NDTV Profit Pulse On July 3 — Top 8 Stories At 8 P.M. Under 8 Minutes

The growing expectations over a likely announcement of the India-US trade deal was among the top news stories of the day, along with India's self-reliance push in the defence sector, with the Rajnath Singh-headed Defence Acquisition Council approving purchases worth Rs 1.05 lakh crore through indigenous sourcing.

Here’s a quick roundup of today’s key headlines:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Chief Negotiator Rajesh Agrawal, Special Secretary and Commerce Secretary Designate led trade talks with Washington, while Team USA comprised President Donald Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and Chief Negotiator Brendan Lynch, who is the Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia.

Defence Acquisition Council, under the chairmanship of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, on Thursday accorded the acceptance of necessity for 10 capital acquisition proposals amounting to approximately Rs 1.05 lakh crore through indigenous sourcing.

Approvals were granted for the procurement of armoured recovery vehicles, electronic warfare system, integrated common inventory management system for the tri-services and surface-to-air missiles, among others.

Newly appointed CII President Rajiv Memani on Thursday said rare earth supply disruptions are a more serious challenge for India’s auto industry than currently acknowledged. “In auto, the concern is more serious than what's come out so far,” Memani said, indicating that guidance from several companies already points to lower production levels in the coming months.

Growth in unsecured loans has slumped to its lowest level in the last 18 months, according to the recent data released by the Reserve Bank of India. Personal loans and those extended by credit cards witnessed its slowest month, growing at 8.3% and 8.5% on-year in May, a sharp drop from 22.3% growth each in October 2023, respectively, RBI's sectoral deployment data showed.

This marks the slowest expansion in the segments since November 2023, when RBI introduced higher risk weights for retail unsecured loans extended by banks and non-bank financial companies.

S&P 500 and Dow Jones rose on Thursday extending gains after a stronger-than-expected jobs report. The payrolls increased 1.47 lakh after slight upward revisions in the last two months. Additionally, the unemployment rate fell to 4.1%. This comes after S&P 500 and Nasdaq reclaimed record highs on Wednesday, boosted by President Donald Trump’s announcement of a trade deal with Vietnam.

Prosus-backed e-commerce platform Meesho is said to have confidentially filed draft papers for its initial public offering, people aware of the matter said. The company had earlier gotten shareholders' approval to raise up to Rs 4,250 crore through a primary share issuance in the capital market. The Flipkart rival may also undertake a private placement of certain equity shares to selected investors.

The National Stock Exchange is inching closer to its long-pending initial public offering, which could materialise around Diwali, subject to regulatory clearance. A crucial step remains — securing a No Objection Certificate (NoC) from the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

SEBI’s NoC, a mandatory requirement for Market Infrastructure Institutions to list publicly, will only be considered after the conclusion of an ongoing settlement process involving the exchange.

The Delhi government has decided to retreat from its contentious 'End-of-Life' vehicle policy, that would have led to a rapid phasing out of pollution-causing older vehicles from the national capital. The government has effectively put on hold the EOL policy, which would have led to the denial of petrol to cars registered more than 15 years ago and diesel to those vehicles registered over 10 years ago, NDTV reported.