installation.

At the Pentagon, a commemoration ceremony honoring the 184 people killed there began Friday morning after an American flag was unfurled over the building’s roof. President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak at the Pentagon event, according to New York Times reporting from the scene.

In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the Flight 93 National Memorial is holding a morning observance featuring a reading of victims’ names, musical performances and the ringing of the Bells of Remembrance, along with wreath-layings timed to correspond to key moments of the 2001 crash. A separate afternoon ceremony is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Eastern time and will include keynote remarks from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, additional musical performances, and a wreath-laying at the memorial’s Wall of Names. The Flight 93 National Memorial is livestreaming both the morning and afternoon events on YouTube.

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C-SPAN is providing rolling, commercial-free coverage across all three of its networks beginning at 6 a.m. Eastern with a special edition of “Washington Journal,” continuing through 10 p.m. Eastern with live events, viewer calls, expert guests and archival footage. According to Deadline, C-SPAN’s planned 25th anniversary coverage also includes remembrance events in Boston, Michigan, South Carolina, Colorado and California, along with a commemorative service in Gander, Newfoundland, recognizing that community’s role sheltering nearly 7,000 stranded airline passengers and crew after U.S. airspace was closed following the attacks, as well as events recorded in Dallas featuring former President George W. Bush, former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card.

Fox News Media is presenting commemorative packages and interviews throughout the day, with correspondents reporting live from New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. “Fox & Friends,” which aired live on the morning of the original attacks, has featured a week of special coverage from multiple locations leading up to Friday’s anniversary, including appearances from co-host Steve Doocy, who was broadcasting live alongside Brian Kilmeade on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

For viewers seeking a more localized viewing option, many local television station apps offer live “Breaking Live” streams that typically carry national ceremony coverage alongside local reporting, accessible through Roku, smart TV app stores, or individual station apps.

This year’s ceremony in New York unfolded amid heightened attention to security and political tension surrounding the event. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended the ceremony despite facing calls from some conservative politicians in the days leading up to the anniversary urging him not to participate, according to New York Times reporting from the scene. Mamdani’s aides said he planned to remain for the full reading of victims’ names. Also present at the ceremony were House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and New York Attorney General Letitia James, according to reporting from the memorial plaza Friday morning.

This year’s anniversary carries particular significance given that more than 100 million Americans have now been born after the 2001 attacks, meaning an increasingly large share of the population knows about Sept. 11 only through education, family stories and historical media rather than personal memory. That demographic shift has added emphasis to this year’s programming, including a new exhibit titled “In Their Honor: 25 Years of 9/11-Inspired Service,” scheduled to open to the public at the 9/11 Memorial Museum on Sept. 12, the day immediately following this year’s ceremony.

With ceremonies continuing throughout the day across New York, Washington and Shanksville, Americans have a wide range of broadcast and streaming options available to follow this year’s milestone 25th anniversary commemoration, whether through major network coverage, C-SPAN’s extended rolling broadcast, or the official livestreams provided directly by the memorial sites themselves.

NEW YORK — A fleet of 2,977 illuminated drones rose over New York Harbor Wednesday night, forming a helix before assembling into a full-scale recreation of the Twin Towers, in a striking new public art tribute marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The display, titled “2,977 Lights Over New York Harbor,” used one drone-generated light for each person killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, encompassing victims from the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the hijacked flights, including United Airlines Flight 93. The free public installation, produced by Texas-based drone operator Sky Elements with creative direction from Addison Mehr, was designed in close collaboration with members of the 9/11 community, including family members, survivors and first responders.

Among those involved in shaping the tribute’s design were Terry Strada, widow of Tom Strada and president of 9/11 Families United; Jim Smith, husband of NYPD Officer Moira Smith, who was killed in the attacks; Tim Brown, an FDNY first responder who worked at the World Trade Center following both the 1993 bombing and the 2001 attacks; Genevieve Siller, daughter of firefighter Stephen Siller; and Brenda Berkman, a former FDNY responder and artist.

Mehr, the project’s creative director and executive producer, explained the deliberate choice to represent each individual victim through a single point of light.

“The purpose of 2,977 Lights is to acknowledge individual loss within the collective history and memory of September 11th,” Mehr said. “We light the exact number to hold witness for each individual life.”

