ABB India jumped as much as 10% today before easing back, near its 52-week high.

The trigger wasn't the company's own results. It was one slide in its Swiss parent's Q2 report.

ABB Group's order intake from India: +81% year-on-year. One of the standout numbers in the entire presentation. (1/9) That matters because ABB India sits at the centre of India's industrial capex cycle.

The company has been in the country for over a century, operates six manufacturing locations, and sells across three business areas: Electrification (switchgear, power distribution), Motion (motors, drives) and Automation (process control). Together they serve metros, railways, metals, cement, renewables and buildings. (2/9)

Tax filing for stock market traders is getting more specific.📝

For a long time, traders had to report trading income as part of general business income. But the last two years have been different.

New business codes and specific reporting fields for intraday and F&O trading have been introduced. (1/7) First, there’s no change in which ITR form to choose.

Income from F&O = Business Income
Income from Intraday Trading = Speculative Business Income

For both, you must use ITR-3 and fill it under “Income from Business or Profession”.

If you only have capital gains from shares, use ITR-2. If you only have long-term capital gains from equity under ₹1.25 lakh, you can use ITR-1.
(2/7)

ITR filing — the bare minimum you should know.

Whether you file yourself or hand it to a CA, know at least this much.

1. What to know.
2. How to choose.
3. Where to find.
4. Whom to seek help from.
5. Which reporting matters if you are an investor?

🧵 What to know:

All of income tax comes down to five buckets. Every rupee you earn has to fall into one of them:

- Salary.
- House property.
- Capital gains.
- Business income.
- Or other sources (income that doesn't fit under the above heads of income).

That is literally the foundation. Five heads of income.

The government just hiked customs duty on gold from 6% to 15%.

If you hold Gold ETFs, gold index funds, or buy jewellery, this affects you directly. Here's how.🧵 Indian gold prices can rise even when global gold prices are flat.

That's because India depends heavily on imported gold. So the domestic gold price is shaped by:
→ Global gold price
→ Rupee-dollar movement
→ Import and customs duty
→ Local premiums
→ Taxes

This customs duty hike alone can push domestic prices up, while global gold does nothing.

Oil prices are back in the headlines, but there is no single benchmark price for oil.

The ticker price you see on your screen isn't the one India pays for its imports.

Here's why it matters👇🧵 Crude Benchmarks - Thankfully, the crude market standardized on a single measure: the barrel.

An oil barrel is roughly 159 liters. However, depending on where the crude actually enters the distribution system, there are numerous benchmark prices.

India is feeling the ripple effect of the war in West Asia.

LPG prices are being hiked, the govt has invoked emergency powers, and our reserves are in question.

Here’s a Varsity explainer on India’s LPG dependency.🧵 (1/n) What is LPG? LPG or Liquefied Petroleum Gas is primarily a mix of propane and butane, squeezed into liquid form under pressure. Open the valve of the cylinder → pressure drops → gas flows → flame ignites. Simple.

Until it isn't. (2/n)

Investing 101: A Varsity tweet 🧵 in 7 charts.

1⃣ How inflation eats into savings

Imagine you had ₹100 in 2011. If you had kept it as cash, you would still have ₹100 in 2025, but prices have almost doubled due to inflation.

Even if you parked it in something safe like a Post Office savings scheme, your ₹100 would have become roughly ₹173. Better than cash, but still not enough to keep up the prices. 2⃣ Historical performance of various asset classes.

Equity is one of the most effective ways to beat inflation and create wealth in the long run.

Around a year ago, the government announced that every senior citizen aged 70+, irrespective of income or background, would be eligible for a ₹5 lakh health insurance per annum under the Ayushman Vay Vandana Card.

It comes with cashless treatment across ~32,000 empanelled hospitals, both government and private. Rollout and registration have been progressing throughout the year.

The experience of claiming under this policy may vary from person to person. Having said that, if there’s one thing worth doing before this year ends, it’s making sure every 70+ elder around us is at least aware of this; and, where possible, helping them get registered.

Here’s a Varsity explainer on what this card is, how to register (via Aadhaar), and how to check empanelled hospitals. 🧵 This coverage under the Vay Vandana card is in addition to any private health insurance the senior citizen may already have.

And if the senior is already covered under the CGHS (Central Government Health Scheme), ECHS (Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme), as such, they can continue with that scheme or opt for the Vay Vandana card.

@haqdarshak caters to underserved communities for welfare schemes, and we have gathered a few inputs from them.

REITs are often bought for ‘passive income from real estate’ without actually owning the property. We looked at payout data since 2022 to ask: did the income match the yield you’d expect, and did payouts keep rising every year?

Here’s a Varsity explainer, plus the biggest REIT myth. India currently has five publicly listed REITs: Embassy, Brookfield, Mindspace, Nexus Select Trust, and Knowledge Realty Trust. The REIT story in India is still fairly recent; the first public REIT, Embassy Office Parks REIT, was listed only in 2019.

Most Indian REITs are predominantly focused on office spaces. Nexus Select Trust, on the other hand, is primarily retail-focused (shopping malls).

India got a C from the IMF.

Many headlines are discussing the C grade India got, but there’s more to it.

We looked at the actual IMF report, and here is a Varsity primer on it. (1/) IMF rates data quality from A to D: A is the highest and D the lowest.
A - data is adequate for surveillance
B- data has some shortcomings, but is broadly adequate
C - data shortcomings could somewhat hamper surveillance
D- serious shortcomings that hamper surveillance (2/)

New Labour Codes: How your gratuity, PF, leave encashment and overtime pay may change 👇

The Government has merged 29 labour laws into four Labour Codes. They cover timely salary payments, overtime pay (after 8 hours/day or 48 hours/week), gender equality, minimum wages, and extending key employee benefits to contract workers.

