NEW DELHI: The government has raised Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd’s (Powergrid) equity investment ceiling in each subsidiary from Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 7,500 crore, in a move designed to bolster funding for large transmission projects and renewable energy evacuation.The cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the higher threshold under existing Maharatna delegation guidelines, while retaining the overall cap of 15 per cent of the company’s net worth. Under department of public enterprises guidelines issued on 4 February 2010, Maharatna CPSEs such as Powergrid enjoy enhanced autonomy to make large investments without case-by-case government approvals.

Impact on Powergrid’s project pipeline

The higher limit expands Powergrid’s headroom to back capital-intensive transmission schemes, particularly ultra high voltage alternating current (UHVAC) and high voltage direct current (HVDC) corridors.These assets form the backbone of long-distance bulk power transfer, allowing the utility to scale up its role in strengthening the national grid and integrating geographically remote generation centres.

Renewable push and capacity evacuation

Government officials said the additional financial flexibility will help Powergrid step up investment in transmission systems dedicated to evacuating renewable power, a critical enabler for India’s goal of 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030.Powergrid already handles the majority of inter-regional transfer capacity in the national grid and has facilitated the evacuation of over 110 GW of non-fossil energy, positioning it as a key player in the next leg of green capacity build-out.With a higher equity cap per subsidiary, Powergrid can more aggressively participate in tariff based competitive bidding (TBCB) for new transmission projects, including complex, high-ticket networks.The government expects deeper participation in TBCB to broaden competition, aid sharper price discovery, and, over time, translate into more affordable and cleaner power for industrial and retail consumers.

NEW DELHI: The government is set to roll out a nationwide Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination campaign for girls aged 14 and above, offering the Gardasil jab free of cost as part of a major push to curb cervical cancer, according to official sources cited by PTI.The voluntary programme, to be implemented across the country in the coming weeks, aims to expand equitable access to life-saving immunisation and strengthen India’s fight against one of the most common cancers affecting women.Officials said the quadrivalent HPV vaccine to be administered under the programme protects against HPV types 16 and 18 — responsible for the majority of cervical cancer cases — as well as types 6 and 11.Emphasising the scientific backing for the initiative, an official source said, “Strong global and Indian scientific evidence confirms that a single dose provides robust and durable protection when administered to girls in the recommended age group.”Citing strong global and Indian scientific evidence, a senior source noted that a single dose administered within the recommended age group provides “robust and durable protection”.“Vaccination under the national programme will be voluntary and free of cost, ensuring equitable access across socio-economic groups,” the PTI reported, citing sources.

What is ‘Swasth Nari Sashakt Parivar’ drive?

The ‘Swasth Nari Sashakt Parivar Abhiyaan’ is described as the largest-ever health outreach initiative for women and children in India. Jointly spearheaded by the Ministry of health & family welfare (MoHFW) and the Ministry of women & child development (MoWCD), the nationwide campaign saw lakhs of health camps organised between 17 September and 2 October at Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, Community Health Centres (CHCs), district hospitals and other government health facilities.The initiative focused on delivering women-centric preventive, promotive and curative healthcare services at the community level. It strengthened screening, early detection and treatment linkages for non-communicable diseases, anaemia, tuberculosis and sickle cell disease.Simultaneously, it promoted maternal, child and adolescent health through antenatal care, immunisation, nutrition support, menstrual hygiene awareness, and lifestyle and mental health interventions.The campaign also sought to mobilise communities towards healthier living, placing particular emphasis on obesity prevention, improved nutrition and voluntary blood donation, reinforcing the broader goal of building healthier families through empowered women.

The story of AI in business is not one of universal acceleration. (AI image)

