Asian shares edged lower on Tuesday, tracking a slump in Wall Street’s technology stocks, while silver and gold steadied after a sharp pullback from record highs cooled an extraordinary rally in precious metals.Silver was the biggest mover overnight, plunging 8.7% in its steepest one-day fall since August 2020, unwinding from what had become a parabolic rise. The metal rebounded 1.7% on Tuesday to $73.46 an ounce, after touching a peak of $83.62 a day earlier. Despite the drop, silver remains up about 150% for the year.The reversal spilled over into gold and other precious metals. Gold slid 4.4% overnight but later recovered, rising 0.6% to $4,356 an ounce.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.1%, though it was still on track for a strong annual gain of 26.7%, its best performance since 2017, Reuters reported. Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.2% but is also up around 26% for the year. Taiwanese stocks declined 0.7%, while China’s blue-chip index dropped 0.3% following Beijing’s live-firing exercises around Taiwan.Overnight, Wall Street closed lower as heavyweight technology stocks pulled back from last week’s gains. Equity futures in Australia and Japan signalled a soft start to trading following the losses.The S&P 500 slipped 0.3%, dragged down by declines in big technology stocks such as Tesla, Nvidia and Meta Platforms, while the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.5%.Oil prices eased slightly after rising more than 2% in the previous session, with the pullback partly linked to weakness in precious metals, even as escalating Russia–Ukraine tensions kept supply disruption fears alive. Brent crude futures slipped 0.5% to $61.63 a barrel, after jumping 2.1% on Monday following Moscow’s accusation that Kyiv had targeted President Vladimir Putin’s residence.Bitcoin, which has dropped sharply since peaking above $126,000 in October, was steadying just below $90,000 after a turbulent end towards the year.

US President Donald Trump on Monday met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, over the Gaza peace plan but steered clear of announcing any progress on the next phase of the ceasefire.The two leaders held a private lunch at Trump’s Florida residence, with the US President saying ahead of the meeting that he planned to discuss “five major subjects,” including Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Iran.While Trump later suggested that several issues were quickly narrowed, no concrete decisions were unveiled after more than an hour of talks.

Gaza ceasefire: Phase two still elusive

A central focus of the meeting was the stalled second phase of the US-brokered Gaza truce, which is meant to pave the way for an interim Palestinian administration, an international stabilization force and reconstruction of the region which is in shambles after over two-years of current war. Trump played down the lack of visible progress, saying he was “not concerned about anything that Israel’s doing” and asserting that Israel had “lived up” to its commitments.He placed responsibility squarely on Hamas, warning: “If they don’t disarm as they agreed to do, then there will be hell to pay for them. They have to disarm in a fairly short period of time.”Hamas’s armed wing reiterated on Monday that it would not surrender its weapons. Trump nevertheless insisted, “Israel’s lived up to the plan 100 per cent,” adding, “They’re strong. They’re solid,” reported CNN.

Praise-heavy optics, divisions beneath

The talks at Mar-a-Lago were dominated by mutual praise. “We’ve never had a friend like President Trump in the White House. It’s not even close,” Netanyahu said on arrival. Trump returned the compliment, calling their ties “extraordinary” and remarking, “If you had a weak man, you wouldn’t have Israel right now. Israel, with most other leaders, would not exist today.”Netanyahu announced that Israel would award Trump its highest civilian honour, marking the first time it would go to a non-Israeli. “President Trump has broken so many conventions to surprise people, so we decided to break a convention or create a new one,” Netanyahu said.Trump said the recognition was “really surprising and very much appreciated,” and described Netanyahu as a “wartime” leader.However, Trump acknowledged lingering differences, particularly over the West Bank. “We’ve had a discussion, big discussion, for a long time on the West Bank, and I wouldn’t say we agree on the West Bank 100 per cent,” he told CNN, reiterating his opposition to annexation.

Trump’s assertion on Netanyahu’s pardon

Trump also weighed in on Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial, saying a pardon was imminent. “How do you not give a pardon? He is a wartime prime minister who is a hero,” Trump said. “I spoke with President Isaac Herzog. He tells me it is on its way,” as he talked about his lobbying attempt to secure Netanyahu a Presidential pardon. However, Israel president quickly disputed the claim. In a clarification cited by CNN, Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s office said, “There has been no conversation between President Herzog and President Trump since the pardon request was submitted,” adding that any decision would follow standard legal procedures.Netanyahu is Israel’s first sitting prime minister to face criminal charges. He is on trial in three cases filed in 2019 alleging bribery, fraud and breach of trust, which he denies. On November 30, he formally sought clemency, arguing that court proceedings hamper his ability to govern. While Israel’s president has the power to grant pardons, there is no precedent for doing so while a trial is ongoing.