But the change that may impact salaried employees the most is the definition of “wages.” Here’s a Varsity explainer. 🧵 Generally, “wages” = basic pay + dearness allowance (DA).

Most companies structure salaries so that (basic + DA) is ~40% of total pay. Some keep it even lower; only few keep it above 50%.

The remaining amount is paid out through a bouquet of allowances: a fixed allowance, a special allowance, a travel/communication allowance, etc.

The new Labour Code indicates:
👉 Basic + DA to be at least 50% of total remuneration. (or such % as may be notified).

When a bank says your FD rate is 7% (compounded quarterly) and the annualized yield is 7.7%, it sounds like you’re actually earning 7.7% compounded every year. But you’re not.

Here’s a Varsity thread on what you should know about yields shown by banks🧵👇 First, FDs can be of two types:

Cumulative: Interest is reinvested and paid at maturity.

Non-cumulative: Interest is paid out periodically (quarterly, twice a year, etc.)

For cumulative FDs, most banks usually show two numbers - the interest rate and the yield, as shown in the image below.

Aswath Damodaran called Walmart’s acquisition of Flipkart the most expensive facelift in history.

He said Walmart was an old company trying to look young with Flipkart.

Here’s a Varsity explainer on Damodaran’s views and why Walmart acquired Flipkart.🧵 (1/n) In the eighteen years of its existence, Flipkart has not delivered a net profit. That is what Damodaran perhaps had an issue with.
But Walmart saw value beyond profits in Flipkart. (2/n)

Silver is up 82% in 2025. Precious metals usually do not rally so much. The rally happened despite many investors being fearful.

So, we spoke to a few experts to understand what is happening, and here is a Varsity explainer on why Silver is firing on all cylinders. 🧵(1/n) 1⃣Besides being a precious metal, Silver’s applications in solar panels, EVs, wind turbines, semiconductors, and advanced electronics have been on the rise. But this has been known for the past few years. Perhaps, something deeper is brewing in the silver markets. (2/n)

Central banks have been blamed for the Great Depression, the 1970s inflation, and the 2008 crisis. So... do we even need them? 🤔
🧵(1/11) Let's travel back to 1700s Scotland - the wild west of banking. Anyone could set up a bank. No central authority. No one controlling money supply. Just pure competition. And contrary to what you'd expect, it actually worked. Here's how...(2/11)

All 10 pension fund managers launched new schemes during the recent NPS Diwas event.

All these schemes fall under the multiple scheme framework (MSF) introduced by PFRDA. Each fund follows a specific theme, and some allow up to 100% equity investment. This is in contrast to the existing structure, where equity allocation is capped at 75%.

Here’s a Varsity thread 🧵answering common questions, with inputs from @PensionBox 1⃣ Can you transfer your existing NPS investments into these new schemes?

No, you cannot transfer your existing investments.

Going forward, the existing investments in schemes E, C, G, and A under the Active and Auto Choice options will be referred to as common schemes.

These new schemes are available only for new investments, not for transfers from the common schemes.

Why did the shares of Indian hospital stocks soar by 5-7% on Monday?

Here’s a quick Varsity explainer on how a simple act by the government after a 10-year wait got investors excited. (1/n) The Central Government, since 1954, has run an initiative called the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) to provide medical care to its employees and pensioners — including Members of Parliament (MPs) & Supreme Court Judges. (2/n)

If you are buying gold jewelry or exchanging your old gold for new ornaments, here's a Varsity explainer on the pricing🧵👇 🧐Gold jewelry pricing has four components - Base gold cost, stone value, value addition charges, and GST.

Gold cost depends on both quantity and quality used.

You can soon invest 100% in equities in NPS. Yesterday, the PFRDA issued a circular with some major changes to its current structure: "Introduction of Multiple Scheme Framework."

It allows fund managers to launch new schemes, permits users to invest 100% in equity, and provides the option to withdraw early.

Here's a Varsity explainer with inputs from @PensionBox 👇 1⃣What are multiple schemes?

So, now each pension fund manager is allowed to launch schemes on top of the schemes that they already have.

The existing schemes will be called 'common schemes'.

The new schemes that the pension fund managers will launch can have a specific theme—like high growth, 'meant for doctors', or 'for women in their mid-30s', etc.

Each new scheme will have two variants based on risk: 'aggressive' and 'moderate'.

And these aggressive schemes can have equity allocation of up to 100%.

If you’re someone who files taxes in the last minute, here’s a cheat sheet to make your life easier.

You’re welcome :)

This is the 10th year of RERA (Real Estate Regulatory Authority), a law that promised to safeguard the interests of homebuyers of under-construction properties in India.

After all, buying a home is often the biggest personal finance decision of one’s lifetime.

RERA hasn’t been a panacea for all real estate problems, but it has laid a foundation. Yet many new buyers are still unaware of their rights under the law.

Here’s a quick Varsity thread on 5 RERA regulations every new homebuyer should know. 🧵 1⃣RERA website: a treasure of data

Every state has its own RERA website. Just search the project name and you’ll find a wealth of information—title deeds, approvals, unit counts, layouts, completion dates, and even complaints against the builder.

This applies to all projects with more than 8 units or covering over 500 square metres. Without registration, a builder isn’t even allowed to market the project to you.

And if someone tells you they are “in the process” of getting a RERA registration and asks for a booking advance, that’s a clear red flag.