BIG IDEA | PAGE 18 BRANDWAGON | PAGE 9 Cashify brings back sustainable choices AVietnamese lesson for Elon Musk KOLKATA, MONDAY, MAY 25, 2026 VOL 35 NO. 173, 22 PAGES, `12 (NORTH EAST STATES `12 & ANDAMAN `20) IN THE NEWS COMPANIES PAGE 4 TATA SONS BOARD MEETSTOMORROW AMID TENSIONS TATA SONS BOARD meets Tuesday to decide on staying private, Chandrasekaran's third term, and absorbing losses from Air India and Tata Digital, reports Urvi Malvania. Crop yields seen hit as heatwave spell persists AN UNUSUALSPIKE in temperature in many parts of the country has raised the spectre of severe crop damages and reduced food grain and horticulture output, with the consequent fall in gross value added in agriculture, reports Sandip Das. ■ PAGE 2 Swiggy back in frequency battle as pressure mounts SWIGGY’S INSTAMARTIS introducingnew wallet-creditand targetedfee-waiverfeatures thathintitmaybesofteningits stanceonlow-valueusers,as slowingorderfrequencyand competitivepressureforcea recalibrationofstrategy, reportsAneesHussain. ■ PAGE 4 INTERNATIONAL | PAGE 11 24 killed in Pakistan shuttle train blast FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD P U B L I S H E D F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , B E N G A L U R U , C H A N D I G A R H , C H E N N A I , H Y D E R A B A D , K O C H I , K O L K ATA , L U C K N O W, M U M B A I , N E W D E L H I , P U N E US,Iran reach deal on Subsidy may top budget Strait,says US official `2 LAKH-CRORE EXTRABILLPUTS FISCALDEFICITTARGETATRISK estimates by nearly 50% ● Outgoonfertilisers mayincreaseby over`1lakhcrore PRASANTA SAHU & SANDIP DAS New Delhi, May 24 THE GOVERNMENT'S SUBSIDY spend on fertilisers, food and LPG may overshoot the budget estimates by a massive `2 lakh crore or nearly 50%, unless the Hormuz disruptions are resolved without further delay, according to an internal analysisbythefinanceministry. Thisestimateconsidersthat evenaftertheUSandIranreach a deal,it maytake a fewmonths FISCAL CHALLENGES ■ LPG subsidy gap may need `50,000 cr `20,000 cr ■ Spot LNG prices have surged sharply to may be needed for food subsidy due to rising cost of maintaining large stock of rice, wheat fortheflowofcargothroughthe keywaterwaytofullynormalise. According to officials aware of the matter,if global LNG and fertiliser prices remain elevated due to supply constraints through the current fiscal year, on a urea bag was around `2,000-2,500 in 2018, it has now risen to over `4,000 per bag this year ■ ■ While the subsidy $19/MMBtu from an average of $11–12 earlier the fertiliser subsidy could exceed the respective BE by `1.71 lakh crore by as much as `1-1.3lakhcrore.Similarly,they said,another`50,000croremay berequiredtocompensatestateownedoilmarketingcompanies (OMCs) for the subsidies under theUjjwalaschemeandtooffset the losses arising from government-controlledpricesforother domesticLPGconsumers. Continued on Page 11 Cooling-product sales sizzle VIVEAT SUSAN PINTO Mumbai, May 24 AS TEMPERATURES BREACH 40-45 degrees Celsius across several parts of the country, India’s summer economy is running at full throttle this year. This is in contrast to the rain-hit summer season last year,whichresultedinadecline indemandforcoolingproducts. Sales of cooling appliances, cold beverages, and ice cream have surged by up to 35-40% this month com- HEAT HARVEST Cooling appliances, cold beverages and ice cream sales have surged ■ Room AC market, which is around 12-13 million units in size, recorded this May volume growth ■ 35-40% 35% pared with last year, industry executives said, prompting companies to ramp up production and strengthen supply chains amid expectations of sustained demand through June. The sales surge in May also comes after a mixed April, marked by unseasonal rains in the north, south and east of India. The May sales surge is also in line with the sales growth rate seen in May of 2024, when the summerwas strong that year. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast that severe heatwave conditions are likely to continue across parts of the north, west and central India till the end of May, with temperatures in several regions crossing 45 degrees Celsius. Continued on Page 11 TYLER PAGER, AARON BOXERMAN, FARNAZ FASSIHI & JULIAN BARNES May 24 THE UNITED STATES and Iran have agreed in-principle to a deal that would wind down the war in West Asia by reopening the Strait of Hormuz with a commitment from Iran to dispose of its highly enriched uranium, a senior US official told reporters on Sunday. Iran’s leaders or official state media have not publicly commented on what is in any potential agreement orwhat is being discussed. Over the last 24 hours, Iranian and US officials have offered some conflicting depictions of what a deal might contain. On Sunday, the US official said a deal had not yet been signed and was still subject to final approval from President Trump and Iran’s supreme leader,which could take days. The official said the mechanism by which Iran would dispose of its highly enriched ura- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Hyderabad House, in New Delhi on Sunday »INSIDE« TRADE PACTWITH INDIALIKELY SOON: RUBIO PAGE 2 niumwasstillbeingnegotiated. Trump has insisted that the UnitedStatesseizethematerial as part of his vow to curb Iran’s nuclearprogramme. Trump said in a social media post earlier on Sunday that he had ordered his negotiators “not to rush into a ‘Taxsopsaloneunlikely toreverseFPIoutflows’ THE INDIAN FINANCIAL markets, already under pressure from sustained foreign portfolio investor (FPI) outflows, have come under further strain since the outbreak of the West Asia conflict. Outflows have accelerated across both equity and debt markets since late February. FPIs have withdrawn `2.08 lakh crore from equities and net sold government securities worth `9,591 crore under the fully accessible route (FAR), according to CCIL data. ■ PAGE 6 Kolkata PTI deal,”after saying a day earlier that a preliminary agreement between the two countries was “largely negotiated.” If a deal were certified, Trumpsaid,theUScouldendits blockadeofIranianports,which it had used to pressure Tehran to reopen the strait. —NYT Practo bets on infra model ahead of IPO PRACTO IS INCREASINGLY repositioning itself from a doctor-discovery platform into a broader healthcare infrastructure business ahead of its planned 2027 listing, betting that software and provider-side services can create more durable economics than consumer-led healthtech models. The shift comes at a time when several digital healthcare businesses have struggled to convert scale into sustained profitability. ■ PAGE 5