Clear red lines from Washington for Iran

Trump’s most aggressive remarks were reserved for Iran, amid Israeli concerns that Tehran is rebuilding its ballistic missile capabilities following US and Israeli strikes earlier this year on its nuclear facility.“I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down,” Trump said, adding, “We’ll knock the hell out of them.” He warned of “very powerful” consequences if Iran pursued new nuclear or missile sites, though he said he still believed Tehran might be open to a deal. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons.A senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader responded that any aggression would face an “immediate harsh response,” AFP reported.

Broader regional focus

Beyond Gaza and Iran, the talks touched on Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Trump said he hoped Netanyahu could “get along” with Syria’s new president, who came to power after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad last year.Netanyahu’s visit capped a busy diplomatic stretch for Trump at Mar-a-Lago, following talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Despite repeated references to reconstruction and future governance in Gaza, Trump offered few specifics, leaving the path ahead – in Gaza and across the region – uncertain.

NEW DELHI: Call it the IndiGo schedule collapse and its fallout impact. A clamour has broken out between the budget airline and Air India group over having adequate captains to avoid a repeat of what happened under the new safety-enhancing flight duty time limitation (FDTL) rules.IndiGo has had to commit to DGCA about hiring pilots — it will induct 100 in Jan itself — and AI has already come out with an ad for getting more aviators on board. But both the airlines are also facing a significant number of captain resignations — with some leaving one for the other and mostly for joining foreign carriers — so the hiring is also to ensure they don’t go below their current numbers which has made the scramble more intense that anything seen before in Indian skies.For once, their balance sheet-centric human resource departments are on the back foot and can’t oppose sprucing of ranks after what happened earlier this month. A senior official of one of the two big Indian carriers claimed its captains are already getting “calls with joining bonus of upto Rs 50 lakh.”“Where do we get captains from? Under the new FDTL, experienced pilots’ availability will become acute. There will be lot of poaching from each other,” said a senior airline official. A few years back, said a senior pilot, IndiGo had offered a joining bonus to experienced aviators to join which would take care of the bond payment, if any, needed to be paid to the airline they were resigning from. “This was in the range of Rs 15-25 lakh to take care of the bond, which back then was somewhere between Rs 5 and 15 lakh,” the pilot said.“India will witness a scramble for captains between Air India group and IndiGo. While Air India does not have a shortage as of now for its fleet except the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, it has to hire for the future. IndiGo will have to improve its pilot-management relations to retain and attract talent. Akasa does not need more pilots (it has a big surplus). Unless AI & IndiGo offer better working conditions to pilots, they will not be able to stem the flow to Middle East and other places like Vietnam,” said Captain Shakti Lumba, former VP of AI and IndiGo.IndiGo has slightly raised pilot pay from next month, by enhancing some existing and adding new allowances. Air India is planning a major salvo which will be fired in first week of Jan and is a closely guarded secret within the airline.Pilots at both AI Group and IndiGo have been unhappy for two main reasons — poor working condition and a pay structure that did not keep pace with inflation. While the FDT proposes to reduce fatigue, the tug of war means that both will have to become humane employers for pilots.While IndiGo will have less strenuous working norms for pilots that will increase its requirement, AI plans to be ready for aircraft induction that is expected from next year. As of now, only AI’s Boeing 787 fleet pilots fly more while the B777 and Airbus A320 not so much. That should change from next year and AI does not want to be in Big Blue shoes when that happens.

MUMBAI: In a renewed push to contain fraud and improve customer safeguards, RBI has asked banks to clear the growing backlog in KYC updates and warned against the routine rejection of applications. Lapses in KYC, the central bank said, weaken defences against fraud and exclusion, particularly in rural and semi-urban areas. Alongside fraud, RBI has flagged mis-selling as a persistent conduct risk and has said that it will come out with new guidelines.In a report, RBI said banks should “organise camps and launch intensive campaigns” to deal with delays in periodic KYC updates, with a focus on smaller branches. It also cautioned lenders against mechanical rejections, stressing that onboarding or KYC-updation requests should not be turned down without due consideration and that reasons for rejection must be properly recorded. The regulator noted that it had itself been involved in a nationwide re-KYC drive at the gram panchayat level between July and Oct 2025.