Two stories from the past few weeks capture something essential about where we are with AI.The first concerns Salesforce, the enterprise software giant that aggressively embraced AI for customer service. CEO Marc Benioff proudly announced that AI deployment had allowed the company to cut support staff from 9,000 to roughly 5,000. Then reality intervened. Reports from late 2025 indicate that the company is now withdrawing from AI due to widespread failure. The AI agents confidently gave wrong answers, dropped instructions when given more than eight steps, and lost focus when users asked unexpected questions. Customers complained that AI support took longer than the simple old search function. Salesforce is now retreating to rigid, rule-based scripting–essentially admitting they were, in their own words, “more confident” than the technology warranted.The second story is a zeitgeist shift. Over the past couple of months, the conversation around AI and coding has transformed completely. People who were skeptical six months ago–senior developers who actually write code for a living–are now saying the age of human beings writing code is ending. Not in some distant future, but imminently. Entire features are being shipped by AI with minimal human intervention. The productivity gains are no longer incremental; they’re structural.How can both be true? How can AI fail comprehensively in customer service–seemingly straightforward–while revolutionising software development, which appears far more complex?The answer is that we’ve been thinking about AI wrong. We treat it as a single phenomenon that will sweep through the economy at roughly the same pace. However, AI in business is not a single story. It’s many parallel stories, moving at wildly different speeds. And the distinction has almost nothing to do with how intelligent the AI is.I’ve written about this tension before. A year ago, I argued that “the fact that a revolution is real doesn’t mean that every business claiming to be part of it will succeed.” More recently, I observed that “the gap between what AI demos well in controlled environments and what it actually delivers when confronting the messy real world remains enormous.” I now think there’s a more precise way to understand this gap. It’s not random. It’s structural.Consider what makes coding fertile ground for AI. Code is formally structured and machine-verifiable–it runs and passes tests, or it doesn’t. The feedback loop is immediate. When AI makes a mistake, a developer (or another AI agent) notices, fixes it, and moves on. Errors are private and reversible. Now consider customer service. Customers don’t speak in data schemas. Emotion, sarcasm, and cultural context matter enormously. One wrong answer can escalate to social media outrage or regulatory complaints. The failures are public and often irreversible.The difference isn’t intelligence. It’s what I’d call error economics. AI thrives where mistakes are cheap, private, and correctable. It struggles where mistakes are expensive, public, and permanent.We received a clear illustration of executive disconnect just a few days ago. During Bajaj Finance’s Q3 call, CEO Rajeev Jain announced that AI had listened to 2 crore calls and generated 100,000 new customer offers. “We’ll be able to listen to 100 million calls next year,” he said proudly. The response on social media was predictable hilarity. As the entire country, except apparently Mr Jain knows, Bajaj Finance’s incessant spam calls are the butt of countless jokes. Here was a CEO using sophisticated technology to optimize something customers actively despise. Machine learning works perfectly; the learning about customers is absent.For investors, the implications are significant. When you hear “AI” attached to a business function, ask: what happens when it’s wrong? If the answer involves customers, regulators, or reputations, progress will be slower than vendor PPTs claim. If the answer is “someone notices and fixes it,” that’s a different world entirely.The story of AI in business is not one of universal acceleration. It’s one of the selective escape velocities. Coding has left the atmosphere and gone into orbit. Customer service is still fighting gravity. Most other functions lie somewhere in between–mistakenly assumed to be closer to the rocket than they really are. The many worlds of AI are not converging. They’re diverging. And that divergence will determine which investments succeed and which disappoint.(Dhirendra Kumar is Founder and CEO of Value Research)

Former Nato commander Admiral James Stavridis described the recent US military buildup near Iran as “Dante’s Inferno.” The heavy American presence comes amid President Donald Trump’s fury toward Tehran’s Khamenei regime and escalating tensions between the two nations. Speaking to CNN, Stavridis said, “It’s like 1990 Persian Gulf War I. This is a huge amount of US firepower. And let’s kind of do it from the outside in, if you will, and concentric rings descending like Dante’s inferno.”He described the layered military structure. “On the outer rings are big strategic bombers. They can come all the way from the United States. They can operate from other bases but at a distance,” he said. Moving further inward, the admiral pointed towards “two aircraft carriers… It’s in the northern part of the Indian Ocean. The other one is going to park right against Israel,” he said, adding that this creates “two axes.”According to Stavridis, each carrier group carries significant air power. “These are 80 combat aircraft each with F-35s. our most advanced jets as well as plenty of FNA18 Hornets.” He continued outlining additional capabilities, “And when you go inside that, you’ve got the capacity to launch tomahawk missiles. Uh you can send drones in, you can use cyber, and of course there’s landbased aircraft, air force aircraft at many of those bases you show there.”And at the focus of the whole presence is Iran “so again, think of it like Dante’s Inferno descending. Right in the center of it at the very bottom is Ayatollah Khamenei. I agree with President Trump. He would be wise to negotiate.”His comments come as tensions between Tehran and Washington have escalated. The United States has ordered the departure of nonessential diplomatic staff and family members from Lebanon, citing rising regional tensions linked to the threat of military strikes on Iran, according to a State Department official quoted by AP. The official further added that the move followed an ongoing security review and was intended as a precautionary measure. US President Donald Trump has reportedly weighed the possibility of a limited military strike against Iran, even as another round of negotiations between the two sides is scheduled to take place in Geneva on Thursday.Iran, meanwhile, warned on Monday it would retaliate “ferociously” against any US attack and repeated its warning of a possible regional conflagration following Trump’s latest threat of strikes.

