Financial inclusion expanded through targeted credit outreach, increasing lending and access for micro entrepreneurs and underserved communities.
The Government emphasises financial inclusion in Ladakh through a Credit Outreach Programme that disbursed loans under central schemes (MUDRA, PMEGP, Stand Up India, PM Vishwakarma) to homestay owners, artisans and small entrepreneurs, while mobilising public sector banks, NABARD and banking correspondents to expand lending, banking touchpoints and access to underserved groups including women and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

GST refund fraud exposed by data-led probe, prompting PAN blocks, account freezes and cross-border investigations.
A data-led probe uncovered a GST refund fraud run through four fictitious firms; investigators used big data analytics and transaction chain analysis to trace funds domestically and internationally. Authorities identified multiple entities sharing PAN, mobile and email details, suspended registrations, recommended PAN blocking with the Income Tax Department, froze 45 bank accounts linked to 27 entities, lodged an FIR, initiated recovery proceedings and arrested a key accused while sharing information with other jurisdictions for further action.

Crypto tax compliance: department notifies undeclared virtual asset income, prompting updated returns and possible verification.
The Income Tax Department has sent electronic nudges to taxpayers with crypto transactions for assessment years 2023-24 and 2024-25, inviting updated ITRs where virtual digital asset income was undeclared. Using data analytics and TDS returns from virtual asset service providers, the department is identifying omissions-particularly missing Schedule VDA entries or improper claims of lower tax/indexation-and may select identified taxpayers for verification or scrutiny. The applicable regime imposes a flat tax with only cost of acquisition allowed as a deduction and disallows set off or carry forward of crypto losses.

Integrated multimodal infrastructure alignment evaluated to enhance connectivity, cargo evacuation, and logistics efficiency across urban and port corridors.
Under the PM GatiShakti framework, five proposals were assessed for conformity with integrated multimodal infrastructure principles: a metro extension to improve airport access and intra city mobility; an access controlled highway to support port cargo evacuation and connect with key hinterland corridors; an elevated urban corridor to reduce congestion along major national highways; and two Multi Modal Logistics Parks designed to aggregate freight, enable modal shifts, and provide integrated cargo services with rail and road connectivity, all aimed at enhancing logistics efficiency and regional socio economic benefits.

Trade and investment facilitation expanded through India-Sweden dialogues, exploring India EU FTA opportunities and targeted sectoral cooperation.
India and Sweden pursued enhanced trade and investment cooperation emphasizing exploration of India EU Free Trade Agreement opportunities and investment facilitation measures such as land access support, skilling partnerships, and fast track clearances. The dialogue targeted structured collaboration in green transition, advanced technologies, resilient supply chains, clean energy, smart manufacturing, mobility, life sciences, and digital technologies, with government agencies and industry stakeholders coordinating to enable regulatory frameworks, technology transfer, and value chain partnerships to support private sector investment.

RBI-compliant Video KYC expands compliant digital onboarding and strengthens fraud detection for regulated financial entities nationwide.
An RBI-compliant AI-powered Video KYC solution enables regulated entities to onboard customers remotely with real-time AI verification checks-deepfake and spoof detection, PAN-Aadhaar and face matching, liveness detection, geo-tagging-and generates tamper-proof, regulator-aligned audit trails. The mobile-first, low-bandwidth platform supports regional languages with live translation, accelerates pre-call form completion, and uses dynamic agent routing and priority queuing to reduce call duration and customer drop-offs while integrating into an existing identity verification API stack.

Alleged kickbacks in corporate payments contested as commercial disputes, with claim of statutory bar to reliance on settlement findings.
Plea alleges kickbacks routed from a mining company to the Chief Minister via his daughter's firm based on interim settlement board findings; respondent denies official involvement, contends payments were for contracted IT services, fully disclosed and traceable, invokes a statutory bar to reliance on settlement findings, and argues existing regulatory fraud investigations preclude parallel probes, seeking dismissal with exemplary costs.

Unified platform for textiles exports to coordinate stakeholders and form sub-task forces for regulatory and export support reforms.
A Task Force on Textiles Exports will create a unified stakeholder platform to address value-chain issues and enhance export competitiveness, covering ESG upgrades, renewable energy, international regulatory compliance, e commerce, regulatory simplification, labour and cost competitiveness, skilling, branding, certification support, export credit collateral for MSMEs, incentive mechanisms, jute product development and productivity improvements. Issue-specific sub-task forces, led by the concerned ministry with Export Promotion Councils and industry participants, will prepare actionable recommendations and a coordinated roadmap to bolster textile exports.

Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement fosters regulatory alignment and investment, prompting Swiss industry to expand manufacturing in India.
India pursued operationalisation of the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement with Switzerland by prioritising regulatory cooperation, investment facilitation, skills development and innovation partnerships. High level ministerial meetings and sectoral roundtables targeted mechanisms to expedite investment decision making, align regulatory frameworks, and promote R&D anchoring, local manufacturing and localisation across biotech, pharma, precision engineering and emerging technologies. A rapid facilitation of land availability for an investor exemplified the government's focus on responsive investor facilitation under TEPA.

