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Electric vehicles are often viewed as a technology reserved for wealthy nations, but new analysis suggests this perception is rapidly becoming outdated. Research supported by the World Bank shows that EV adoption in developing countries is not only feasible — it is increasingly economically advantageous, especially for public transport systems and the millions who rely on two‑ and three‑wheelers for daily mobility.

A turning point for emerging economies

Transport already accounts for around 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and this share is rising fastest in developing cities as populations grow and mobility demand accelerates. Without a shift toward cleaner transport, these countries risk locking in decades of additional emissions at a time when climate pressures are intensifying.

The World Bank’s review of 20 developing countries finds that EVs — particularly buses and smaller vehicles — now offer a compelling economic case. Falling battery prices, lower operating costs, and the high mileage typical of public transport fleets make electrification increasingly attractive.

Where EVs deliver the biggest impact

Electric buses

Electric buses stand out as one of the most cost‑effective solutions for emerging markets. Their predictable routes, centralized charging, and heavy daily usage mean operators can quickly recover upfront investment through lower fuel and maintenance costs. For cities struggling with congestion and pollution, e‑buses offer immediate air‑quality benefits.

Two‑ and three‑wheelers

In many developing countries, motorcycles, scooters, and tuk‑tuks are the backbone of urban mobility. Electric versions of these vehicles are already price‑competitive, easier to maintain, and well‑suited for last‑mile transport and delivery services. Their rapid adoption could transform mobility for millions while reducing noise and air pollution.

Development benefits beyond emissions

The shift to EVs supports broader development goals:

• Cleaner air in megacities where pollution contributes to millions of premature deaths each year.
• Energy security, reducing dependence on volatile oil markets that disproportionately affect low‑income households.
• Improved mobility access, especially in remote or underserved areas where electric bikes and scooters can connect people to jobs, schools, and essential services.

Examples from around the world

Several countries are already demonstrating what EV adoption can look like at scale:

• Dakar, Senegal is rolling out electric bus rapid transit corridors to improve mobility and cut emissions.
• India plans to procure 50,000 electric buses over the next decade, one of the largest such initiatives globally.
• Bogotá, Colombia is piloting electric cargo bikes to support cleaner last‑mile delivery.
• Santiago, Chile already operates 800 electric buses, with 1,000 more on the way as part of its 2050 carbon‑neutrality strategy.

These examples show that EV adoption is not a distant aspiration — it is already happening across the developing world.

A practical path forward

The message is clear: electric vehicles are no longer a luxury reserved for advanced economies. For developing countries, they represent a practical, scalable, and economically sound solution to improve mobility, strengthen energy resilience, and reduce emissions. As costs continue to fall and technology improves, EVs — especially buses and two‑/three‑wheelers — are poised to play a central role in building cleaner, healthier, and more inclusive cities.

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New Delhi: ITC on Friday reported a 27% fall in standalone first quarter net profit from a year earlier, as record taxation on cigarettes weighed on the conglomerate’s core cash cow and the West Asia crisis hurt its agri-business exports.

The Kolkata-based company posted a net profit of ₹3,578.82 crore for the quarter ended June. Revenue from operations rose 28% from a year earlier to ₹26,943.23 crore.

Gross revenue also grew 28%, but net revenue dropped 14%. ITC said its gross revenue was not comparable with that a year earlier because GST and GST compensation cess on cigarettes were excluded from gross revenue calculation under accounting standards, while excise duty was included. Excise duty on cigarettes was increased sharply from February following the expiry of the GST compensation cess.

The results fell short of market expectations, as analysts were expecting a 10-11% decline in both net sales and net profit.

Ahead of the results announcement, ITC shares closed 1.5% lower at ₹280.95 on the BSE, where the benchmark Sensex gained 0.2%. Analysts said cigarette sales volumes declined 6-7% from a year earlier.
‘Unprecedented Increase’ in Burden
ITC adopted a calibrated approach to price hikes to protect demand, but that weighed on profitability in its largest business.The cigarettes segment’s profit before interest and taxes (PBIT) plunged 35% from a year earlier to Rs 3,341 crore, while revenue jumped to Rs 15,383 crore from Rs 8,520 crore. The company said the revenue figures were not comparable.

ITC has a more than 75% share in India’s legal cigarette market.

The company said it implemented around 30 interventions in the cigarettes business in response to the “unprecedented increase in tax” to balance the interests of all stakeholders. These included staggered price increases to prevent volume migration to illicit trade, along with re-architecting and strengthening its product portfolio, it said, adding: “Several of these interventions are progressing well and have achieved meaningful scale.”