The emphasis on KYC forms part of a broader attempt to curb fraud at a time when financial crime is becoming more sophisticated. The report warned that cyber and operational incidents pose a growing threat to financial stability. To counter this, RBI said it is working closely with other authorities, including the ministry of home affairs, to develop and operationalise measures aimed at curbing digital and cyber-enabled fraud while strengthening customer protection.Technology is central to this effort. Recent initiatives include MuleHunter.ai, a system designed to identify and flag mule accounts through system-wide learning, and a digital payments intelligence platform that uses AI to detect risky transactions and share intelligence across the system. Banks have also been advised to use the mobile number revocation list available on the telecommunications department’s digital intelligence platform to clean customer databases and prevent fraud carried out through voice calls and SMS. The regulator has asked lenders to tighten internal controls, ensure adequate grievance-redress officers at all levels and invest in digital financial literacy.The report said mis-selling of financial products by regulated entities has “significant consequences” for customers and for the financial system more broadly. In response, RBI plans to issue comprehensive instructions covering advertising, marketing and sales practices across different categories of regulated entities, with the explicit aim of preventing mis-selling.

‘Dhurandhar’ the spy-thriller, directed by Aditya Dhar and starring Ranveer Singh and Akshaye Khanna in lead roles, has emerged as a blockbuster at the Indian and worldwide box office. The film that entered its fourth week at the box office, has been rewriting several long-standing records along the way.Dhurandhar Movie Review

‘Dhurandhar’ box office collection Day 25

On its fourth Monday, ‘Dhurandhar’ saw a dip in collections at the box office. However, it still managed to stay above the Rs 10 crore mark. As per early reports on sacnilk, the film earned around Rs 10.50 crore India net. With this, the film’s total domestic net collection has crossed Rs 701 crore in just 25 days. As per the report, the film’s new net total surpassing the Rs 700 crore mark, has made it the highest-ever net total for a Bollywood film.

‘Dhurandhar’ Occupancy

On Monday, ‘Dhurandhar’ recorded an overall Hindi occupancy of 21.39%. While the morning shows began with a modest 11.98% occupancy, its evening shows witnessed the highest footfalls at 26.67%.

‘Dhurandhar’ week-wise collections

As per reports, the film earned an estimated Rs 207.25 crore in week one and followed it up with good growth in week two, earning a record-breaking total of Rs 253.25 Crore. Week 3 saw the film earn an estimated Rs 172 Crore collection. Meanwhile, the current total of week 4 currently stands at an estimated Rs 68.5 crore. With the New Year’s break coming up, it remains to be seen if the film can get one more big boost to push it past the Rs 100 crore mark for the fourth consecutive week.

‘Dhurandhar’ gross collections

In India, ‘Dhurandhar’ has already become the biggest Bollywood grosser of all time, with its gross collections reaching approximately Rs 841.6 crore in just a total of 25 days and still three days to go before it wraps up week 4.

‘Dhurandhar’ overseas collections

Overseas, the film has registered a good performance with its collections thus far, standing at around Rs 237 crore. This takes the film’s worldwide cumulative total to an impressive Rs 1078 crore.

‘Dhurandhar’ crosses Rs 1000 crore mark

The film crossed the Rs 1000 crore gross mark during its fourth weekend and has since overtaken the Prabhas and Deepika Padukone starrer, ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ which had a total collection of Rs 1040 crore . It also beat the likes of Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Pathaan’ total collection of Rs 1055 crore to become the seventh biggest Indian grosser of all time. The film is now chasing the lifetime collections of Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Jawan’ which earned Rs 1160 crore. Should it be able to hit the mark the end of this week, the film would go on to become the biggest Bollywood grosser of all time.

‘Dhurandhar’ global box office

At this pace, ‘Dhurandhar’ is heading towards a lifetime global box office collection of Rs 1200 crore. As per sacnilk, the film can look forward to ending its theatrical run as the fourth biggest Indian grosser of all time, and possibly even overtake the south blockbusters like ‘KGF: Chapter 2’ which earned Rs 1215 crore and ‘RRR’ whcih earned an impressive Rs 1230 crore.

‘Dhurandhar’ highest fourth week box office

The film that has so far scored a current week 4 total of Rs 68 crore, has also gone on to add a page to the history books and register the biggest fourth week at the Hindi box office. The film has now comfortably surpassed Allu Arjun’s ‘Pushpa 2 – The Rule’, which earned an estimated Rs 53.75 crore net in its fourth week.

