NEW DELHI: Vaishnavi Adkar faced trial by fire on her Billie Jean King Cup debut before rain interrupted play in Sahaja Yamalapalli’s match at the DLTA Complex in New Delhi on Tuesday. When rain came pouring down, to stop play for good, Thailand led India 1-0 in the Asia/Oceania Group 1 tie.Yamalapalli was broken at the worst possible time before heavens opened up and when play will resume early on Wednesday, Patcharin Cheapchandej will look to close the match out from 4-3 in the third set.The first tie of the five-day round robin BJK Cup, which began over three hours later than scheduled due to rain, had Adkar lose 1-6, 3-6 to Anchisa Chanta.In the controversy laden contest, where both sets of non-playing captains remonstrated with the chair umpire over dodgy calls by line judges, the 384th ranked Yamalapalli had brought things back to one set all on the back of some strong groundstrokes and stiffling Cheapchandej for room.On two different instances, the 25-year-old and non-playing captain Vishal Uppal complained about the calls made: first in the opening set as a ball was adjudged to have landed out and then another time when a serve call was overruled by the chair umpire.Uppal complained to the chair umpire and then called the supervisor. However, his pleas were not paid heed to and the decision stood.Sahaja, who has never tasted success in the BJK Cup, with a 0-7 record to show for her efforts, will now hope to turn things around, after a lacklustre final game before rain hit.

In the day’s first match, India’s top-ranked player Adkar was swept aside by Chanta in just 73 minutes. The 21-year-old appeared stiff and nervous from the get go, being broken in the first game after dishing out a double fault.That remained the theme in the first set as she served three double faults and had her first serve easily thrashed around by the left-handed 442nd ranked Thai player.It took Adkar 27 minutes to get her first game on the board and less than 10 minutes later, the first set was in the books.Adkar started the second set brightly, breaking the 23-year-old’s serve, but the jubilation didn’t last long. The Thai player would then go on to reel off four games in a row, including 16 of next 19 points.The young Indian tried to muster a comeback, bringing things to one break down at 4-3, but her last ditch effort to create an opening was quickly shut down in what turned out to be the last and final game.After the singles rubber resume early at 11am on Wednesday, Ankita Raina and Rutuja Bhosale will hold responsibility of keeping the tie close in the doubles department. India’s second tie of the day will be against New Zealand.DAY 1 SCORES FROM BJK CUP ASIA/OCEANIA GROUP 1 TIESIndia 0-1 Thailand (suspended by rain)Indonesia 2-0 New Zealand* (suspended by rain)Korea 3-0 Mongolia

MUMBAI: Women borrowers now account for Rs 76 lakh crore of credit, or 26% of total system credit in 2025, marking a near five-fold rise since 2017 and signalling a structural shift in India’s credit landscape.A joint report by TransUnion CIBIL, Niti Aayog’s WEP, and MicroSave Consulting said women are moving from being passive beneficiaries to active drivers of credit demand. The number of women availing formal credit grew at a CAGR of 9% between 2017 and 2025. Outstanding credit for women rose 4.8 times in this period compared with 2.9 times growth in overall credit. “The number of women availing formal credit in India has grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9% between 2017 and 2025, underscoring their increasing engagement with the financial system. Outstanding credit for women borrowers has grown 4.8 times since 2017, compared with 2.9 times for total credit, indicating a significantly faster expansion. In recent years, the growth of digital infrastructure has facilitated easier onboarding, faster loan processing, and improved access to information,” said Bhavesh Jain, MD and CEO, TransUnion Cibil.Women’s share in retail loan originations rose to 27% in 2025 from 24% in 2022, reflecting broad-based growth across segments. Their share in housing loan originations increased to 69% from 63% over the same period, indicating a rise in asset ownership and participation in financial decisions. In consumption credit, women’s share rose to 19% from 16%, while in gold loans it increased to 37% from 36%. The share of new-to-credit women borrowers in retail credit rose by 10 percentage points to 38% in 2025, showing expansion into previously unserved segments.“At Niti Aayog, we recognize that access to finance is a structural enabler of women’s economic participation. Through platforms such as the Women Entrepreneurship Platform and the Financing Women Collaborative, we are working to strengthen ecosystem coordination,” said Nidhi Chhibber, CEO, Niti Aayog.The report said rising access to credit is translating into greater economic participation. The number of women with active business-purpose loans grew at a CAGR of 31% over the past three years, indicating a shift towards enterprise activity. Digitisation has reduced turnaround time, with same-day approvals in consumption loans rising to 45% in 2025 from 34% in 2022. Around 19% of active microfinance borrowers now hold individual retail or commercial loans, suggesting a move towards more complex financial products.The report outlined measures to expand participation further. It said lenders should use digital transaction data such as UPI histories for underwriting, especially for borrowers without collateral. It called for strengthening last-mile digital capability through collectives and peer networks to build trust. It recommended lifecycle-based financial products that combine savings, credit, and literacy, with a focus on women under 35. It also said expansion should be supported by better risk segmentation and use of alternative data to bring unserved women into the system while maintaining portfolio quality.The report said the ecosystem should track progression metrics such as graduation rates and multi-product holding instead of focusing only on disbursement volumes. It also called for vernacular and voice-enabled digital models and integration of non-financial support such as market linkages to help women-led businesses scale.

Billionaire Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani have moved to challenge a US securities fraud case, asking a federal court in New York to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding a 2021 bond issue by Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL).In a filing before the Brooklyn federal court, Adanis, through its lawyers, denied wrongdoing and stated that investors suffered no losses in the bond issue being challenged, as per news agency PTI.

