Best of the Week: The man who must triple a legacy—without losing sleep over it

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Pirojsha Godrej doesn't seem like someone carrying the weight of a 129-year-old empire on his shoulders. He laughs off the 70-hour work week, "Not at all, not at all," travels to a country he hasn't visited yet (103 and counting), and quietly collects Mughal manuscripts in his spare time, including rare pages from the Hamzanama, arguably the world's greatest manuscript.

But calm need not be mistaken for lack of ambition.

At 45, Pirojsha takes over as chairman of Godrej Industries Group with a target of tripling the group's market cap to ₹5 trillion in five years. Revenue growing at 15% annually. EPS at 20%. And two new listings, Godrej Capital and Godrej Chemicals on the horizon.

When he joined Godrej Properties in 2004, it had 40 employees and ₹40 crore in sales. It now has 5,000 employees and ₹34,000 crore in sales, India's largest residential real estate company.

FMCG, sluggish for years, is seeing "green shoots" post-GST cuts. Chemicals is pivoting from commodity to specialty. Godrej Ventures is betting on film studios. And Godrej Capital? A full-service financial empire is coming soon, he says, in stages.

What keeps him up at night isn't the businesses. It's Washington. "Suddenly there's a tariff and then no tariff, war, then no war," he says, with barely concealed exasperation.

The man has a plan. Read Pirojsha Godrej’s full exclusive interview with Nehal Chaliawala and Satish John here.

On to the best of Mint’s journalism from this week:

Your phone is fine. That's the problem.

Indians are holding onto their smartphones for nearly four years. A record. And honestly, can you blame them? Prices have jumped nearly 40% in a year, memory chip costs have doubled, and the average smartphone now costs over ₹26,000. Even the loyal upgrade-every-year crowd, those splurging on ₹1 lakh flagships, are pausing, because let's face it, the new models just aren't exciting enough to justify it. Phones now last longer, support seven years of software updates, and do almost everything their predecessors did. The result? Brands are staring at their worst sales year since 2021, with volumes potentially falling 8% to 140 million units.

FPIs are leaving. Indian investors are staying.

Something quietly historic happened in India's stock markets this quarter. Public shareholders, mutual funds, retail investors and FPIs now own more of listed India than promoters do. For the first time since 2012, that number crossed 50%. It's not a hostile takeover. Promoters haven't lost control, they still run boardrooms and call the shots. But the balance is shifting, driven largely by domestic mutual funds hitting multi-year highs even as foreign investors quietly retreated to their lowest ownership levels since 2011. The story here is about who's really building wealth in India's markets now.

It's only April. India's power grid is already sweating.

Peak electricity demand has hit nearly 240 GW this week, and we're not even in May yet. For context, last summer's all-time record was 250 GW, set in late May. This year, authorities are bracing for 271 GW. Temperatures are running 4-8°C above normal across large parts of the country. Banda in UP hit 44.2°C this week. Air-conditioners, fans, refrigerators – everything is running harder and longer. And the worrying part is the monsoon is forecast to be below normal too, which means no relief even when summer technically ends. It's going to be a long, hot few months.

The word that sent Infosys stock tumbling

Infosys posted its fastest revenue growth in three years at $20.16 billion, ahead of analyst estimates. Profits were up 4.9%. And yet investors sent the stock tumbling nearly 7% on the NSE. Why? Because Salil Parekh said the quiet part out loud. AI is compressing revenue in exactly the services Infosys has built its empire on. Clients are automating, insourcing, and pulling back spending. TCS and Wipro actually shrank last year, the first time that's happened. Even the sector's best performer, HCLTech, flagged four major clients going cold.

One Alpha doesn't fix Bollywood's heroine problem

Hollywood gave us Wonder Woman, Black Widow, and The Hunger Games. Bollywood is still figuring out if a woman can headline a big-budget action film without it being called a "risk." Alpha — Alia Bhatt's entry into YRF's Spy Universe, is a genuine milestone. But one film does not make a revolution. Hindi cinema's franchises were built around male heroes from the ground up, leaving women to anchor mid-budget spin-offs like Naam Shabana, which earned less than half of its parent film Baby's box office. The audience is ready. Streaming has made female-led films more viable than ever.

Apple bets on hardware as John Ternus takes over as CEO

Apple has named John Ternus, its hardware chief, as the next CEO, succeeding Tim Cook in a long-anticipated transition. The move comes as AI reshapes Big Tech, but signals Apple’s continued focus on tightly integrated devices. Cook leaves behind a legacy of massive growth, scaling revenue and building a powerful services business, even as Apple lagged rivals in AI. Ternus’s elevation suggests Apple is doubling down on hardware-led innovation, with India, now a key manufacturing and growth hub, set to remain central to its global strategy.

NSE looks to boost Brent futures liquidity with market-making plan

The National Stock Exchange plans to introduce a liquidity enhancement scheme for its newly launched Brent crude futures, aiming to build volumes in a segment dominated by MCX. By incentivising brokers to provide continuous buy-sell quotes, NSE hopes to attract traders and improve price discovery. The move reflects its broader push to grow commodity derivatives through differentiated products. While MCX still commands over 99% market share, analysts say market-making could help NSE gain traction by offering participants a viable alternative for hedging global crude prices.

C-Suite race heats up at Indian banks

India’s top private banks are heading into a crucial leadership reset, with CEOs at HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak and IDFC First needing regulatory approval for new terms soon. While most incumbents remain eligible, the spotlight is on weak succession benches and the growing reliance on external hires. As RBI tightens governance expectations, boards are under pressure to groom credible internal leaders. Increasingly, CFOs and executives with strong compliance experience are emerging as frontrunners, reflecting a shift from pure business heads to leaders equipped for regulation-heavy banking.

Kidfluencers, parents find loopholes as privacy rules tighten

As India tightens rules on children’s data under the DPDP framework, parents of kidfluencers are finding workarounds to keep content monetisable. Accounts are increasingly run under parents’ names, with content framed as family-led to signal consent and avoid compliance risks. While brands remain keen on child-driven engagement, they now prefer parent-managed collaborations. The shift highlights a growing grey area: laws mandate parental consent, but enforcement remains unclear, and children’s actual awareness is uncertain. As scrutiny rises, the kidfluencer economy isn’t slowing—it’s quietly adapting to stay brand-safe and regulation-ready.

Flex-fuel push gains pace

India is planning a nationwide push for flex-fuel vehicles that can run on up to 85% ethanol, as volatile oil prices and West Asia tensions revive concerns over import dependence. The move builds on the E20 blending programme but faces resistance from automakers over costs, fuel pricing clarity and infrastructure gaps. With ethanol production now exceeding demand, industry is pushing for higher blends. However, consumer concerns around mileage and performance remain. The transition could cut import bills and boost farm incomes, but rebuilding public trust and ensuring ecosystem readiness will be critical to scaling adoption.

That’s all from us this week. Subscribe to our newsletters and the website for what’s in the news and beyond it. Write to us at newsletters@livemint.com.