Also Read: Maruti Suzuki Q1 Results: Revenue rises 36% to Rs 52,456 crore on all-time high volumes

The FMCG business helped cushion some of the pressure from cigarettes, with segment revenue rising 12% on-year to Rs 6,482 crore and profit before interest and tax increasing 21% to Rs 478 crore. Categories including dairy, snacks, noodles and frozen snacks expanded more than 20%, while personal care products delivered mid-teens growth.

ITC said consumption remained resilient across both rural and urban markets during the quarter, but “imported inflation is a key watch-out in the near term”.

“India is currently experiencing a significant deficit in monsoon and lower kharif sowing levels compared to the same period last year. Additionally, spatial and temporal variations in monsoon would remain a key monitorable,” ITC said. “A protracted conflict in West Asia, alongside emerging El Nino conditions that may weaken monsoons and intensify heatwaves, could weigh on growth, inflation and the current account,” it added.

In the agri-business segment, revenue declined more than 16% to Rs 8,082 crore as exports were hit by trade disruptions arising from the West Asia conflict. A high base also impacted performance, with segment PBIT falling 18% YoY. The leaf tobacco business was affected by lower domestic demand as well. The paperboards and paper segment reported 9% revenue growth, while the segment’s PBIT rose 38%.

Mumbai: The highly anticipated inclusion of Indian government bonds in Bloomberg’s Global Aggregate Index has been deferred once again, with the company saying operational and market infrastructure aspects required further evaluation. The deferral could cause sovereign bond yields to immediately harden.

India’s financial markets had factored in the likelihood a mid-July review would facilitate the inclusion of Indian sovereign bonds on the Global Aggregate index, which is tracked by a broad swathe of asset managers from Tokyo to Toronto for allocation of patient, long-duration funds. It is one of the world’s most widely followed investment-grade bond benchmarks, tracking more than $70 trillion worth of bonds.

Bloomberg Index Services (BISL) said Friday that Indian operational and market-infrastructure required further evaluation before the inclusion of the debt instruments in a flagship global investment grade index.

“These considerations include, among others, the current lack of fully automated trading workflows, settlement and repatriation timelines associated with post-trade tax processes, and the complexity and duration of fund registration procedures,” BISL said.
Expectations were high following coordinated government and monetary-authority measures the markets believed would build a strong business case for inclusion of Indian bonds on the gauge.

Also Read: NSE pays Rs 715 crore to settle pending Rs 1,491-crore co-location case ahead of IPO
Market was Running on Expectation
Estimates of inflows varied, but even the most conservative among analysts had penciled in $10-15 billion of inflows during the phase-in window itself.

“The market was running on expectations that Indian government bonds will be included in the Bloomberg index,” said Vijay Sharma, senior executive vice-president, PNB Gilts. “Since this has not happened, the markets could witness a sell off by 8-10 basis points.”

One basis point is a hundredth of a percentage point.

Targeted Measures

For its part, the Indian government had waived taxes on capital gains and interest on investment returns. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), meanwhile, had also expanded the eligible investable universe for overseas funds to include long-duration bonds that stretched maturities running up to 30 years.

Tax exemptions on interest income and capital gains have been a key factor in Bloomberg’s consideration of including Indian bonds in its index and the inclusion of Indian debt in the gauge have driven the recent rally in the bond market.

The 10-year bond yield had softened 26 basis points in June, when overseas funds poured record money into Indian government bonds.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) poured in a record Rs 55,518 crores in June into these instruments, with the inflows generally driven by expectations that an announcement on the country’s inclusion in the Bloomberg bond index is imminent.

Yields on the 10-year benchmark government bond closed at 6.83% on Friday, up two basis points from its previous close. Bond dealers expect yields to trade around 6.90% on Monday.

Goldman Sachs had said in a recent report that it expected $15 billion passive inflows in the phase-in period after the highly anticipated inclusion announcement.

Indian bonds are already part of three major emerging-market debt indexes – the JP Morgan EM index included in June 2024, Bloomberg EM index included in January 2025 and the FTSE Russel EM index included in September 2025.

After the inclusion, FPIs invested over Rs 22,000 crores in a single month, the highest at the time, CCIL data showed.

Ariana Grande released her eighth studio album, “petal,” on Friday, a project the singer has described as her most emotionally unfiltered work to date, drawing a wave of early reviews that ranged from enthusiastic to more measured as critics weighed in on the pop star’s latest reinvention.

