Son rise at Sun Pharma

At 70, Dilip Shanghvi doesn’t do many things without thinking three moves ahead. So, when Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. announced an $11.75-billion acquisition of Organon, effectively doubling its revenue overnight, it was about legacy.

The US generics business that built India’s largest pharma company has been quietly losing its shine for a decade. It’s peak revenue of $2.24 billion in FY15 had shrunk to $1.92 billion by FY25, squeezed by brutal pricing and pharmacy buying consortiums. Shanghvi saw the plateau coming and pivoted, building out emerging markets while peers fought over scraps.

Enter Organon. Spun off from Merck, it brings a commercial presence in 140 countries, $800 million in China revenue, and a biosimilars platform poised to benefit from $320 billion in biologics losing patent protection by 2035. Sun Pharma paid what analysts called “less than 25% of its own value” for all this.

But what makes this deal truly fascinating is that it lands squarely in the lap of Aalok Shanghvi, 42, Dilip’s son and newly appointed COO, who has built Sun Pharma’s entire emerging markets engine over two decades. Read the full story by T. Surender and Jessica Jani.

THE MAIN STUFF

Hope of peace in West Asia rekindle market

A possible US-Iran ceasefire deal sent India’s stock market surging and crude oil prices tumbling. Aviation stocks loved that last part.

But seasoned investors are urging calm. Valuations have improved, Nifty 50’s forward P/E is down from 23X to 19X, yet earnings recovery is still quarters away and FIIs remain net sellers.

Peace headlines move markets fast. Sustained recovery needs something more durable—earnings growth, stable crude, and genuine foreign inflows returning. Read on.

Ola Consumer needs money, hence IPO

Ola Group founder Bhavish Aggarwal.

Ola Consumer has told the world it’s preparing to go public. That, after cash more than halved to ₹653 crore, net worth has crashed 57%, and accumulated loss stands at ₹21,213 crore. Meanwhile, Uber India is spending aggressively and Rapido has quietly eaten into Ola’s market share—from 40-45% in 2023 to just 20-25% today.

An IPO might raise cash. But can public money fix what’s fundamentally a brand and execution problem? The road to recovery is expensive. Read more.

Streaming pays less, films cost more

Hindi film music is getting expensive and streaming pay rates have halved. So Times Music, Warner, and Saregama go regional. Acquiring Bhojpuri, Tamil, or Punjabi catalogues offers something increasingly rare—affordable IP with loyal, passionate audiences.

For smaller regional labels sitting on valuable music but lacking distribution muscle, it’s a lifeline before streaming economics get worse. But is scale always the answer in culture-driven markets? Bigger players entering without understanding local tastes have burned money before. Read on.

GDP is soaring. Wages aren’t. Here’s why.

India’s GDP is growing, its services sector is thriving, yet real wages for millions of workers have barely moved. The average monthly earnings remain below ₹20,000 in eight states, including Uttar Pradesh, and real wage growth since 2022 has been almost negligible.

The uncomfortable truth? India skipped manufacturing—the sector that historically absorbed low-skilled workers and built middle classes across China, Vietnam, and South Korea. Services can’t do that job alone.

With inflation rising again and bargaining power near zero for India’s labour surplus, the disconnect between GDP headlines and ground reality isn’t going away anytime soon. Read more.

Mphasis is suing Coforge in the US

When a former Mphasis VP walked out of the door in July and straight into Coforge to working on the exact same client account, Mphasis filed a lawsuit in Colorado alleging systematic poaching, confidential data exposure, and unfair competitive advantage.

Coforge calls it interference with fair competition. Mphasis calls it theft of trade secrets. The truth is, both are probably right about something. In a slow-growth IT market where client relationships and proprietary platforms are everything, talent poaching is the new competitive battleground. Read on.

🔢 NEWS IN NUMBERS

11%: The size of Freshworks layoffs as the business-software company reshapes its operations around artificial intelligence.

$1.9 billion: The capital allocated by India’s cabinet for a credit guarantee plan to help businesses and airlines absorb the economic impact of the ongoing war in Iran.

₹1.98 trillion: The amount FIIs have withdrawn from Indian equities in the first four months of 2026, as global investors shift allocations to other Asian markets with better valuations.

4.4 million: The number of searches conducted on RBI’s UDGAM portal since its launch in August 2023, enabling legal heirs to locate unclaimed deposits across integrated banks.

38: The Union Cabinet has cleared a bill to increase the number of Supreme Court judges from the current 34, including the Chief Justice of India.

58.8: India’s HSBC Services PMI for April, up from 57.5 in March, marking the strongest expansion since November 2025 on rising new business and easing price pressures.

$250 million: The amount Apple Inc. has agreed to pay to iPhone 15 and 16 users to settle a class action lawsuit over misleading advertising of Apple Intelligence and its Siri features.

AROUND THE WORLD

• Are memory makers making too much money?
• How mall brands won big at the Met Gala
• Gulf states fear an emboldened Iran is taking advantage of a hesitant US
• Kevin Warsh has more room to manoeuvre at the Fed than markets see
• Asia’s stranded seafarers suffer as the Iran war drugs on

CHART OF THE DAY

LOUNGE RECOMMENDS

Sleep, Movement, Food

Sheeba De Souza: Rest used to be something I negotiated with myself, a luxury I could cut when the to-do list grew longer. However, the truth is that nothing restores me like a good night’s sleep. It’s not just about beauty rest; it’s about balance, clarity and mood.

Now, I protect sleep the way I protect my peace. I place my phone face down across the room and give myself a small ritual, sometimes journalling, sometimes just a few slow breaths in the dark. Read more.

WHAT THE FACT

Ted Turner, CNN founder, dies at 87

Media pioneer Ted Turner, founder of CNN and a key force behind the 24-hour news cycle, died on 6 May at 87. An entrepreneur, he built a vast media empire and later became a major philanthropist and environmentalist. Read more.

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