US President Donald Trump has rejected reports that America’s top military commander, General Daniel Caine, warned against a potential war with Iran, calling the claims inaccurate and misleading. He said the reports suggesting that Caine had flagged the risks of a prolonged military campaign were “100% incorrect”. He said, “Numerous stories from the Fake News Media have been circulating stating that General Daniel Caine, sometimes referred to as Razin, is against us going to War with Iran. The story does not attribute this vast wealth of knowledge to anyone, and is 100% incorrect.”Elaborating further on Truth Social, he added, “General Caine, like all of us, would like not to see War but, if a decision is made on going against Iran at a Military level, it is his opinion that it will be something easily won. He knows Iran well in that he was in charge of Midnight Hammer, the attack on the Iranian Nuclear Development. It is a Development no longer, but rather, was blown to smithereens by our Great B-2 Bombers. Razin Caine is a Great Fighter, and represents the Most Powerful Military anywhere in the World.”The US president went on to say that if military action were ordered, Caine would be at the forefront. “He has not spoken of not doing Iran, or even the fake limited strikes that I have been reading about, he only knows one thing, how to WIN and, if he is told to do so, he will be leading the pack. Everything that has been written about a potential War with Iran has been written incorrectly, and purposefully so.”He added, “I am the one that makes the decision, I would rather have a Deal than not but, if we don’t make a Deal, it will be a very bad day for that Country and, very sadly, its people, because they are great and wonderful, and something like this should never have happened to them.”However, The Wall Street Journal has reported that Caine warned an extended confrontation “could incur significant costs to US forces and munitions stockpiles.”The move comes after thousands of people in Iran reportedly received anonymous text messages on Monday warning of possible US action and calling the American president a “man of action”, according to Iran International English citing Iranian state media.At the same time, the United States has been reinforcing its military footprint in the region, fuelling worries about a possible wider confrontation with Iran.The New York Times had earlier reported that hundreds of US servicemen have been relocated from the Al Udeid base in Qatar, citing Pentagon officials.Comparable troop and logistical movements have also been observed at American facilities in Bahrain, where the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet is headquartered, as well as in Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.Officials fear that the 30,000 to 40,000 American troops stationed across the region could become the Islamic Republic’s primary targets if a full-scale conflict breaks out.Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to meet a US delegation in Geneva on Thursday for the next round of negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear programme. The two sides have already held two rounds of talks this month aimed at securing a deal.

