TN Budget inputs
As Tamil Nadu presented its Budget for 2025-26 recently, the officials of the State’s finance department shared information about an interesting source that helped them draft the budget proposals. Besides consulting with economists, financial sector advisors, think-tanks and more, social media was also relied upon to frame a few proposals, the State’s Finance Secretary T Udhayachandran said.
The officials said they came across reports in social media that there had been surge recently in dropout rates among tribal students in certain remote hilly regions of the State due to lack of access. After due verification, the State announced budgetary allocations to upgrade 14 high schools in select hilly regions in Dharmapuri, Erode, Kallakurichi, Krishnagiri, and other districts to higher secondary schools.
‘Musk’eteers
India’s telecom giants, Airtel and Jio, once staunch opponents of Elon Musk’s Starlink, have now joined hands with the satellite internet provider— within 12 hours of each other. Previously, they fought against Starlink’s entry, citing unfair spectrum allocation. Now, they’re touting it as the key to bridging India’s digital divide. What changed? A mix of geopolitical shifts, high-level meetings, and the realisation that fighting Musk’s satellite juggernaut was futile. In business, there are no permanent rivals — only evolving interests.
Summons on the menu
The Centre has forwarded the summons received from the US Securities and Exchange Commission to a sessions court in Ahmedabad for it to be served on industrialist Gautam Adani at his city address. If served, Adani or his legal team may have to step into a US courtroom. The Adani Group has dismissed the allegations as “baseless” and is readying its legal arsenal. Will Adani play defence, go on the offensive, or pull off a legal masterstroke?
Heavy pulse
Last week, the pulses trade received a rude jolt when the Centre extended duty-free imports of yellow pulses till May 31, 2025. When the Centre did not issue any notification, the trade thought the duty-free imports had ended.
Traders say yellow peas have been the primary cause for the current bearish trend in pulses. For example, prices of urad (black matpe) have dropped despite a 25 per cent lower production in the kharif season.
A little bird says the family of a “powerful” retired bureaucrat working for a multinational company is behind this “sudden” u-turn.
Sweet language
Amidst the three languages row in Tamil Nadu, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at a function near Chennai on Saturday had lots of praise for the Tamil language and Tamil culture. “Tamil is a very sweet language. We all respect Tamil culture, Tamil language and this is one of the assets of our country, also one of the assets of the world. Let’s take pride in that, let’s take joy in that. Let’s enjoy all the Indian languages. That is the spirit with which the Prime Minister is working today, making sure that every Indian language gets its big place under the sun,” he said in the presence of TN Industries Minister TRB Rajaa.
Meteoric rise
Twenty years ago when Blackstone decided to invest in India, it had just $50 billion in assets under management. Co-founder and CEO Stephen Schwarzman, in India last week to mark his firm’s 20 years in India, reminisced how all those years ago sitting at his desk he was thinking of how to position the firm in India. “We were so small then, we didn’t have consultants helping us with anything.
We just sort of made it up. And so I was sitting at the desk, I said, why don’t we put a billion dollars into India? And so I wrote the press release, and we released it. That was a shocking number at that time. And it got everybody’s attention, which is what it was meant to do.”
Now two decades later Blackstone manages assets of around $50 billion in India while globally it manages assets of over $1 trillion.
