Best of the Week: We swore we'd parent differently. Turns out, most of us meant it.

Best of the Week is a weekly newsletter by Siddharth Sharma/Shravani Sinha. Subscribe to Mint's newsletters to get them directly in your inbox.

Remember sitting at the dinner table, textbooks open, while your parents reminded you that studies come first? Or being steered away from that music class because "it won't help in boards"? Most of us grew up with a version of that story.

And, without making a big announcement about it, urban India seems to be writing a different one for its own children.

A Mint survey of 10,022 people across 207 towns and cities, conducted with YouGov India and the Centre for Policy Research, found that only one in five parents wants to raise their kids the way they were raised.

The biggest shift is the eternal studies-versus-everything-else debate. While 54% said their parents had pushed academics above all else, only 43% plan to do the same for their own children.

And it goes deeper than just homework. Fewer parents today are prioritizing traditional or religious grounding over teaching their children to be responsible citizens. More are choosing gentleness over fear. Three in four prefer soft encouragement over scolding and strictness, and women, overwhelmingly, are leading that charge.

South India stands out beautifully here. Only 22% of southern parents favour strict discipline, compared to 27% in northern and eastern India. Nearly two in three southern parents say their child's passion is the top career priority. Not salary, not prestige.

But the wealthier the parent, the more they sound like their own parents. High earners are more likely to push academics, prioritize stability over passion, and worry intensely about competition. More money, it seems, sometimes means more anxiety, not more freedom.

And that anxiety has a new dimension in 2026. Many aspirational parents who once dreamed of sending children abroad for education are confronting a fractured equation. With the rupee at ₹96 to the dollar, a US Master's degree now costs ₹67-96 lakh, just in tuition. Add living costs, 12% interest on education loans, and a tightening job market for international graduates, and the maths gets brutal fast. "You end up paying at least 10-12% more solely because of rupee depreciation," noted one education consultant. Meanwhile, graduates in Arizona are spending twelve months job-hunting after $70,000 degrees. In Europe, anti-immigrant hiring sentiment is quietly closing doors.

The parenting dream of ‘a good life abroad’ is colliding with the ground reality.

And what keeps all parents up at night, regardless of income? Screens. Social media. Safety. In that order. Read the full data analysis here by my colleagues Rupanjal Chauhan and Tanay Sukumar.

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

Life inside TCS right now

A month after laying off 12,200 people, TCS asked managers to formally tag 5% of remaining employees as underperformers, a quota-based classification that's new, and that many employees fear is the next layoff list in disguise. Top performers got 6% hikes, below last year's range, and well short of the "double-digit" promise made on an analyst call. Meanwhile, a restructured salary slip has quietly buried allowances into new categories, leaving employees confused about actual take-home impact. TCS reported its first-ever revenue decline. AI is reshaping billing models. Headcount is shrinking by design.

Bajaj’s century of no—and one very deliberate yes

The Bajaj Group spent 100 years saying no. No to four-wheelers, real estate, telecom, and every diversification temptation that seduced Tata, Birla, and Reliance. Just motorcycles and financial services, run with obsessive discipline. The result was ₹13.5 trillion in market cap, compounding at 23.7% annually since 2010. Fastest among India's top 10 business groups. From a handful of companies. Now, after scanning 64 industries over six months, the family has said yes to healthcare. Nirav Bajaj, Harvard MBA and fourth-generation heir, is building a tiered-care model that bets 70-80% of India's health needs can be solved outside hospitals.

Adani wants to be Apple

Gautam Adani is restructuring one of India's most sprawling conglomerates from the inside out. The playbook is similar to Apple's. Keep strategy, R&D, and finance in-house. Hand manufacturing, logistics, and engineering to a trusted vendor ecosystem, just like Apple relies on Foxconn, TSMC, and Samsung. Site-level employees are already being transferred to vendors. Lateral hiring is effectively frozen, internal promotions only. And the corporate structure is being compressed into just three layers to speed up decisions. The group simply got too large to manage efficiently. With ₹2 trillion in annual capex committed across five years, can this restructuring actually match the ambition?