The album, stylized in all lowercase, was released through Grande’s own imprint label, BabyDoll Music, in partnership with Republic Records. It was recorded between January and April of this year at studios in New York, Los Angeles and Stockholm, and was co-written and executively produced by Grande alongside longtime collaborator Ilya Salmanzadeh, the Iranian-Swedish producer who has worked with the singer across much of her recent catalog. Swedish hitmaker Max Martin also contributed production to portions of the record.

“Petal” follows Grande’s seventh studio album, “Eternal Sunshine,” which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in March 2024 and produced two Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love).” That album was later reissued in March 2025 with a deluxe edition subtitled “Brighter Days Ahead,” supported by a companion short film of the same name.

The lead single from “petal,” “Hate That I Made You Love Me,” was released May 29 and set the tone for the album’s broader emotional register. Grande has described the record as emerging from a place of anger she had not previously explored so directly in her music. “It’s definitely from a place I’ve been maybe too shy or polite to tap into before,” Grande has said of the album. “This kind of just feels like, ‘Fuck it.’” She also characterized the overall mood of the project in blunt terms, calling it “a little feral” and explaining that she “wrote from a place that I don’t usually, which was like an unfiltered rage.”

Critical reception to the album proved notably divided in its opening hours. Pitchfork awarded “petal” a score of 6.5 out of 10 in a review written by critic Aimee Cliff, placing the album in a moderate critical tier relative to some of Grande’s earlier work. Rolling Stone took a considerably more enthusiastic view, giving the record a score of 80 out of 100. In her review for Rolling Stone, critic Marissa R. Moss argued that Grande’s music consistently reaches its highest points when the singer allows herself to fully embrace frustration or anger rather than restraint, writing that the singer is “always at her best when she’s in a mood.” Moss singled out the track “Oh Well” as a standout moment on the record, highlighting its blunt, cutting lyrics as characteristic of the album’s overall attitude.

Other reviewers focused on the album’s lyrical approach to processing past relationships and personal growth. One review characterized the album’s trap-influenced track “Like I Do” as notably free of self-pity, framing it instead as a song in which Grande expresses gratitude toward a former partner for the challenges that ultimately helped her grow, both as an artist and as an individual. The same analysis noted that the album’s lead single found Grande adopting a somewhat self-deprecating tone, apologizing within the song’s lyrics for being, in her own words, difficult not to love.

Visually, Grande has paired the album’s more unguarded emotional tone with a notable shift in her public image, appearing on the album’s cover with her hair worn down and loose rather than in the high ponytail that has become one of her most recognizable style signatures over the course of her career. Critics reviewing the album have pointed to that visual choice as symbolically aligned with the record’s broader theme of shedding a more controlled, polished public persona in favor of something rawer and more direct.

The album arrives following a period in Grande’s career defined by high-profile film work, including her starring role as Glinda in the two-part film adaptation of the Broadway musical “Wicked,” released across 2024 and 2025. Grande had previously indicated that she did not plan to record another studio album until she completed filming both installments of the project, a commitment that pushed the release of new solo music back significantly following 2020’s “Positions.”

“Petal” also continues a pattern that has followed several of Grande’s recent albums, in which initial critical scores have sometimes shifted notably in retrospective reassessments over time. Some fans and commentators following the album’s release noted that similar dynamics unfolded following the release of “Eternal Sunshine,” when the album’s initial aggregate critical score on review-tracking sites climbed significantly within roughly a year of its original release, as some outlets revisited and revised their assessments following the album’s deluxe reissue and broader critical and commercial reception.

With “petal” now available across streaming platforms, industry observers are expected to watch closely in the coming days for early sales and streaming figures, along with any additional new reviews from major music publications, as a fuller picture emerges of how critics and audiences are ultimately receiving Grande’s latest and most emotionally direct project to date.

Mumbai: India’s key equity indices logged their biggest monthly gains in three months this July, harnessing what analysts described as better-than-expected corporate earnings, which helped negate lingering concerns over elevated oil prices and geopolitical uncertainty. On Friday, the Nifty rose 66.45 points, or 0.3%, to close at 24,383.6. On the BSE, the Sensex rose 166.49 points, or 0.2%, to end at 78,094.64.

Both indices climbed more than 2.5% through the week and advanced nearly 2.1% in July.

Concerns over oil prices appear to have prevented further gains for the key gauges, which remained within a trading band through the last week of July.

“Despite Nifty ending the week higher, it has been unable to break out of its five-week range of 23,750-24,450, indicating continued indecision among market participants,” said Gaurav Sharma, head of research, Globe Capital Market. “While we remain uncomfortable with oil prices above $80 per barrel and escalation in the West Asia conflict, the earnings season has been better than expected despite a quarter marked by multiple disruptions and higher raw material costs.”

