Archives January 2026

Coromandel International Limited (BSE: 506395, NSE: COROMANDEL), a leading provider of agri-solutions in India, today announced its financial results for the quarter and nine months ended 31 December 2025. The Company continues to strengthen its leadership across fertilizers, crop protection, bio-products, specialty nutrients, organic fertilizers, and agri-retail, while advancing initiatives in agri-drone spraying and digital solutions that drive sustainability and farm productivity.

Q3 Standalone Performance:

• Total Income: Up 21% YoY

• EBITDA: Up 5% YoY

• PAT: Up 1% YoY

YTD Standalone Performance:

• Total Income: Up 30% YoY

• EBITDA: Up 20% YoY

• PAT: Up 19% YoY

Consolidated Results:

• Q3 Total Income: Increased from previous year

• Q3 PAT: Slightly lower than previous year

• YTD Total Income: Up significantly from previous year

• YTD PAT: Up from previous year

The Board has approved an interim dividend, reflecting a substantial return on equity.

Commenting on the results, Mr. S. Sankarasubramanian, MD & CEO, Coromandel International, said:

“Coromandel delivered a resilient performance this quarter despite a challenging business environment marked by a late monsoon, rising raw material costs, and currency depreciation. Our fertiliser plants operated at full capacity, delivering record quarterly production of NPKs. We maintained market leadership in the phosphatic fertiliser segment, achieving significant volume growth. Our Crop Protection business benefited from strong domestic and export demand, and our Retail network continued to expand with over 250 new stores this year.”

Nutrient and Allied Business:

• Q3 Revenue: Higher than previous year

• Q3 PBIT: Stable compared to previous year

• YTD Revenue: Up YoY

• YTD PBIT: Up YoY

Key projects include the Sulphuric acid and Phosphoric acid plants, on track for commissioning in Q4 FY26, and the fertiliser capacity expansion at Kakinada, slated for Q4 FY27. The Company also established a joint venture, Stuccoedge India Pvt Ltd, for Phospho-Gypsum products and initiated a water-soluble fertiliser plant at Vizag.

Crop Protection Business:

• Q3 Revenue: Up YoY

• Q3 PBIT: Up YoY

• YTD Revenue: Up YoY

• YTD PBIT: Up YoY

The Company has expanded the capacity of its key technical molecules and continues additional capacity augmentation. Its subsidiary, NACL Industries Limited, successfully completed a Rights Issue during the quarter.

London, Jan 30: NTT DATA, a global leader in AI, digital business, and technology services, today announced a multi-year Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help enterprises modernize legacy systems, adopt agentic AI responsibly, and scale innovation across industries.

The collaboration combines NTT DATA’s expertise in cloud transformation, cloud-native modernization, and Agentic AI with AWS’s scale and innovation capabilities, delivering tailored enterprise solutions that modernize mission-critical workloads, build secure cloud foundations, and drive measurable business outcomes.

Key Focus Areas of the Collaboration:

• AI-driven Large-scale Cloud Transformation: Accelerating migration and modernization of on-premises workloads to AWS, leveraging generative and agentic AI, automation, and data platforms to unlock new business models and intelligent operations.

• Industry Cloud Solutions on AWS: Delivering repeatable, industry-specific solutions across financial services, healthcare, life sciences, public sector, manufacturing, retail, and energy, leveraging NTT DATA’s Industry Cloud with 500+ extensible business components and AI agents.

• AI and Data Innovation for Managed Services and Client Experiences: Modernizing contact center solutions on Amazon Connect and driving AI-enabled customer experience (CX) solutions at scale.

• Digital Sovereignty and Regulated Cloud Solutions: Supporting European governments and enterprises through the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, delivering sovereign-by-design solutions that meet stringent data residency and compliance requirements.

NTT DATA has formed a dedicated AWS Business Group, aligned with AWS sales and delivery teams, comprising 11,000 AWS-certified experts, with plans to certify nearly 10,000 more over the next three years.

Abhijit Dubey, President and CEO, NTT DATA, Inc., said:

“Cloud and AI are central to enterprise transformation. Through our collaboration with AWS, we are helping clients move beyond experimentation to scale AI responsibly, delivering secure, industry-specific solutions that create tangible business value worldwide.”