SEC case linked to 2021 Adani Green bond offering

The SEC had sued Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani in November 2024, alleging they were involved in a scheme to pay or promise hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Indian government officials to benefit Adani Green Energy, where both hold executive and board roles, according to Reuters.The regulator’s case centres on allegations that Adani Green failed to disclose the alleged bribery scheme in documents tied to a $750 million bond offering in 2021.The Adanis, in a pre-motion letter filed ahead of a planned April 30 dismissal request, argued that the SEC’s case over the 2021 bond sale is flawed on several legal grounds.

Adanis argue US court has no jurisdiction

A key plank of the defence is that the case falls outside US jurisdiction.According to PTI, Adanis argued that the court lacks personal jurisdiction because neither of them had sufficient contact with the United States or direct involvement in the bond offering.Their lawyers said the $750 million bond issue was conducted outside the US under Rule 144A and Regulation S exemptions, with the securities initially sold to non-US underwriters and only later resold in part to qualified institutional buyers.The defence described the SEC’s claims as “impermissibly extraterritorial”, arguing that both defendants are based in India, the alleged misconduct took place entirely in India, and the bonds were never traded on a US exchange.The filing also says the issuer is Indian and the securities were not listed in the US, strengthening the argument that US securities law should not apply.

Defence says no investor losses, no credible bribery evidence

The Adanis have also argued that the SEC has failed to show investor harm.The filing states the regulator does not allege any investor losses, adding that the bonds matured and were fully repaid with interest in 2024.The defence further disputes the underlying bribery allegations. The Adanis said there is no credible evidence supporting the claims.

Filing says SEC failed to show direct role or intent

The Adanis’ lawyers also argued that the complaint does not specifically tie Gautam Adani to the bond issuance.The filing says the SEC does not allege that he approved the issuance, attended key meetings, or directed activity aimed at US investors.The defence also said the SEC failed to show a “domestic transaction”, which it argued is necessary under US Supreme Court precedent for US securities laws to apply.In addition, the filing says the SEC has not linked either Gautam or Sagar Adani to specific misleading statements or demonstrated any intent to defraud.Statements cited by the SEC about ESG commitments, anti-corruption standards and corporate reputation were described by the defence as non-actionable “puffery”, or broad corporate optimism that investors could not reasonably rely on, according to PTI.Adanis are now seeking dismissal of the SEC case in full and have said they are ready to appear for a pre-motion conference if needed.

NEW DELHI: Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss, and opted to field against Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati on Tuesday. For the Mumbai Indians, captain Hardik Pandya, who missed the last match against Delhi Capitals, and Trent Boult came back into the side. While the Rajasthan Royals went with the same team. It will be a 11-over game. Powerplay will be 3.2 overs.“We are going to bowl first. It has been under covers, in rain-effected games you should bat second. It just gives you a clear idea what total should be. (Is it because there’s been rain and there will be more rain and it’s a truncated game that he opted to bowl?) Yes, that has always been at the back of the mind. It is just the start of the season and we are bound to make mistakes; you don’t win IPL in the first couple of weeks. I come back, Boulty is back,” Hardik Pandya said at the toss.While RR skipper Riyan Parag said, “We would have done the same thing (bowling first), actually. It (pitch) was supposed to be dry, but then it rained a lot. It is what it is. We have had two different types of games, but really happy with how the boys handled the pressure. Same team for us.”TeamsRajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel(w), Riyan Parag(c), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep SharmaMumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton(w), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya(c), Naman Dhir, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, AM Ghazanfar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah

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The ongoing Middle East crisis is emerging as a significant external shock for India, with risks spreading across energy markets, trade flows and supply chains, according to a recent white paper by Dun & Bradstreet.The report shows that countries in the Gulf–Levant region account for nearly 15 per cent of India’s merchandise exports and about 21 per cent of imports, making the country particularly vulnerable to disruptions despite the region’s relatively small share in global output.A key concern is the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping route through which roughly a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil trade passes. Any disruption in the corridor is already feeding into higher freight, insurance and energy costs, with Brent crude prices having surged sharply in recent weeks.For Indian exporters, the impact is being felt unevenly across sectors and geographies. Discretionary segments such as gems and jewellery, apparel, automobiles and electronics are facing demand slowdown and order deferrals from Gulf markets. Labour-intensive clusters such as Tiruppur’s garment industry are particularly exposed to employment risks because of thin margins and short order cycles.Agricultural exporters are among the worst hit, especially those dealing in perishable goods such as grapes, bananas and meat, where shipping delays can lead to spoilage, price discounts and income losses for farmers.On the import side, India’s dependence on the region for key inputs such as fertilisers, limestone and gold compounds has raised the risk of supply disruptions. This could have cascading effects on agriculture, construction and manufacturing, particularly during peak demand cycles.

The report added that more than 4,500 Indian exporters and 1,800 importers relied on the Strait of Hormuz trade route in 2025, exposing them to shipment delays, payment uncertainties and working capital stress. Firms are also facing tighter trade credit conditions as banks reassess risk amid rising geopolitical uncertainty.Higher energy prices are adding to the pressure. Sectors such as aviation, chemicals, transport and metals, which are heavily dependent on fuel and power, are seeing input costs rise sharply, squeezing margins and potentially pushing up prices for end consumers.At a broader level, a prolonged crisis could trigger second-round effects on the Indian economy, including sustained inflation, tighter financial conditions and slower growth. A slowdown in Gulf economies may also dampen remittance inflows from Indian workers in the region, affecting household incomes.The report cautions that diversifying away from the region in the short term remains difficult due to limited alternative supply capacity and the global nature of energy and logistics costs.Overall, while a short-term disruption may act as a temporary shock, a prolonged crisis could have deeper structural implications for India’s trade, inflation dynamics and corporate balance sheets.