Late on Friday, Brent crude futures were trading at $90 per barrel, compared with $71.6 at the start of the month.
Hitesh Rathi, technical analyst, Angel One, also said the Nifty has staged a strong recovery this week, and continues to trade within a broader range of 23,800-24,500.
First Buying Since Feb
The index broke the strong support at 23,600 intermittently last Friday.

“We believe that unless the index breaks above 24,500 and closes above that level, it is likely to remain range-bound and witness a sideways movement,” he said. “We continue to see profit booking in the 24,430-24,450 zone.”

Also Read: NSE pays Rs 715 crore to settle pending Rs 1,491-crore co-location case ahead of IPO

On Friday, foreign portfolio investors net bought shares worth Rs 277 crore. Domestic institutions were buyers to the tune of Rs 2,260 crore. So far in July, foreigners have bought shares over Rs 10,000 crore — the first instance of buying since February.

The Nifty’s Volatility Index or VIX, commonly used to gauge the market sentiment, fell 3.3% to 11.76 levels. The gauge has fallen 12.2% in the past five sessions, indicating relief among traders.

Among broader market markers, the Nifty Midcap 150 gained 0.5% and Nifty Small-cap 250 rose 0.4%. For the week, these indices gained 2% and 1.8%, respectively.

Out of the total 4,425 stocks traded on the BSE, 2,522 advanced and 1,722 declined at close.

Sharma said the Nifty could be on the verge of a breakout above the key 24,500 zone, supported by strong earnings, easing oil prices and lower global volatility.

“We also believe the IT sector delivered better-than-expected results this quarter and is not lagging in the AI race. So, it should continue to outperform regardless of the performance of the Kospi or other AI and semiconductor stocks,” he said.

The Nifty IT index gained 6.8% for the week, coinciding with Korean benchmark Kospi’s net decline of 3.1%.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan gained 4%, China advanced 0.7%, Hong Kong rose 0.1%, South Korea soared 17.9% and Taiwan jumped 8%.

The pan-Europe index Stoxx 600 was up 0.6% at the time of going to print.

“While the pharma and IT sectors have outperformed this week, the Bank Nifty continues to face selling pressure, and unless it recovers, the Nifty is unlikely to see a meaningful recovery from current levels,” said Rathi.

Southeast Asia faces immense opportunities and complex challenges, from AI and climate change to geopolitical competition. ASEAN must evolve beyond process-driven consensus toward concrete, people-centered results, leveraging culture, trust, and unity to build a resilient, innovative region by 2045.

Key Points

• Southeast Asia faces historic opportunities—young population, strategic location, digital growth—but also complex challenges including climate change, AI disruption, geopolitical competition, and disinformation that render traditional regional advantages insufficient alone.

• ASEAN must shift from process-oriented to results-oriented thinking, transforming unity into coordination, consensus into action, and culture into a development driver that meaningfully improves citizens’ daily lives.

• Vietnam and all member states strengthen ASEAN by strengthening themselves domestically, building social trust, investing in youth and digital infrastructure, and placing people at the center of every regional development strategy.

Southeast Asia at a Crossroads: Opportunities and Challenges

Everyday life in Southeast Asia increasingly reflects a rapidly changing world — from digital food delivery in Hanoi to e-commerce connecting Bangkok sellers with Singapore buyers. These ordinary moments signal extraordinary transformation. At the ASEAN Future Forum 2026, General Secretary and President To Lam captured this reality with a powerful message: “The world is changing, and the region must think differently.” ASEAN holds significant advantages — a young population, strategic geography, cultural diversity, and growing investment appeal — yet faces mounting pressures from intensifying geopolitical competition, climate change, artificial intelligence disruption, and disinformation, demanding more than traditional approaches can offer.

From Principles to Action: Rethinking ASEAN’s Strategic Direction

ASEAN’s foundational values — unity, consensus, diversity, and centrality — remain essential assets built over nearly six decades. However, preserving these values cannot mean standing still. Unity must evolve into coordination capacity, and consensus must translate into concrete action. The region must shift from a process-oriented mindset to a results-oriented one, measuring success by tangible improvements in people’s lives: better opportunities, stronger business environments, and greater protection for vulnerable communities. In a fast-moving era, delays carry real costs — investment can relocate, technology revolutions advance without hesitation, and entire generations risk being left behind if institutions fail to adapt swiftly.

