Mint TOTM: Indian IT is all-in on AI. There's no going back.
One in four engineers at TCS, Infosys and Wipro now has an AI co-worker at their desk. AI productivity gains are real, but so are the harder questions.
Three hundred thousand. That’s how many Microsoft Copilot subscriptions TCS, Infosys and Wipro now collectively hold, double what they had just six months ago. For firms that together employ over a million people and pulled in $60 billion in revenue last year, that’s a statement.
Roughly one in four engineers at these firms now has an AI co-worker at their desk, helping write code faster, summarise reports quicker, and handle the repetitive grunt work that once filled entire workdays. Productivity gains are real, but so are the harder questions.
TCS shed over 23,000 employees last year in its steepest headcount decline ever. Brokerages like Jefferies and Kotak already expect AI to eat into near-term revenues. Is Copilot a quiet restructuring tool dressed in productivity language?
The bosses, naturally, say both can co-exist. Analysts are more measured. The biggest early win will be speed, not disruption. But when 95% of Wipro’s licensed users are active monthly, “experiment” is no longer the right word. Read the full story by Jas Bardia and Shouvik Das.
In today’s edition of Mint TOTM:
- Is India’s bumper IPO party over?
- IndiGo is reworking its craft playbook
- Inside Amaravati’s race against FOMO
THE MAIN STUFF
Is India’s IPO party over?
After two record-breaking years, India’s IPO market has hit a wall. May 2026 saw zero mainboard IPOs—the first blank month since the US tariff scare of March 2025. The culprit was escalating West Asia tensions that rattled global markets and sent the Nifty 50 down 7% from the onset of the Iran-US war.
With roughly two-thirds of 2026’s IPO listings now trading below issue price and average listing gains crashing to 8%, the lowest since 2019, the “list-and-flip” trade that fuelled retail frenzy is firmly dead.
SME IPOs haven’t blinked. Seventeen SMEs raised ₹733 crore in May alone, even as their large-cap counterparts sat out entirely. Does that signal resilience or just a narrower, more tactical pool of risk-takers? Analysts lean toward the latter. Read on.
IndiGo is rewriting its aircraft playbook
For nearly two decades, IndiGo’s playbook was, order planes cheap, sell them to lessors, lease them back, repeat. It worked brilliantly, until the rupee started sliding.
Between June 2025 and March 2026, the rupee fell 13.64%, and with most lease payments in dollars, IndiGo has had to eat a loss in three of its last seven quarters.
So, the airline is changing tack. Over a fifth of IndiGo’s 441-strong fleet is now owned or finance-leased, up from 10% just 18 months ago, roughly halfway to its 2030 target of 30-40%. Its GIFT City unit is central to this, with $1.27 billion committed to buying aircraft and prepaying lease obligations.
Owning planes won’t eliminate currency risk, ticket revenues are still in rupees, but it meaningfully reduces dependence on foreign lessors. Read more.
MINT LONG STORY
The Quantum Valley bet in Andhra Pradesh
IBM’s Quantum System Two, which will be installed at the Quantum Valley in Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, later in 2026.
Governments around the world are racing to build quantum capabilities. One effort is in Amaravati where Andhra Pradesh is bypassing global hardware restrictions to build an indigenous Quantum Valley. Can Chandrababu Naidu, the state’s chief minister, turn raw talent into commercial power? Read more.
The aftermarket shakeout in India
India’s auto aftermarket is in a shakeout, and the small guys are caught in a pincer.
On one side, GST rate cuts have shrunk the price gap between branded helmets, lubricants, and spare parts and their grey-market alternatives, eroding the one advantage unorganised players always had. On the other, the Iran war has spiked input costs across steel, aluminium, and base oils.
When refineries ration supply, it’s the spot-buying small operators who get left out first. Big players like Studds, Ask Automotive Ltd., and Motul have supply contracts, inventory buffers, and distribution muscle, but their smaller rivals have none of that. Studds expects the unorganised helmet market to shrink from 30% today to 10-15% in a few years. Read on.
