The Union Budget 2026 adopts a cautious and conservative stance at a time when demand conditions remain weak and inflation is unusually low. While the Budget avoids policy disruption and maintains fiscal discipline, it does little to stimulate consumption or provide a near-term growth impulse, despite clear macroeconomic space to do so.
The rupee’s decline is not coming from the usual sources that people point to — not from high inflation, not from oil shocks, and not from any sudden deterioration in growth. The currency is weakening because the economic mechanisms that used to stabilise India’s external position have stopped working. And the roots of the problem lie inside the domestic economy, not outside it.
As retirement approaches, one financial priority becomes non-negotiable: stable, predictable income. With rising life expectancy and evolving market cycles, senior citizens today need investment options that offer both safety and steady returns—without exposing their life savings to unnecessary risk.
Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are widely seen as simple, low-cost tools to invest in broad markets. But sometimes, ETFs trade at prices that are significantly higher than the actual value of their underlying assets. This mismatch happens when demand for a particular ETF far exceeds the supply of units available in the market. When that occurs, the price you pay on the exchange may be far more than what the ETF is truly worth.
A disturbing pattern is emerging in India’s capital markets. Mutual funds that once prided themselves on valuation discipline are now acting as exit vehicles for venture capitalists and promoters at sky-high prices. The case of Lenskart’s IPO illustrates this perfectly.