Greg Pearson, VP AWS Global Sales, added:

“This collaboration enables enterprises to unlock the potential of cloud and AI, modernize operations, accelerate innovation, and meet evolving regulatory requirements, including through the AWS European Sovereign Cloud.”

Proven Success Example:
Honda Trading Asia successfully migrated to AWS with NTT DATA’s support, modernizing infrastructure and establishing a foundation for AI innovation. Somya Mayuraskoon, Director, Honda Trading Asia Co., Ltd., said:

“NTT DATA’s expertise ensured a smooth migration to AWS, unlocking new growth possibilities and AI innovation opportunities.”

Driving AI Innovation Across Industries:
NTT DATA will develop industry-specific, AI-driven cloud solutions across regulated and high-growth sectors, including:

• Financial Services: Modernizing core banking and compliance workloads.

• Healthcare & Life Sciences: Building secure AI-enabled data platforms for insights and research acceleration.

• Public Sector: Delivering compliant private cloud solutions for secure citizen services.

• Manufacturing & Automotive: Modernizing operations using generative and agentic AI for efficiency gains.

Innovation environments, including sandboxes and dedicated labs, will allow NTT DATA and AWS teams to develop, test, and scale solutions for enterprise adoption. This initiative also expands NTT DATA’s Smart AI Agent™ Ecosystem, enabling enterprises to deploy and manage responsible, business-driven AI at scale.

New Delhi, Jan 30: Atlanta Electricals Limited (NSE, BSE: ATLANTAELE), a leading manufacturer of power transformers, has won five new orders worth ₹288 crore from Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (KPTCL) and an Independent Power Producer (IPP) executing a project for NTPC. These orders are scheduled for execution over the next 12 months, taking the company’s order book to ₹2,787 crore.

The two orders from KPTCL, totaling ₹146 crore, include the supply of 13 transformers, comprising six 100 MVA, 220/110 kV power transformers and seven 150 MVA, 220/66 kV power transformers, along with 11 Nitrogen Injection Fire Protection Systems (NIFPS).

The three orders from the IPP, worth ₹142 crore, involve supplying ten 125 MVA, 220 kV transformers and five 100 MVA, 220/33 kV transformers for projects across Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh.

Mr. Niral Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, Atlanta Electricals Limited, said:

“These order wins reflect the robust momentum in India’s power sector, where both generation and transmission & distribution segments are witnessing strong growth. This upcycle is translating into sustained transformer demand and a healthy order pipeline. The NTPC order adds an optimal balance between utility and private sector projects.”

He added,

“We remain committed to strengthening the nation’s power infrastructure through advanced transformer solutions, while enhancing capacity utilisation across our expanded manufacturing base.”

Atlanta Electricals, listed on NSE and BSE in September 2025, recently reported consolidated financial results for Q3 FY26, recording strong revenue and EBITDA growth, along with a healthy PAT performance. With over 30 years of industry experience and a diversified portfolio spanning power, auto, and inverter-duty transformers, Atlanta Electricals continues to support India’s grid modernisation and capacity expansion through reliable and energy-efficient transformer solutions.

Kolkata, Jan 30: Renowned poet, writer, and lyricist Indrani Dutt launched her book “Punarjanma” , a select collection of her upcoming poems, at the 49th International Kolkata Book Fair, marking a moment of deep literary reflection and renewal. The launch was graced by Shree Tridib Kumar Chatterjee, Author, Editor, General Secretary of the Publishers & Booksellers Guild & Shree Saikat Mukhopadhyay, Author along with Indrani Dutt, Renowned poet, writer, and lyricist , who came together to celebrate poetry as a powerful voice of conscience, resistance, and rebirth.

“Punarjanmo” which translates to Rebirth, resonated deeply with readers through its evocative themes of struggle, inner strength, and the triumph of hope over despair. Rooted in vivid imagery and emotional depth, the poems reflected a shared memory of pain, protest, and steadfast resolve, ultimately arriving at the promise of light after darkness. The verses flowed from anguish and helplessness to courage, renewal, and a deep rooted belief in justice and freedom.

