Onion Scream
Farmers in Maharashtra and Karnataka are facing losses due to a sharp fall in onion prices along with crop damage due to heavy rains. The sharp decline this year is mainly due to an oversupply in the market after last season’s bumper production and the effects of the export ban and restrictions imposed from August 2023 to April 2025.
While vegetable prices are also falling overall, onions are the worst-hit, having seen a 54-56% year-on-year drop in recent weeks. Wholesale prices are now around ₹20-21 per kg, the lowest since mid-2023. The situation worsened with excessive rain damaging new crops, causing very little return for farmers.
Asean edge
The 47th Asean summit concluded in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, with India calling for an early review of its free trade pact with the regional bloc, citing limited benefits.
Although India-ASEAN trade has more than doubled to $123.1 billion in 2024-25 from $56.2 billion in 2010-11, the gains have been skewed in favor of ASEAN members. Most of the trade is concentrated in five countries – Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand – which account for 95% of the total. Since the pact came into effect in 2010, Asean’s share of India’s imports has grown steadily from 8.3% to 11.7%, while its share of exports has declined from 10.2% to 8.9%, a Mint analysis showed.
Seeding Heaven
Pollution levels rose further in Delhi on Thursday, with the city recording an air quality index (AQI) of 373 – the highest in the last 10 days, according to official data.
The sharp increase pushed air quality back into the “very poor” category after a brief improvement earlier in the week when it fell into the “poor” range. Delhi has reported “very bad” air in seven of the last ten days. As pollution levels continue to rise, authorities have stepped up containment measures.
The Delhi government earlier this week conducted two back-to-back cloud seeding operations — the first such exercise in more than five decades — as part of its air quality management strategy.
The numbers speak
65.4 tons: The amount of gold brought home by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) over the past year, its domestic reserves rose to 575.8 tonnes from a total of 880.8 tonnes by September 2025, according to its latest foreign exchange management report.
14,000: Amazon will cut corporate jobs as part of a major restructuring to streamline operations. The layoffs include logistics, payments, gaming and cloud units as the company focuses more aggressively on artificial intelligence.
₹4,000 million: Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said the airline faces losses from the closure of Pakistan’s airspace from June 2025 following a brief military conflict, Mint reported. The airline has since taken measures to reduce the impact on its long-haul international routes.
72,000: This is the number of chargers for electric cars that the Center wants to introduce as part of a ₹2000 crore plan under ₹10,900 crore E-Drive system, with Delhi, Maharashtra and Chandigarh leading the cost of EV adoption, Mint reported.
38%: That’s the share of RuPay credit card transactions in India by volume, a Bernstein Securities report shows. The domestic network has gained ground over Visa, MasterCard and Amex due to its exclusive access to UPI, accounting for 8% of the value, Mint said.
Production slump
Industrial production rose 4% year-on-year in September, the slowest pace in three months, as a decline in mining offset strong manufacturing output, statistics ministry data showed.
Manufacturing grew 4.8%, outpacing overall industrial growth, while mining fell 0.4% and electricity production slowed to 3.1%. Core infrastructure performance, which makes up more than two-fifths of the index, also cooled to a three-month low of 3%.
Among categories, durable goods and construction goods posted strong gains, while primary and non-durable goods declined, highlighting the uneven momentum across sectors despite a boost to demand over the holiday season.
Sprint Nvidia
Nvidia became the first company in the world to hit a $5 trillion market valuation on Wednesday, extending its lead over global tech rivals. The Nasdaq stock rose nearly 5%, lifting its market capitalization well above Microsoft’s $4.02 trillion and Apple’s $4 trillion.
The rally came after CEO Jensen Huang said the company expects orders for AI chips worth $500 billion and announced plans to build seven new supercomputers for the US government. Nvidia’s meteoric rise has been remarkably rapid, reaching a market value of $1 trillion for the first time in June 2023, and reaching $4 trillion just three months ago.
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