India's technology sector accounts for around 31 per cent of the cumulative gross leasing across the top seven cities in India in Q1 2025, a report showed on Saturday.

After a temporary dip during the pandemic, tech sector leasing has strongly rebounded to 26 per cent in 2024 and further to 30 per cent of total office leasing in Q1 2025 (January-March), according to a JLL report.

The technology sector has consistently remained the mainstay of office demand resulting in 130.8 million sq. ft of gross leasing from 2017 through Q1 2025, the report said.

The government is laying the foundation for a next-generation export ecosystem -- one that is digital-first, logistics-enabled and MSME-inclusive, Moin Afaque, Joint Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), said on Saturday.

Addressing the India SME Forum’s ‘MSME Day Conclave 2025’ here on creating a robust ecosystem for MSME e-commerce exports, he said that upcoming e-commerce export hubs are inspired by global best practices and will function as single-window zones for logistics, certification and regulatory support.

“With five pilot hubs already approved and more in the pipeline, we aim to scale this model across the country,” he told the gathering.

Two weeks after it made an emergency landing at Thiruvananthapuram airport, the UK’s F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter jet continues to remain grounded, awaiting a specialised team of engineers.

In the meantime, the high-tech jet has become the subject of viral jokes and memes across social media.

Renowned for its short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) capabilities, the fifth-generation fighter -- part of the UK’s HMS Prince of Wales Carrier Strike Group -- was returning from joint maritime exercises with the Indian Navy in the Indo-Pacific when it was forced to land in Kerala’s capital.

Despite its cutting-edge design and engineering pedigree, the jet has been lying idle in the open for 14 days now, enduring Kerala’s punishing heat and torrential rains.

A team of British officials who had earlier flown in failed to resolve the technical issue. Now, a full-fledged team, including senior engineers from Lockheed Martin -- the American manufacturer of the F-35 -- is expected to arrive in the coming week to fix the persisting snag.

India's listed private sector non-financial companies recorded a stronger growth momentum in sales at 7.2 per cent during the financial year 2024-25 compared to 4.7 per cent in the previous year, according to the latest data released by the RBI.

Sales of manufacturing sector companies rose by 6.0 per cent in FY25, compared to a 3.5 per cent growth in the previous year, led by the automobile, electrical machinery, food and beverages, and pharmaceutical industries, according to an RBI statement.

However, the petroleum, iron, and steel industries recorded a contraction in their sales during FY25 due to price volatility and weakening demand in the international market.

The sales growth of IT companies accelerated to 7.1 per cent in FY25 from 5.5 per cent in the previous year, despite the global headwinds.

Non-IT services companies recorded double-digit sales growth during 2024-25, propelled by the strong performance of telecommunication, transport, and storage services, as well as the wholesale and retail trade industries.

The Indian stock markets finally ended their five-week-long consolidation phase, driven by improving global sentiment, easing geopolitical concerns, and noticeable buying by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in the latter part of the week, analysts said on Saturday.

After a cautious start, indices gained traction midweek as tensions between Iran and Israel appeared to ease, and global risk appetite returned.

Consequently, the benchmark indices Nifty and Sensex closed near their weekly highs at 25,637.80 and 84,058.90, respectively.

“The rally was underpinned by a combination of easing Middle East tensions and a strong rebound in FII inflows. The fragile truce between Iran and Israel held throughout the week, calming geopolitical nerves and boosting investor confidence,” said Ajit Mishra, SVP, Research, Religare Broking Ltd.

On the domestic front, progress in the monsoon, subdued crude oil prices, and stable macroeconomic indicators supported the bullish undertone. FII inflows accelerated, with over Rs 12,000 crore infused in a single day, further strengthening market sentiment, he mentioned.

In a bid to promote cleaner energy solutions, ease of doing business and accelerate the adoption of biomass technologies across the country, the government on Saturday issued revised guidelines for the biomass programme.

The new norms have been released under Phase-I of the National Bioenergy Programme, applicable for the period FY 2021–22 to 2025–26.

Under the new framework, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has simplified several processes, such as cutting down on paperwork and easing approval requirements, which will enable the industry especially MSMEs to enhance their production.

High-frequency indicators for the first two months of FY26 indicate resilient performance of the domestic economy amid the heightened geopolitical situation, Finance Ministry’s ‘Monthly Economic Review for May 2025’ said on Friday, adding that overall, the outlook for the Indian economy remains positive.

The economy demonstrates resilience amid a turbulent global environment, supported by robust domestic demand, easing inflationary pressures, a resilient external sector, and a steady employment situation.

“The positive trajectory appears to be continuing in FY26, with initial high-frequency indicators (HFI) indicating that economic activity has remained resilient. HFIs such as e-way bill generation, fuel consumption, and PMI indices point to continued resilience,” the Economic Review noted.

Gross Value of Output (GVO) from the agriculture and allied sector at constant prices has shown steady growth from Rs 1,908 thousand crore in 2011–12 to Rs 2,949 thousand crore in 2023–24, marking an overall increase of approximately 54.6 per cent, according to a report released by the Ministry of Statistics on Friday.

The crop sector with GVO at Rs 1,595 thousand crore remains the largest contributor to total GVO (at constant prices) of agriculture and allied sectors, with a share of 54.1 per cent in 2023-24. Cereals and fruits, and vegetables together accounted for 52.5 per cent of total crop GVO in 2023-24, the report states.

India recorded a current account surplus of $13.5 billion, constituting 1.3 per cent of GDP, in the fourth quarter of financial year 2024-25 (January–March), according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday.

The robust performance has reversed the current account deficit of $11.3 billion (1.1 per cent of GDP) in the preceding third quarter (October-December) of 2024-25. It also represents a more than two-fold increase from a surplus of $4.6 billion (0.5 per cent of GDP) in the same quarter last year.

From July, several important financial changes will come into effect, directly impacting individual taxpayers and bank customers.

These include a new Aadhaar verification rule for PAN applications, an extended deadline for income tax return filing, and revised charges on credit cards and banking services by leading banks like SBI, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank.

Starting July 1, individuals applying for a new PAN card will have to undergo mandatory Aadhaar verification