Culture and trust are strategic resources, not merely symbolic assets. ASEAN’s soft power lies in its ability to coexist amid differences, pursue peace amid competition, and keep people central to development. Without trust, cooperation weakens — data sharing, supply chain resilience, and green transitions all depend on it. When each member state strengthens itself cooperatively, ASEAN collectively grows more resilient, positioning Southeast Asia as a dynamic, trusted, and people-centered force in the emerging global order.

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Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India(Sebi) has clarified that IDBI Bank can sell shares of unlisted companies to identified non-qualified institutional buyers through privately negotiated deals without the transactions being treated as deemed public issues.

In an informal guidance letter issued on Friday, Sebi said secondary transfers of unlisted equity shares to identified investors would not amount to a deemed public offer, provided the transactions comply with private placement provisions of the Companies Act.

The clarification came in response to a request from IDBI Bank, which holds stakes in unlisted companies acquired through loan restructuring, invocation of pledged shares, direct investments, among others.

Meghan Markle did not accompany Prince Harry to any of his public engagements during his return to the United Kingdom earlier this month, after her office confirmed she would sit out the events amid an unresolved dispute over the couple’s security arrangements while in Britain.

The Duchess of Sussex had originally been scheduled to appear alongside Harry at several events, including a ceremony marking one year until the Invictus Games return to Birmingham. But following extended discussions centered on the lack of state-funded protection for the couple while in the UK, her office confirmed she would not attend any of the public engagements Harry participated in during his visit, according to ITV News. The largest of those events was Friday’s Invictus Games gathering at the NEC in Birmingham, the venue set to host the tournament for wounded, injured and sick military veterans in July 2027.

Harry’s visit came after he lost an appeal challenging the British government’s decision to reduce his publicly funded security following his and Meghan’s 2020 decision to step back as senior working royals and relocate to California, according to ABC News. Harry was scheduled to attend engagements connected to both the Invictus Games and the WellChild charity during his time in the UK.

The visit also came after ABC News reported that Harry would not be staying at Buckingham Palace during his time in London, after an earlier offer of accommodation to him had been withdrawn. At the time that report emerged, it remained unclear whether Meghan and the couple’s children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, would join Harry later in his visit for the Birmingham portion of the trip.

Despite Meghan’s absence from Harry’s official public engagements, the family did ultimately travel to the UK together. Meghan and the children joined Harry during the visit to meet with King Charles III, marking the family’s first trip to England together in four years, according to Fox News. It was also the first time the king had seen his two California-based grandchildren in person in four years.

Harry was reported to be planning to stay with his uncle, Charles Spencer, at the Spencer family’s Althorp estate near Northampton during the visit, the same estate where Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, is buried on an island in the middle of a lake. Harry and Meghan were reported to be planning to bring Archie and Lilibet to visit their paternal grandmother’s grave during the trip, with a broader Spencer family gathering also planned to include Diana’s surviving siblings, Charles Spencer, Lady Jane Fellowes and Lady Sarah McCorquodale.

Following the couple’s return to the UK, reports indicated that Harry and Meghan largely paused joint public appearances in the days that followed, with few photographs of the couple together circulating publicly during that stretch, according to Reality Tea. After returning from the UK, Harry was subsequently spotted attending the inaugural TIME100 Most Influential People in Sports gala in New York City, while Meghan separately marked a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for her Netflix series “With Love, Meghan.”

The dispute over security arrangements for the Sussexes has remained a persistent point of tension since the couple stepped back from royal duties in 2020, a decision that ended their automatic entitlement to police protection while in Britain. Harry has pursued legal challenges over the issue in the years since, arguing that adequate protection is essential for his family’s safety during any visits to the UK, but has not succeeded in having the earlier security arrangement fully restored through the courts.

Ahead of the visit, a Home Office source described internal disagreement among officials over how to handle the Sussexes’ security needs. “There is nervousness among certain members of the committee who fear a public backlash,” the source said, according to reporting from the U.S. Sun. The source added that “the political side believe there is too much political risk, while the police and security chiefs believe that he absolutely must have it due to the extant threat.”

The visit marked Meghan’s first trip to Britain since September 2022, when she and Harry attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Since relocating to California in 2020, Meghan has largely remained in the United States with the couple’s children, while Harry has made a number of solo trips back to the UK in the years since.

With the visit now concluded and the underlying security dispute still unresolved, questions remain about how the arrangement will be handled during any future trips the family makes to the UK, particularly as Harry continues to push for a path that would allow Meghan and their children to attend public engagements alongside him without the security concerns that shaped this month’s visit.