Speaking on the occasion, Indrani Dutt said,

“Punarjanma is not just a collection of poems; it is a reflection of our collective wounds and our collective courage. It speaks of despair, but more importantly, it speaks of hope, of rising afresh with faith, truth, and justice. This book is my humble attempt to capture that eternal cycle of pain, resistance, and rebirth that defines humanity.”

DPS Hinjawadi Marks Republic Day with ‘Khushi Utsav’, Celebrating Empathy, Inclusion, and Shared Citizenship

Pune, Jan 30: Delhi Public School (DPS), Hinjawadi, celebrated Republic Day 2026 with its signature Khushi Utsav and Khushi Bazaar, an initiative designed to reinforce the constitutional values of empathy, inclusivity, and collective responsibility.

As part of the celebrations, the school welcomed 50 families from a nearby ZP school in Nande village, including students and their family members, as special guests. Thoughtfully prepared utility and learning kits were distributed with dignity, promoting equality, respect, and compassion.

Students actively participated in the festivities, embodying the spirit of service and celebration. Parent-led stalls, including food, ice-cream, and simple game counters, added warmth and vibrancy, while adventure and activity zones created an engaging experience for visiting children and families.

A highlight of the event was the flag unfurling ceremony, jointly conducted by the youngest child from the visiting ZP school and the Principal of DPS Hinjawadi, symbolising unity, equality, and collective national pride.

Addressing the gathering, Principal Dr. Jaya Parekh shared the message: “Anekta mein ekta hai, aur ekta mein bal hai”—unity in diversity and strength in unity. She emphasised that all children are equal and highlighted the joy of sharing as a powerful learning experience.

The initiative received strong appreciation from the ZP school’s principal, teachers, and students, who lauded the school’s culture, staff commitment, and student involvement. Conceived as the first step in a long-term vision, Khushi Utsav and Khushi Bazaar are planned to become an annual Republic Day tradition, reinforcing DPS Hinjawadi’s belief in nurturing empathy, responsibility, and citizenship alongside academic excellence.

New Delhi, Jan 30, 2026: Paytm (One 97 Communications Limited), India’s leading full-stack merchant payments and financial services platform, today announced its financial results for the quarter ending December 2025 (Q3 FY26), reporting its third consecutive profitable quarter. The performance was driven by strong monetisation across payments and financial services, higher payments GMV, and increased merchant subscriptions.

For the quarter, Paytm posted a profit after tax (PAT) of ₹225 crore, reflecting strong year-on-year growth. EBITDA rose to ₹156 crore with a margin of 7%, reflecting revenue growth and operating leverage. Contribution profit stood at ₹1,249 crore, with a contribution margin of 57%, improving from the previous year.

Payments and UPI Growth:

• Paytm UPI consumer GMV grew 35% over the past nine months, more than double the industry growth rate of 16%, marking the third consecutive quarter of market share gains.

• Payments services revenue (including other operating revenue) grew 21% YoY, while net payment revenue increased 25% YoY, supported by improved payment processing margins and a growth in merchant subscriptions to 1.44 crore.

• Payments GMV rose 24% YoY.

Financial Services Distribution:

• Revenue from distribution of financial services grew 34% YoY, driven by growth in merchant loans and wealth product distribution.

• The growth occurred despite lower volumes under the Default Loss Guarantee (DLG) program.

Operational Efficiency and Cash Position:

• Indirect expenses declined 8% YoY due to lower employee costs (including ESOPs) and reduced Provisions for Doubtful Debt (PDD).

• Cash balance remains strong, providing flexibility for business expansion.

Regulatory Milestones:
During the quarter, Paytm’s offline merchant business was transferred to Payments Services Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary, in line with regulatory guidelines. Payments Services Limited received RBI approval to operate as an Online Payment Aggregator, while PPSL was authorised to operate as a Payment Aggregator for offline and cross-border payments.

Strategic Highlights:

• Sustained profitability and growth driven by industry-leading monetisation across payments and financial services.

