Sahil Khanna

Economists expect inflation to rise to 4.9% in FY27, up sharply from 2.1% in FY26. The main pressure points are higher oil prices, food costs, and global geopolitical tension. The forecast is above the RBI’s 4% comfort zone, which means household budgets could feel tighter. Crude oil is expected around $95 a barrel, adding to imported inflation pressure. El Nino risks could hurt crop output and keep food prices elevated. India’s GDP growth is projected to slow from 7.6% in FY26 to 6.6% in FY27.

Amazon Now is reportedly handling about 450,000 to 500,000 daily orders across roughly 500 dark stores. Blinkit is still much larger, with more than 3 million orders a day and over 2,200 dark stores. Amazon’s lighter-asset model helps it expand faster with fewer owned logistics assets. This puts pressure on Blinkit’s margins, pricing, and market share as the field gets more crowded. Amazon’s play is different because it is scaling through third-party partners instead of building everything on its own balance sheet.

YouTube is testing a mobile app update that removes the dedicated ‘Subscriptions’ tab from the bottom navigation bar. In this new layout, subscribed videos are accessed via a new swipeable tab at the top of the Home screen, replacing the permanent button with alternative discovery features.

OpenAI’s GPT‑5.5 is now ranked as the top AI model for Android app development in Google’s Android Bench update It slightly outperforms GPT‑5.4 and Google’s Gemini 3.1 Pro by about 2% on typical Android‑development tasks, making it the current best‑in‑class choice for developers seeking top performance. However, GPT‑5.5 is more than twice as expensive per run as Gemini 3.1 Pro, so developers must weigh higher quality against higher cost. The benchmark also highlights strong open‑weight models making progress, including GLM‑5.1 (currently leading its category), Kimi K2.6, and Gemma, suggesting a growing open‑model ecosystem for Android‑focused AI.

Indians cut overseas travel spending sharply in March, with travel-related remittances falling to $1.09 billion from $1.3 billion in February and $1.65 billion in January. Total outward remittances in March stood at $2.59 billion. The biggest travel subcategory was “other travel,” which includes holidays and international credit card spending, at $623.05 million. Education travel, including hostel and fee payments, was $450.16 million. Outward remittances for buying property abroad fell to $38.68 million from $51.36 million in February.

Fuel Prices Rise, H-1B Falls 38%, RBI Gives ₹2.87 Lakh Cr to Govt, LIC Posts ₹23,420 Cr Profit, Uber, Adani, Paytm Selloff: Business News

Trump administration has ended a rule that allowed migrants already in the U.S. to stay while they waited for green card processing. Going forward, people in the U.S. on temporary visas who want permanent residency will generally have to return to their home country and apply through consular processing. USCIS said this is meant to restore the “original intent” of immigration law and make sure a temporary visit does not become the first step toward a green card. Supporters say it could reduce cases where applicants remain in the country after a residency application is denied.

India’s crude oil import volume fell 4.3% in April 2026 to 20.1 million metric tonnes, but the import bill jumped sharply to $16.3 billion from $10.7 billion a year earlier. The overall oil-and-gas net import bill rose about 23% to $13.9 billion in April. LNG imports also dropped nearly 30% year on year to 1,954 million standard cubic metres, and the LNG bill fell to $0.9 billion from $1.2 billion. Domestic natural gas net production fell 4.2%, but lower consumption pushed gas imports down; gas use was 16.7% lower than a year ago. LPG sales by PSU suppliers declined 12.7% year on year to about 2.2 million metric tonnes.

OpenAI is teaming up with MediaTek to build a premium AI‑powered “agent phone” that aims to challenge Qualcomm’s dominance in the high‑end smartphone market. The phone is expected to launch in 2027, with mass production targeted for the first half of that year, and could reach tens of millions of units in 2027–2028 if the project succeeds. It will be built around a custom MediaTek chip based on an advanced Dimensity‑class design (likely tied to TSMC’s cutting‑edge process) to support always‑on, on‑device AI processing needed for autonomous agents and ChatGPT‑style workflows.

OpenAI says its new reasoning model has solved a geometry problem from 1946 originally posed by mathematician Paul Erdős, which asked whether square grids are optimal for certain geometric arrangements. The AI reportedly found a better configuration than a square grid, showing that a different structure can outperform the classic grid in that specific geometric setup. The result has been checked and supported by leading mathematicians, including Noga Alon, Melanie Wood, and Thomas Bloom, giving it strong credibility in the math community.