KOLKATA: An 82-year-old jumped on the railway tracks hours before his scheduled appearance at a hearing for the special intensive revision of electoral rolls at Para in Bengal’s Purulia Monday. A septuagenarian from Howrah and another from Kalyani died after receiving SIR hearing notices. Family members of both blamed SIR stress for the deaths.As SIR hearings entered the third day, reports poured in of anxiety gripping “unmapped” voters being asked to appear before EC officials.A 96-year-old man in Cooch Behar, a 90-year-old woman in Katwa and a pregnant homemaker from Taki were among thousands who waited in queues for hearings. EC clarified that, on request, BLOs would visit homes of voters aged 85 and above, and those with disabilities and ailments.TNNElderly deaths, distress reported amid SIR hearings across Bengal Durjan Majhi, 82, jumped onto the railway tracks and was run over by a train at 8.30am, around 5 hours before he was to appear in an SIR hearing at the Para BDO office. His only son Kanai, who works as a day labourer, said, “My father had submitted the SIR enumeration form but his name was not on the draft voters’ list. His name was on the 2002 voters’ list, though. We don’t understand why he was called to a hearing. He had been anxious since getting the hearing notice on Dec 25.“Jamat Ali, 75, passed away at his home in Howrah’s Amta Sunday night, hours after receiving a hearing notice. Howrah DM P Deepap Priya said, “He was already unwell. His kin claimed he was anxious about the hearing. An inquiry is underway.”In Kalyani, Jaharlal Mahato (72) died of cardiac arrest on Monday, 48 hours after he attended an SIR hearing. Son Tamaghlal said, “He had been distressed since the hearing. His name was on the 2002 list, yet he was called to a hearing.At the Dinhata Block 1 BDO office in Cooch Behar, 96-year-old Nikhil Chandra Sarkar had turned up with his wife and son to appear before EC officials. He could barely walk because of his age and physical ailments. “I am the only one in my family to get the SIR notice. My name was not on the 2002 list. I gave them whatever documents I had,” Sarkar said, visibly frustrated.At Katwa I BDO office, one of the people in the queue was a 90-year-old bedridden woman, Muktibala Paramanik, whose house is 4km from the hearing venue. Grandson Paritosh Paramanik said, “This is just harassment. They asked her to sign some documents and let her go.”East Burdwan DM Ayesha Rani said, “We did not get any written instruction that hearings for elderly people should be conducted at home. Even so, I instructed that elderly and infirm people should not be called.”A woman from Taki, who is eight months pregnant, fell ill while waiting in a long queue at Basirhat Block II BDO office. Supriya Mondal got a hearing notice as her name did not feature on the 2002 list. Her mother, Khukurani Das, said, “After waiting for a long time in the crowd, my daughter suddenly felt dizzy and collapsed. Making her stand for hours at such an advanced stage of pregnancy is dangerous for her health.”Scenes in Kolkata were no different. A young woman had arrived at a hearing venue in central Kolkata with her three-month-old child. “We came here around 1pm. While filling the enumeration form, my wife had mistakenly entered her father’s details as per the 2025 voter ID card instead of the 2002 SIR electoral roll. She was called to the hearing because of the mismatch,” said her husband Md Hussain.

NEW DELHI: Industrial output growth surged to a 25-month high in Nov, led by a rebound in manufacturing and mining sectors offsetting the contraction in electricity.Data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Monday showed the index of industrial production (IIP) rose an annual 6.7% in Nov, higher than the 0.5% recorded in Oct and above the 5% in Nov last year.

Gaining momentum

.The manufacturing sector rose by 8% in Nov, higher than 2% in Oct and above the 5.5% in Nov last year. The mining sector, which had been impacted by unseasonal rains, rebounded and rose by 5.4% in Nov, above the 1.8% contraction in Oct and higher than the 1.9% growth in Nov last year.The highlight for Nov was also the robust expansion in consumer durables and non durables sectors, which grew by 10.3% and 7.3% respectively. “On the demand front, the positive aspect was the improvement in the output of consumer durables and non-durables which grew by 10.3% and 7.3%, respectively, reversing the contraction seen in the previous months. Factors such as GST rationalisation, income tax relief, and easing inflation have boded well for the consumption scenario,” said Rajani Sinha, chief economist at ratings agency CareEdge.“On the investment front, there has been sustained healthy momentum in the growth of infrastructure/construction goods and capital goods output,” said Sinha.The capital goods sector, a key gauge of investment activity, rose an annual 10.4% higher than the 2.1% recorded last month and above the 8.9% expansion in the month of Nov last year.Aditi Nayar, chief economist at ratings agency Icra, said the impact of the US tariffs and penalties is likely to reflect across some of the manufacturing segments, partly offsetting the positive impact of the GST rate rejig. “However, electricity demand has expanded in Dec 2025 after a gap of two months, which should boost power generation in the month, auguring well for IIP growth in the month. We expect the IIP growth to ease to 3.5-5.0% in Dec, as the base effect normalises and the benefit from restocking wanes,” said Nayar.