• Expanded merchant payment leadership and higher consumer UPI market share leveraging AI capabilities.

• Revenue growth remained resilient despite regulatory changes impacting rent payments via credit cards and the Real Money Gaming Act, reflecting proactive compliance measures.

Commenting on the results, Paytm said

“Q3 FY26 marks our third consecutive profitable quarter, reflecting continued execution excellence, strong monetisation, and growing market leadership in payments and financial services. Our focus on AI-driven insights, operational efficiency, and regulatory compliance positions us well for sustainable growth in the coming quarters,” the company stated.

Mumbai, India, Jan 30:  As enterprises increasingly rely on AI to run digital operations, protect assets, and drive growth, success depends on one critical factor: trusted, high-quality, real-time data. Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW), the global cybersecurity leader, today announced it has completed its acquisition of Chronosphere, addressing a core challenge of the AI era: the inability to see and secure the massive data volumes running modern businesses.

Chronosphere, a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Observability Platforms was purpose-built to handle this scale. While legacy tools break down in cloud-native environments, Chronosphere gives customers deep visibility across their entire digital estate. With this acquisition, Palo Alto Networks is redefining how organizations run at the speed of AI—by enabling customers to gain deep, real-time visibility into their applications, infrastructure, and AI systems — while maintaining strict control over data cost and value.

The planned integration of Palo Alto Networks Cortex AgentiX™ with Chronosphere’s cloud-native observability platform will allow customers to apply AI agents that can now find and fix security and IT issues automatically—before they impact the customer or the bottom line. AI security without deep observability is blind; this acquisition delivers the essential context across models, prompts, users, and performance to move from manual guessing to autonomous remediation.

Nikesh Arora, Chairman and CEO, Palo Alto Networks:

“​​Enterprises today are looking for fewer vendors, deeper partnerships, and platforms they can rely on for mission-critical security and operations. Chronosphere accelerates our vision to be the indispensable platform for securing and operating the cloud and AI. We believe that great security starts with deep visibility into all your data, and Chronosphere provides that foundation for our customers.”

Martin Mao, Co-founder and CEO, Chronosphere is joining Palo Alto Networks as SVP, GM Observability and comments:

“Chronosphere was built to help the world’s most complex digital organizations operate at scale with confidence. Joining Palo Alto Networks allows us to bring AI-era observability to a global audience. Together, we’re delivering a new standard — where observability, security, and AI come together to give organizations control over their most valuable asset: data.”

The Chronosphere Telemetry Pipeline remains available as a standalone solution, enabling organizations to eliminate the ‘data tax’ associated with modern security operations. By acting as an intelligent control layer, the pipeline filters low-value noise to reduce data volumes by 30% or more while requiring 20x less infrastructure than legacy alternatives. This is key to Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSIAM® strategy, ensuring customers can scale their security posture—not their spending—as they transition to autonomous, AI-driven operations.

New Delhi, Jan 30: PeopleStrong, one of Asia’s leading human capital management (HCM) SaaS platforms, today announced the strategic appointment of Aashay Manake, former Vice President HR at Jubilant FoodWorks, as its Chief People Officer (CPO). In this role, Aashay will spearhead PeopleStrong’s people and culture strategy, driving leadership capability, workforce effectiveness, and organisational readiness as the company scales across markets.

Aashay brings over 16 years of experience across high-growth and complex organisations spanning FMCG, industrial conglomerates, hospitality/consumer tech, and QSR and food services. Prior to joining PeopleStrong, he held senior people leadership roles at ITC Ltd., GE, OYO, and most recently Jubilant FoodWorks, where he led people strategy for large, multi-brand, and distributed workforces.

An alumnus of SCMHRD, Aashay has led enterprise-wide HR initiatives covering performance and rewards, talent and leadership development, employee relations, and organisational design, often in environments undergoing rapid transformation and scale.

Sandeep Chaudhary, CEO of PeopleStrong, said:

“At PeopleStrong, we believe that people care is good business. As we scale across markets and support organisations navigating increasingly complex workforce realities, having a leader who combines strong HR expertise, process thinking, and genuine human understanding is critical. Aashay embodies this balance exceptionally well. We are delighted to welcome him to the leadership team and look forward to strengthening our people and culture agenda as the company enters its next phase of growth.”