India's banks know the AI cyber threat is real

After a finance ministry meeting in April put AI-linked cyber threats squarely on the agenda, India's biggest banks are hiring, war-gaming attacks, and widening insurance coverage. HDFC Bank is expanding red-teaming teams. Axis Bank is running adversarial AI simulations. The trigger is Claude Mythos, an AI model capable of identifying vulnerabilities and launching attacks at unprecedented speed. The uncomfortable reality is that India has 3,50,000 cybersecurity professionals against demand for nearly one million. Most bank cyber insurance policies don't even cover AI incidents yet. India's BFSI sector already faces 4.1 million cyberattacks monthly. AI just made each one potentially faster and cheaper to execute.

Peace hopes lifted Nasdaq 1.5%. Nifty barely moved.

Global markets are cautiously celebrating West Asia peace hopes. India's market isn't joining the party, and the options data tells you exactly why. Bears have aggressively piled into 23,800 call options, with open interest surging 20% in a single session to 3.69 million contracts. That number, unbroken since 11 May, has become a wall the Nifty simply can't climb through. Who's building these positions? Largely FPIs, already net sellers of ₹2.31 trillion this year, just shy of their all-time annual record. A peace deal could force a sharp short-covering rally.

How the oil shock is squeezing India Inc

The West Asia war is hurting Indian companies far beyond higher crude prices. LPG shortages, migrant worker exits, and soaring costs are forcing factories to run at 60% capacity. Across sectors, companies are struggling to pass on rising expenses linked to fuel, gas, chemicals and imports. Ceramic makers, paint firms, automakers and FMCG companies are all reporting margin pressure. The falling rupee has worsened the pain. While aluminum firms are benefiting from higher prices, most companies now worry that rising fuel costs could eventually weaken consumer demand itself.

Why fuel prices may rise further

Petrol and diesel prices have already gone up by nearly ₹4 a litre, but analysts believe more hikes are likely as the West Asia war keeps crude oil above $100 a barrel. Oil companies are still losing an estimated ₹750 crore a day because retail fuel prices have not risen enough to match the jump in crude costs. Brokerages like Bernstein and Kotak say prices may need to rise another ₹11-14 per litre. The impact could spread across the economy. Higher fuel prices may slow vehicle sales, push inflation up and hurt consumer spending. At the same time, expensive petrol and diesel could accelerate India’s shift towards electric vehicles as running costs for conventional vehicles keep climbing.

Why automakers want cheaper high-ethanol fuel

India’s automakers are urging the Centre to make high-ethanol fuels like E85 and E100 significantly cheaper than petrol if flex-fuel vehicles are to succeed. Carmakers say consumers will not switch unless running costs clearly improve, especially since higher ethanol blends deliver lower mileage. The industry is also seeking tax cuts and incentives, particularly for two-wheelers. The push comes as India tries to reduce dependence on imported crude oil amid global energy uncertainty. Brazil’s model, where ethanol-heavy fuels are cheaper, is being closely watched. Automakers, ethanol producers and policymakers now need to align on pricing, infrastructure and consumer adoption.

BJP states may cut fuel taxes to ease inflation pain

BJP-ruled states may soon cut VAT on petrol and diesel after the Centre reduced excise duty last month, according to people aware of government discussions. Diesel is the main focus because rising transport and logistics costs are pushing up inflation across the economy. The move would mirror 2022, when BJP states reduced VAT after crude prices surged during the Russia-Ukraine war. While cheaper fuel could offer relief to consumers and businesses, states may take a hit on tax revenue. Even after recent fuel price hikes, oil companies are still reportedly losing more than ₹700 crore a day selling fuel below cost.

Palm oil squeeze could add to India’s inflation worries

India may soon face higher edible oil prices as Indonesia and Malaysia divert more palm oil towards biodiesel production. The two countries dominate global palm oil exports, and India depends heavily on them for affordable cooking oil imports. Indonesia’s aggressive biodiesel push means a growing share of its palm oil output will stay at home instead of entering global markets. That could tighten supplies and push prices up further. Since India imports more than half its edible oil needs, the impact could quickly show up in household budgets. Alternatives like sunflower and soybean oil are available, but they are more expensive and harder to source.

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.