Competition clearance: approval for acquisition of significant stake in Kolte-Patil via subscription, purchase and open offer.
Competition clearance granted for acquisition by BREP Asia III India Holding Co VII Pte. Ltd. of a significant shareholding in Kolte-Patil Developers Limited via a combination of share subscription and share purchase, together with an envisaged open offer. The acquirer is an affiliate of funds advised or managed by affiliates of Blackstone Inc. and the target is a listed real estate development company. A detailed order from the Commission will follow.

Income trail test of political leaders proposed to track asset growth and enable tax probes into unexplained wealth.
Punjab BJP leader urged the Income Tax Department to conduct an income trail test of political leaders to compare assets held five to ten years ago with current holdings, aiming to detect unexplained increases and identify potential illicit funding sources as a fiscal investigatory mechanism rather than reliance on drug-testing alone.

Seamless refund of unclaimed assets via coordinated district level drives, paired with simplified digital KYC across the financial sector.
The FSDC directed coordinated action to reduce unclaimed assets and ensure expeditious, seamless refunds to rightful owners via multi agency district level camps, and mandated common KYC norms with simplified, digitalised KYC and digital onboarding for non resident investors to improve user experience and onboarding across the financial sector.

Regulatory harmonization encourages Swiss firms to use India as a strategic manufacturing and innovation hub with facilitation support.
Engagements under the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement focused on steering Swiss companies to use India as a strategic manufacturing and innovation hub, leveraging India's pro investment policy framework, intellectual property protections, and transparent regulatory processes; the Minister promoted the EFTA Desk at Invest India and signalled pursuit of regulatory harmonization and mutual recognition to facilitate joint ventures, localisation, technology transfer, and collaborative R&D across biotech, healthcare, precision engineering, defence, and emerging technologies.

Accreditation empowering SMEs: revamped NABL portal to streamline accreditation and enhance market access for MSMEs.
Accreditation is advanced as a regulatory tool to fortify quality infrastructure and enable SME market access; QCI launched a revamped NABL Portal to streamline accreditation and enhance digital accessibility for laboratories and MSMEs, promoted public adherence to accredited standards through Gunvatta Samarpan, and framed accreditation as supporting export readiness, sustainable manufacturing, certified management systems, and third party inspections while aligning national conformity assessment with international benchmarks.

Public sector enterprise status underpins SPMCIL's push for self-reliance, operational efficiency and indigenous security material production.
SPMCIL's new corporate office aims to improve administrative efficiency, internal coordination, employee engagement and lease cost savings; the corporation's roles include producing currency notes, coins, passport paper, postal items, national medals and souvenir coins, gold and silver refining, and indigenous development of banknote ink and other security materials. Recognised as a Schedule 'A' Miniratna Category-I Central Public Sector Enterprise, SPMCIL's financial resilience, governance practices and alignment with Atmanirbhar Bharat were emphasised, alongside encouragement to pursue operational excellence, supply chain strengthening, and aspiration for higher corporate status.

Sovereign-backed fund governance: NIIF urged to leverage its design to mobilise infrastructure capital and diversify fundraising.
The Governing Council endorsed NIIF's role as a sovereign-backed asset manager mobilising private and multilateral capital, noted growth in Assets Under Management and catalytic capital mobilisation, recorded that the Master Fund and Private Markets Fund are fully committed with Master Fund investments into greenfield infrastructure projects, and advised NIIF to leverage its sovereign-backed design, diversify financing, proactively pursue fundraising, and expedite operationalisation of new funds including Private Markets Fund II and a proposed bilateral fund.

Financial inclusion: regulator urges digital infrastructure, consumer safeguards and tailored lending to deepen access and usage.
The address frames financial inclusion as a policy imperative focused on access, usage and quality, recounts historical measures such as branch expansion and Priority Sector Lending, and credits JAM and digital payments like UPI for major gains. It summarises RBI regulatory actions to deepen inclusion-adjusting loan limits, expanding PSL and co-lending, revising lightweight digital payment limits, enabling UPI Circle, promoting accessibility and publishing a digital lending app repository-while stressing consumer protection through Key Fact Statements and financial literacy initiatives.

Trade and investment partnership advanced through high-level ministerial engagements and business roundtables with European industry leaders.
Strengthening trade and investment partnerships through high-level ministerial engagement is pursued via sectoral outreach in Pharma, Life Sciences, Precision Engineering and High-tech Manufacturing, one-on-one meetings with leading companies, participation in industry days, and a business round table to explore opportunities from the India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement, all intended to translate strategic commitments into concrete commercial collaboration and investment facilitation.

Part time finance commission appointment: new member to serve until submission of the Commission's report or an earlier deadline.
Shri T. Rabi Sankar has been appointed as a part time Member of the 16th Finance Commission and will hold office from assumption of charge until the Commission submits its report or until 31 October 2025, whichever is earlier; the appointment fills a vacancy caused by the resignation of a full time member and the Commission is mandated to submit recommendations for the five year award period commencing 1 April 2026 by the stated deadline.

Market valuation uptick highlights blue-chip gains led by major energy and banking stocks driving top-tier capitalisation shifts.
Nine of the ten most highly valued companies saw collective market valuation gains during the week, led by an integrated energy conglomerate and a major private bank; one leading IT company was the sole laggard. The top-ten list by market capitalisation remained led by the integrated energy conglomerate, and the shifts occurred amid an uptick in the benchmark index.