Godrej wants to manage your money
India’s wealth management space just got another heavyweight entrant. Godrej Investments has launched Godrej Wealth, targeting customers with over ₹2 crore in investable assets, putting it squarely in competition with 360 ONE, Jio BlackRock, and a clutch of Indian and foreign banks.
Godrej argues, your bank has deposit targets to meet, and that may not always translate into advice that’s best for you. It’s a fair question worth asking of anyone managing your money.
BCG estimates India will add over $2 trillion in wealth by 2030, and every major conglomerate, from Tata to Bajaj, wants a slice. Godrej acknowledges the space is crowded. Its bet is that misaligned incentives have left room for someone who’ll actually put the customer first. Read more.
The man Noel Tata called back to fight the listing battle
Should India’s most storied conglomerate go public? It’s the question hanging over Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd., and Noel Tata has brought back 71-year-old Farokh Subedar, a 42-year Tata veteran, to help fight the case against it.
Subedar’s argument is rooted in history, not ideology. Tata Sons paid mill workers’ gratuity it had no legal obligation to pay. It bailed out Tata Finance depositors during a run on the company. It absorbed Air India’s ₹15,300 crore debt. None of that, he says, would have been possible with minority shareholders demanding short-term returns.
But the walls are closing in. The RBI wants Tata Sons listed. The SP Group, holding 18.37% and buried under ₹55,000-60,000 crore in debt, wants a listing badly. And in a reversal, two Tata Trusts vice chairmen who voted to stay private last July have now flipped. Read on.
🔢 NEWS IN NUMBERS
₹29.90 trillion: The value of UPI transactions recorded in May 2026, driven by consumer spending and digital payments linked to the summer travel season and the Indian Premier League.
1: Linsey Smith’s position in the ICC Women’s T20I Bowling Ranking, following her performance against New Zealand and India, as she overtook Pakistan’s Sadia Iqbal.
$1.8 billion: The size of a compensation fund proposed by Donald Trump to address alleged government “weaponisation”, which has been put on hold after backlash from Republicans in Congress.
₹4,200 crore: The amount the government is expected to raise by selling up to a 6% stake in NHPC Ltd. through an offer for sale, its third OFS of a public sector company in this fiscal.
$80 billion: The amount Alphabet Inc. plans to raise through stock sales to fund AI infrastructure, anchored by a $10 billion investment from Berkshire Hathaway.
28,000: The average number of barrels of jet fuel Russia exported per day in the first four months of 2026, amid reports that it has banned exports of the commodity till 30 November.
$13.1 billion: The amount global private equity firm Blackstone raised for its third Asia-focused fund, one of the largest fundraisers in the region.
₹3.6 trillion: The amount the Centre mobilised through domestic financing in April, nearly double the ₹1.9 trillion raised in the same month last year.
AROUND THE WORLD
- The Exxon example for corporations
- Inside US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Asia visit
- US presses Oman to pick a side and cut ties with Iran
- Nvidia has a robot partner. It isn’t Tesla.
- Donald Trump and the art of bad diplomacy
CHART OF THE DAY
LOUNGE RECOMMENDS
Wellness, the Mira Kapoor way
What does wellness mean in urban India? It could be waking up for a 6:00 am run, maintaining a daily journal, or like Mira Rajput Kapoor chilling with kids as they watch Crazy Rich Asians together.
The concept of self-care doesn’t fit into neat boxes of haves and have-nots for the budding entrepreneur. The 31-year-old believes it must be seamless and tailored to fit one’s lifestyle, age and state of mind.
Kapoor is the founder of Dhun Wellness in Mumbai, which completed a year in May. It was launched as a holistic centre for city dwellers who struggle to find time checking into a health resort tucked away in the hills. Located in the heart of the metropolis, they have week-long programs, from gut restoration to women’s health and sleep management. Read more.
WHAT THE FACT
Muhammad Ali, 1942–2016
Muhammad Ali, boxer, activist, and self-proclaimed greatest of all time, died on this day at the age of 74. History agreed with him.
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