The drones initially rose into a spiraling helix formation before assembling into the outline of the Twin Towers at full architectural scale, a visual choice that organizers said referenced an unbuilt proposal for a World Cultural Center once envisioned for the World Trade Center site, a design that had called for open latticework towers extending public space skyward around the original towers’ footprints rather than housing another office development.

The tribute’s accompanying score featured music from composers John Adams, Philip Glass and Max Richter, including Adams’s “On the Transmigration of Souls,” a piece originally composed specifically to honor the victims of the attacks.

Sky Elements CEO Rick Boss offered a brief but pointed reflection on the significance of the display taking place in New York’s skies.

“Everything in the sky over New York is for them,” Boss said.

The drone show did not replace the city’s traditional Tribute in Light installation, the twin beams of light that have illuminated the night sky over Lower Manhattan each Sept. 11 since shortly after the attacks. Instead, the new drone tribute stood alongside the long-running Tribute in Light display, offering what organizers described as a complementary, technologically distinct way of representing the towers’ silhouette through movement and light rather than through fixed beams alone.

The project’s timing and location were shaped in part by security considerations tied to New York City officials. According to DroneXL, the city initially declined to approve the drone show for Sept. 10, the eve of the actual anniversary, citing security concerns, with the flight ultimately cleared instead for Sept. 9. New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch had separately announced $6.5 million in counter-drone mitigation equipment on May 21, a capability historically reserved for a limited number of federal agencies, underscoring the heightened security planning surrounding large-scale drone operations over the city, even for a commemorative artistic tribute of this kind.

The installation was sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts and funded entirely through private philanthropy and in-kind contributions, with major support from the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, an organization tied to the financial services firm that lost 658 employees, more than two-thirds of its workforce present that day, when the World Trade Center’s North Tower was struck. No public funding was used to produce the display, according to DroneXL’s reporting.

The drone tribute arrives against the backdrop of an anniversary organizers have specifically framed around generational memory, given that more than 100 million Americans have now been born after the 2001 attacks and have no direct personal recollection of that day. IDEKO chief executive Korn, whose company was involved in the project, noted that the installation was intended to ensure the memory of 9/11 continues to resonate with new generations who did not experience the attacks firsthand, while Jim Smith separately said the gesture served as a reminder of the unity that emerged across New York City in the aftermath of the attacks.

The tribute also unfolds alongside an ongoing public health reality connected to that day, with the World Trade Center Health Program continuing to provide medical monitoring and treatment for first responders, survivors and residents affected by exposure to toxins at Ground Zero, a population that has seen thousands of additional deaths from related illnesses in the 25 years since the attacks themselves.

Wednesday’s drone display preceded Friday’s official 25th anniversary commemoration at the National September 11 Memorial plaza in Lower Manhattan, where families gathered to read aloud the names of the 2,983 victims of both the 2001 attacks and the earlier 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Commemorations were also held Friday at the Pentagon and at the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, rounding out a day of remembrance across all three sites forever connected to the attacks.

With the “2,977 Lights Over New York Harbor” installation now completed, organizers said the tribute was intended as a singular, one-time event rather than an annual fixture, offering New Yorkers and visitors a rare and technologically ambitious new way to mark the 25th anniversary before the city’s ceremonies moved into their more traditional forms Friday, including the continuation of the annual Tribute in Light, which remained scheduled to illuminate the Lower Manhattan skyline from dusk on Sept. 11 through dawn the following morning, as it has every year since shortly after the attacks first occurred.

By Ivan Castano

​When SpaceX (SPCX) launched its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in mid-June, the so-called FAB 10 and MANGOS stock baskets that have been taking over Wall Street drew unprecedented amounts of capital.

Roughly $370 million flowed into the space company’s stock, with the bulk of that sum rotating out of the Magnificent 7 mega-cap group, according to Vanda Research. During that same period, investors were net sellers of Apple (AAPL) and Tesla (TSLA) and bought only $88 million of Nvidia (NVDA), added the London-based firm.

​SpaceX’s $75 billion debut triggered “the longest streak of retail net selling in the Magnificent 7 since March 2020,” with the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF falling over 4.73% in the month prior to the world’s biggest IPO, Vanda Research analyst Viraj Patel wrote in a note.

​The Vanda-coined FAB 10 (Frontier AI & Big Tech 10) acronym expands on the Magnificent 7 to include Elon Musk’s space exploration and next-gen AI entity as well as conversational AI favorites Anthropic and OpenAI, which are expected to launch their own IPOs in coming months.