Commenting on his new role, Aashay Manake, Chief People Officer, PeopleStrong, said:

“PeopleStrong has consistently been at the forefront of progressive people practices, setting benchmarks for how culture, leadership, and employee experience can drive long-term value. I am excited to build on this foundation and work with the leadership team to strengthen capabilities, create scalable people systems, and foster a culture that brings joy, energy, and meaning to work.”

This appointment reinforces PeopleStrong’s commitment to building strong leadership capability and a people-first organisation aligned with its long-term growth ambitions. PeopleStrong powers over 500 enterprises, serves more than 2 million users, and processes over 1.75 million paychecks monthly. Its HR mobile app is among the highest-rated globally, with a 4.8/5 rating across iOS and Android, and the company has consistently featured in Gartner’s Voice of the Customer report, earning recognition as a Customers’ Choice for Cloud HCM Suites for enterprises with over 1,000 employees from 2022 to 2025.

As India prepares for the Union Budget 2026, the domestic crypto industry is seeking a more outcome-aligned tax framework, including rationalisation of the capital gains tax rate, allowance for loss offsets, and a re-evaluation of the tax deducted at source (TDS) mechanism.

These recommendations are strongly supported by India’s Crypto Tax Story 2025, the annual report released by KoinX, a crypto taxation and portfolio-tracking platform. Based on anonymised data from nearly seven lakh Indian users with crypto transactions in FY 2024–25, the report offers a data-led assessment of how current tax rules translate into real investor outcomes.

The report finds that while the current 1% TDS has strengthened transaction-level reporting and compliance, it has also led to significant capital lock-in due to upfront deductions. Since TDS is applied to every transaction irrespective of gains or losses, it functions more as a volume-based compliance mechanism rather than a profit-linked tax, resulting in widespread refund dependency.

Commenting on the findings, Punit Agarwal, Founder & CEO, KoinX, said:

“TDS primarily serves as a reporting mechanism to enhance compliance and transaction visibility, not as a financial burden—excess amounts are refunded at the time of ITR filing, making it budget-neutral in the long run. We strongly advocate reducing the rate to 0.1% across the industry to unlock capital tied up in upfront deductions, particularly for high-frequency traders who drive the bulk of volumes yet face refunds in over 30% of cases. A uniform reduction would ease liquidity pressure, discourage migration to offshore platforms, and retain reporting effectiveness without weakening oversight.”

Key TDS Findings (FY 2024–25)

• Over 30% of TDS deducted exceeded users’ final tax liability

• Nearly half of TDS-paying users ended the year with net capital losses

• Less than 5% of traders accounted for 87% of total TDS collections

This skew highlights that while high-activity traders contribute a disproportionate share of TDS, thin trading margins mean both active and retail participants face liquidity constraints—albeit at different scales.

Capital Gains: Profits and Losses Tell a Different Story

On capital gains, the report flags a sharper misalignment between trading outcomes and tax liability. Investor results for FY 2024–25 were almost evenly split:

• 50.91% of users reported net capital gains

• 49.09% of users reported net capital losses

Despite this balance, taxable capital gains were significantly inflated due to the non-allowance of loss offsets. As a result, investors who ended the year with overall losses were still liable to pay tax on isolated profitable transactions.

“Nearly half of investors reported net losses, yet paid tax on individual gains because loss offsets are blocked. Across asset classes, the principle is simple—no net gain means no capital gains tax. Excluding crypto from this logic distorts incentives, undermines fairness, and risks pushing legitimate activity offshore,” Agarwal added.

Budget 2026 Implications

Through India’s Crypto Tax Story 2025, KoinX aims to provide policymakers and stakeholders with empirical inputs to evaluate capital gains rationalisation, loss-offset provisions, and the design of compliance mechanisms.

Ahead of the Union Budget 2026, the findings underscore the need to balance revenue considerations with capital efficiency, tax neutrality, and administrative simplicity—especially as retail participation in digital assets continues to expand.