Temasek adds $42B India stake, RBI sells $6.1B

The BSE’s Saatvik 100 and NSE’s Ahimsa indexes tout Hindu and animal‑welfare screens, yet their top holdings include missile builders L&T, Bharat Forge and coal giant Coal India. The story shows how India’s thin, liquid stock universe forces values‑based benchmarks to swallow the very “sin” stocks they promise to dodge, raising doubts about ESG rigor.

Temasek’s India exposure has swelled to $42 bn, and the sovereign fund is now targeting industrials, infrastructure and space‑tech while using AI to upgrade its existing holdings. The shift follows a decade where India was Temasek’s top‑performing market, and it signals a broader push beyond consumer, healthcare and finance.

The Titagarh Rail Systems‑Ramkrishna Forgings partnership will start commercial forged railway wheel production in August at its new Gummudipoondi plant, capable of 2.28 lakh wheels a year. About 80 k wheels will feed Indian Railways, with surplus earmarked for export, cutting decades of reliance on imports from Ukraine, Russia and China.

They signed definitive agreements to create two joint ventures in India: one for high‑voltage systems for cars/commercial vehicles with Denso holding 51%, and another for two‑ and three‑wheelers where Sona retains control. This expands Sona's EV component portfolio and gives Denso a foothold in India's fast‑growing electric vehicle market.

The RBI sold $28.3 billion and bought $22.2 billion of foreign exchange in May, netting a $6.1 billion outflow as oil price spikes drove the rupee to a record 96.96 per dollar. The central bank’s aggressive forward‑sale and new incentives aimed to draw dollar inflows and stabilize the currency.

The DRDO signed two contracts: one with AI Engineering Services to convert six Airbus A321 jets from commercial to green configuration, and another with Adani Defence as the development‑cum‑production partner for the AEW&C‑MkII mission system. The deal creates an indigenous airborne early‑warning platform that will boost the IAF’s surveillance, command and control capabilities.

The Union cabinet cleared a five‑year, ₹62,500 cr Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme, targeting ₹39 lakh cr output and exporting ₹15 lakh cr, roughly double current levels. It promises 60,000 direct jobs and incentives up to 5% for domestic sales, component sourcing, and R&D to raise local value‑addition to 40‑50%.

The civil aviation ministry is considering a rule change that would let airport operators such as Adani and GMR own airlines, potentially ending the near‑90% domestic market share held by IndiGo and Air India. The move could open competition but also raises fears of slot‑allocation bias and faces global aircraft shortages.

India is creating an open‑source, cost‑effective signalling protocol, Bharat Train Control System, to power its planned 7,000‑km high‑speed rail corridors and cut reliance on foreign tech. The move could boost domestic suppliers and be marketed abroad, with route designs due by mid‑2027.

CEO Erez Israeli told investors that Trump's plan to raise tariffs on imported generics to 100% in 2028 and 200% later will force Dr Reddy’s to raise U.S. drug prices, not shift manufacturing. He said moving production to the U.S. is economically impractical, so the company will simply monitor the policy.

The government poured ₹10,000 cr into an AI mission, handing 38,000 GPUs to 12 startups to create indigenous tools for welfare. Two years on, the firms have functional prototypes but face a missing procurement framework, forcing them to seek private-sector customers instead of the commissioning ministries.