Nuvama has downgraded UPL to hold with the target price at Rs 816. Analysts said the company recently announced a restructuring to create a unified crop protection entity by merging UPL SAS and UPL Corp, which would be listed as UPL Global while UPL Ltd shall stay as the holding company for formulation business, R&D, Superform and Advanta. They said the demerger aims to drive synergies and enable value unlocking. The transaction is cash and tax neutral, protects minority interests and does not alter capital structure, with no material impact on current leverage overhang.Jefferies has a buy recommendation on IDFC First Bank with the target price at Rs 100. Analysts said IDFC disclosed that it has identified a suspected fraud involving Rs 590 crore at its Chandigarh branch, linked to certain Haryana state govt accounts. The bank has initiated an investigation and is taking steps to recover funds which is about 0.9% of its net worth, post-tax. The bank will need to strengthen operational controls and clarify that issue has not spread to other clients.Morgan Stanley has a underweight rating on Dixon Technologies with the target price at Rs 8,157. Analysts said DRAM spot price as on Feb 13 2026 was up 6.8x on the year, and average mobile DRAM price thus far in 2026 for some variants are up 55% and 64% on the quarter. As per TrendForce mobile DRAM prices are expected to rise ~88-93% in the current quarter and 20-25% in the next. About 75% of India’s smartphone market is at <$300 price point, ad increased DRAM prices could be an incremental headwind for this already muted industry.CLSA has an outperform rating on Tech Mahindra with the target price at Rs 1,810. Analysts met the chief operating officer of the company. They said the company believes that AI would be a net positive volume opportunity along with it being a potential margin lever too. New volume around building small language models (SLMs) and infusing AI into BPO operations are significant opportunity areas for system integrators. TechM is only GSI partner of India AI mission where it is building a large language model (LLM). The company believes employee reskilling is becoming more important now than before where TechM has categorised its employees into white, blue, brown and black belts. Similar to other Indian system integrator (Sis), TechM will also partner with foundation model companies like OpenAI and Anthropic on a Mahindra group level. Analysts remain positive on TechM’s vision to achieve higher-than-peer average growth in FY27 backed by strong order booking momentum, with cyclical tailwinds going into US midterm elections.Macquarie initiated its coverage of Torrent Pharma with an outperform rating and a target price of Rs 5,000. Analysts said that the company is executing its perfected acquisition blueprint with JB Pharma acquisition, which expect to accelerate its growth momentum. Post-acquisition, estimate pro forma earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) will almost double by FY29 on a FY25 base, driving meaningful cash earnings per share (EPS) accretion. They also expect pro forma net debt to EBITDA to decline by FY28. The catalysts for the stock could be regulatory approvals for JB Pharma acquisitions, synergy realisation, and key product launches.(Disclaimer: Recommendations and views on the stock market, other asset classes or personal finance management tips given by experts are their own. These opinions do not represent the views of The Times of India)

Shahid Kapoor’s latest release, *O Romeo*, is facing a tough run at the box office, falling short of audience expectations. After a promising start, the film’s collections dropped sharply. On day 11, it managed just Rs 1.65 crore, pushing its India total to Rs 57.45 crore and worldwide gross to Rs 90.85 crore. Read on to know more in detail.

Shahid Kapoor‘s ‘O’ Romeo’ is nearing its second week in theaters. The film witnessed a lukewarm response from the audience at the box office. While the moviegoers had pinned their hopes on the Vishal Bhardwaj directorial, it failed to deliver the expectations. Now, let’s take a look at its Day 11 earnings and how much it will collect on Day 12.O’ Romeo Movie Review

‘O’ Romeo’ box office collection Day 11 (second Monday)

The Shahid Kapoor starrer raked in a good number at the box office on its debut day in theaters, and it showcased a similar trend until the first weekend. However, after the first Monday, the movie started witnessing a downward trend in box office earnings. Now, according to the Sacnilk report, on its Day 11, the romantic revenge drama has collected Rs 1.65 crore in India.

‘O’ Romeo’ box office collection Day 12 (today)

This section will be updated as soon as the numbers are available.

Total and worldwide collection

With that, the total collection of the film is Rs 57.45 crore in India. The worldwide earnings of the Vishal Bhardwaj directorial are now Rs 90.85 crore.

Day-wise collection

Week 1 Collection: Rs 47.1 croreDay 8 [2nd Friday]: Rs 2.15 croreDay 9 [2nd Saturday]: Rs 3.4 croreDay 10 [2nd Sunday]: Rs 3.25 croreDay 11 [2nd Monday]: Rs 1.65 croreTotal: Rs 57.45 crore

Occupancy

According to the same report, ‘O’ Romeo’ had an overall 8.49% Hindi occupancy on Monday, February 23, 2026.

More about ‘O’Romeo’

Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, the film stars Shahid Kapoor and Triptii Dimri in the lead roles. He plays the role of gangster Ustara, and she is seen essaying the character of Afsha Qureshi.Apart from the lead duo, the movie also features Avinash Tiwary, Nana Patekar, Farida Jalal, Tamannaah Bhatia, Disha Patani, and Vikrant Massey.The film was released in theaters on February 13, 2026.

DISCLAIMER: The box office numbers and data in this article are compiled from diverse public and industry sources. All figures are approximate unless explicitly mentioned, offering a fair representation of the movie’s box office performance. These totals may change as official studio data is updated or as additional international market reports are finalized. This data is provided by us for informational and entertainment purposes only.