Meanwhile, MANGOS has gradually emerged to reflect the latest shift from consumer media and internet services to AI infrastructure and advanced computing. It stands for Meta (META), Anthropic (ANTHRO), Nvidia, Google/Alphabet (GOOGL), OpenAI (OPENAI) and SpaceX, seemingly serving as the next iteration of the FAANGs group (Meta, Amazon (AMZN), Apple, Netflix (NFLX) and Google/Alphabet).

​All Eyes on Anthropic, OpenAI

Strategists say the new super-tech cohort is here to stay and may trigger major capital rotations out of the Magnificent 7 and other legacy tech groups in the coming year.

​The next shift could come from Anthropic and OpenAI’s potential listings, which could arrive in the next six months at $1.13 trillion and $847.96 billion respective valuations. Anthropic’s tentative timeline is October this year. OpenAI, meanwhile, is expected to float later this year or in early 2027.

​A protracted decline in SpaceX’s shares, however, as well as a possible deterioration in technology sentiment for the rest of the year, could cast a shadow or postpone the listings, some strategists said.

​”The SpaceX IPO has not performed as expected. Anthropic and OpenAI are not a slam dunk,” said Jane Edmondson, head of indexing design at ETF index provider TMX VettaFi. “People are starting to question whether to go into these listings, and this will drive market rotations going forward.”

​Other AI firms are also planning IPOs in the near-to-medium term, with Chinese platform DeepSeek potentially launching in early 2027, possibly followed by Canadian enterprise AI entity Cohere and U.S. chatbot company Perplexity.

​AI Spending Woes

​Rising AI spending – and whether it will translate into higher corporate profits – is also a mounting concern that could fuel volatility.

​Tech giants such as Alphabet, Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon, Meta and Oracle are pouring over $800 billion into AI data centers this year, with the ‘hyperscalers’ planning to add more than $1.2 trillion next year, according to Morgan Stanley. In 2027, that’s expected to outpace their free cash flow (net cash after operations and capital expenditures), meaning “data centers are increasingly running on borrowed money,” wrote New York Times columnist Jeff Sommer.

​”Everyone is getting a little concerned about all the money that’s being spent on AI,” added Edmondson. “Is it an overbuild? And now many of these companies are going to the credit markets,” amid rising bond yields, which makes fixed-income capital raising more expensive.

​While interest rates and geopolitical risks will also likely drive shifts, future earnings will be the main driver, said Daniel Alpert, executive chairman at Westwood Capital.

​”All of these companies are so overvalued right now that what’s really going to drive the market is performance, more than monetary policy or any wars,” he said.

​Alpert also expects M&A to be a big catalyst, with a hyperscaler possibly mounting a takeover bid for Anthropic, OpenAI or Perplexity to scale up their business.

​”Google is facing an existential threat and they need to win the AI game,” said Alpert. “They don’t need to build out Gemini. They can just buy one of the big three chatbot companies.”

​New Single Stock Futures

​To help traders manage risks from potential market rotations, CME Group recently launched Single Stock futures (SSFs) for over 50 top U.S. companies. The futures, which began trading on July 27, are offered as 55 larger-sized and 22 micro-sized contracts, providing investors with greater flexibility to manage their equity exposure.

​”Clients want to manage equity price risk with more precision and with the capital efficiencies of a centralized marketplace,” said Tim McCourt, Global Head of Equities, FX, and Alternative Products at CME Group. “Our new Single Stock futures simplify access to the most liquid U.S. stocks and enable traders to easily transition between broad market index hedging and targeted single-name exposure.”

The offering enables investors to trade a broad range of Big Tech, semiconductor and software companies such as Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, Micron, Palantir and Oracle.

“We have a diverse offering from day one,” said ​Paul Woolman, CME Group’s Global Head of Delta One Equity Products and Head of International. “Many of the 55 names are in the technology sector, which is where a lot of big-cap names are and where much of the market’s growth has been.”

Added Woolman: “We also have representation across many other sectors, whether that be financials, healthcare, energy, consumer discretionary and more. So depending on your interest, you should be able to find Single Stock futures on the sectors you care about.”

​Meanwhile, as AI continues to develop, the market will begin to separate the winners from the losers, leading to massive industry shakeouts in the medium to longer-term future, analysts said.

​”The rotation out of pure speculation and into more of a winner category will happen over the next several years and big chunks could happen all at once,” said Kim Forrest, founder of Bokeh Capital, adding that these events will spark major liquidity shifts.

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