Petrol and diesel prices were raised again on May 23, 2026, with petrol up by 87 paise per litre and diesel up by 91 paise per litre. This is the third hike in 10 days, after earlier increases on May 15 and May 19. The latest revision adds to the recent jump in fuel costs that began when prices were lifted by about ₹3 per litre on May 15. The move follows a second increase in less than a week on May 19, when prices rose by around 90 paise per litre across India.

Mark Zuckerberg has told Meta employees there will be no more “company‑wide” layoffs for the rest of 2026, after the company recently cut around 8,000 employees (about 10% of its global workforce) as part of an AI‑driven restructuring. The sweeping job cuts redesigned many teams and shifted roughly 7,000 workers into new AI‑focused initiatives, while also eliminating about 6,000 open roles. That said, multiple reports note that his wording left the door open to smaller, targeted layoffs in specific teams if performance or priorities demand it.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has introduced new rules for digital loans designed to make borrowing safer, fairer, and more transparent for consumers. Lenders are now barred from letting a borrower’s equated monthly instalments (EMIs) exceed 50% of the borrower’s monthly income, to prevent over‑leveraging and defaults. Loan offers will be linked to the borrower’s credit score: higher scores will generally attract better interest rates and terms, while weaker scores may mean stricter eligibility or costlier pricing. Lenders must now spell out all costs—interest, fees, and penalties—upfront in a clear Key Facts Statement, so borrowers can see complete picture before signing.

OpenAI’s Codex platform has seen rapid adoption among Indian developers, jumping to four times more users just two weeks after its launch in February. India’s large pool of about 27 million developers and rising AI interest make it a key market for OpenAI, so the company is heavily promoting Codex there. OpenAI is hosting hackathons and local meetups and has partnered with investors to offer perks such as API credits, early access to new model, and hands‑on support Earlier this year, only about 7% of Indian developers were using Codex compared with roughly 42% using Claude Code, but experts say OpenAI is quickly closing this gap through product improvements and direct community outreach.

WhatsApp is testing a new “After reading” feature that automatically deletes messages after the recipient has read them, currently rolling out to select beta users on Android and iOS. The feature gives users three timing options for deletion: 5 minutes, 1 hour, or 12 hours after the message is read; if a message is never opened, it vanishes after 24 hours, differing from standard disappearing‑message timers that start when the message is sent. The update is part of Meta’s broader push to give users more control over conversations and enhance privacy across its platforms.

Venezuela has overtaken Saudi Arabia to become India’s third‑largest crude supplier in May 2026, as refiners like Reliance Industries ramp up purchases of cheaper, heavier Venezuelan grades. The return to Indian docks comes after a nine‑month gap, following the US easing of sanctions on Venezuela earlier this year, which restored the flow of its discounted barrels. India’s total crude imports rose 8% in May to about 4.9 million barrels per day, still below pre‑Iran‑war levels, as the country diversifies its sourcing mix amid geopolitical disruptions.

Japan’s core inflation slowed to a four‑year low in April 2026, with the core CPI (excluding fresh food) rising just 1.4% year‑on‑year, down from 1.8% in March and below the Bank of Japan’s 2% target. The slowdown was driven partly by government subsidies on school tuition and temporarily lower food and gasoline prices, which masked underlying price pressures rather than indicating a broad cooling in demand‑driven inflation. At the same time, wholesale and energy‑related inflation are accelerating because of disruptions from the Iran‑linked conflict in the Middle East and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has crimped oil and gas flows.

Finnish phone maker HMD has launched its first smartphone, the Vibe 2 5G, priced at ₹10,999 ($114), a mid‑range Android device with a 6,000 mAh battery. The phone ships with Indian AI startup Sarvam’s chatbot Indus pre‑loaded Indus is powered by Sarvam’s 105‑billion‑parameter model and supports 22 Indic languages plus mid‑sentence code‑switching (mixing languages such as Hindi and English fluidly), which helps it better grasp context in Indian‑language queries. The app currently runs online only and does not yet integrate deeply with the phone; there is no hardware shortcut or system‑level trigger to invoke the AI assistant.

SpaceX is targeting an extraordinarily ambitious goal of around 10,000 launches per year within five years, a huge jump from the roughly 170 launches and 2,500 satellites it deployed in 2025. The target, discussed by SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, would mean not only a massive increase in flight cadence but also launching about 10,000 new communications satellites annually, on top of its existing constellation of around 10,000 in orbit. Achieving this scale requires dramatic improvements in rocket reliability, launch‑processing speed, and regulatory throughput, so the FAA is working closely with SpaceX to adapt safety and licensing processes to the anticipated launch volume.