Newsletter
Indiaās industrial output rises, the UPI battle continues, and OpenAI gets a new partner.
šļø Morning, folks! āļø
The AI chaos has one more voice to it. But Nvidiaās answer is to build guardrails around the tech.
Nvidia is proposing a new āOpen Agent Safety Platformā to stop AI agents from going where they shouldnāt.
In a ridiculously simple language, the platform uses āOpenShellā to control what AI can access and āSentryā to keep an eye on what it does, after AI models from companies like OpenAI, Google and Meta reportedly broke out of restricted environments. (Case in point: Hugging Face).
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang believes AI safety can be tackled with practical engineering fixes, rather than slowing down AI development.
While we are on chaosš»,
Markets had a pretty painful start to the week. Sensex & Nifty fell 1.5% each.
47 of the 50 Nifty stocks ended in the red, every sectoral index fell, and PSU banks were among the worst hit. Midcaps also took a beating, while market volatility jumped 13%.
The big worry continues to be rising crude oil prices. By the end of the session, nearly ā¹8 lakh crore of investor wealth had been wiped out from BSE-listed companies.
A few stocks escaped the bloodbath. Dr Reddyās, Infosys and HDFC Life ended higher. Basically, Monday came with no Monday motivation for Dalal Street. š„²
š” Spotlight: No mercy for UPI š„²
The Supreme Court has refused to pause the new UPI charge framework kicking in from October 15.
It will now examine the challenge to the 0.4% Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on certain UPI payments above ā¹2,000 made to merchants. The Centre, RBI and NPCI have been asked to respond within four weeks.
What is MDR: the new system ends nearly six years of completely free UPI payments, but it does not mean you will start paying for every UPI transaction above ā¹2,000.
The MDR applies only to specified merchant payments, while person-to-person transfers and merchant payments up to ā¹2,000 remain free. The government says about 96% of UPI merchant transactions will be unaffected.
So, for now, your ā¹10,000 UPI payment to an eligible merchant could attract a 0.4% MDR, or ā¹40, within the payment ecosystem. But that amount is not supposed to be separately charged to you by the UPI app.
Letās hit it! šŖš»
1 Big thing: Zee and JioStarās copyright fight gets messier šæ
Just when you thought Indiaās media giants had enough drama on screen, Zee Entertainment has taken its copyright battle with JioStar back to the Delhi High Court.
What happened: Zee has alleged that the Reliance-Disney media giant continued using Zee-owned songs even after the court told it to stop. Zeeās latest filing, dated September 21, calls it āwilful disobedienceā of the earlier court order.
Quick context: the fight goes back to licensing agreements signed in 2017 and 2020, which allowed JioStar to use music owned by Zee in its television and streaming content. Those licences eventually expired, with the last one ending on October 31, 2025.
Timeline: in April, Zee sued JioStar, claiming its songs had been used at least 50 times without a valid licence. According to court documents reviewed by Reuters, the lawsuit was filed on April 14 and seeks around $3 million in damages.
On May 5, the Delhi High Court directed JioStar not to use, broadcast, stream or upload works over which Zee holds exclusive copyright. The court also sent the two companies to mediation to try to settle the dispute.
JioStar told the court at the time that it had already removed a substantial amount of Zeeās content.
It also argued that because of the scale of its platform, it may not be able to identify every alleged violation without Zee pointing out the specific content. JioStar said it would remove such content once identified.
Zee says the problem didnāt stop. The matter is scheduled to return before the court in December.
While we are on legal disputes,
Fortis Healthcare shares ended lower after the Supreme Court allowed a forensic audit of its past transactions.
About the case: this goes back to the companyās former promoters, brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, and their long-running legal battle with Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo.
Daiichi bought the Singh brothersā stake in Ranbaxy years ago and later accused them of hiding important information about regulatory problems at the drugmaker. Daiichi eventually won a ā¹2,562 crore arbitration award in 2016.
Since then, it has been trying to recover that money. Daiichi alleges that assets available to pay it including the brothersā shares in Fortis were sold, pledged or otherwise reduced while the recovery case was underway.
The Singh brothers and financial institutions involved have disputed aspects of those allegations.
Where does Fortis come in: when the arbitration award was made, the Singh brothers controlled a large stake in Fortis.
Their holding subsequently fell sharply and eventually dropped below 1%. So the Delhi High Court wants a forensic auditor to essentially follow the money and shares, checking what happened to those assets and examining related Fortis transactions, including IHH Healthcareās 2018 investment.
Think of it as getting an independent accountant to reconstruct an old financial trail and figure out exactly what happened.
Fortis argued that it was not part of the Daiichi-Singh brothers arbitration and isnāt responsible for the former promotersā personal liabilities.
The company has challenged the Delhi High Courtās audit order in the Supreme Court, but the SC declined to stop the forensic audit.
2. Sun Pharma eyes cholesterol market š
Sun Pharma has signed an exclusive deal with US-based LIB Therapeutics to make and sell LIBās cholesterol medicine, Lerodalcibep, outside the US and China.
The once-a-month injection lowers LDL, often called ābadā cholesterol. It was approved in the EU earlier this month.
Why patients may need another option: existing treatments do not get everyoneās cholesterol low enough. In a study across 18 European countries, only about one in three patients taking oral cholesterol medicines reached the target recommended for their level of risk.
Why it matters for Sun Pharma: the company hopes to bring Lerodalcibep to more patients in the markets covered by the deal.
Sales of similar medicines outside the US and China reached $3.7 billion in the year ending June 2026, with Europe accounting for $2.9 billion.
3. What Gen Z wants from work š¤
Ask a Gen Z employee what career growth looks like, and you wonāt hear āpromotion.ā And youāll hear something else entirely.
For 57% of Gen Z, growth means picking up new skills, not a new title. Only 12% call a promotion āgrowth.ā This tracks with a bigger shift too: LinkedIn has reported a steady rise in companies dropping degree and tenure requirements in favour of skills-based hiring.
Basically, what you can do is starting to matter more than what your designation says. Ladders are out, learning curves are in.
4. Stocks that kept us interested š
What went up ā¬ļø
š Marine Electricals rose over 3% after it secured ā¹250.7 crore in orders, including power distribution systems for multiple data centre operators.
šš» Allied Blenders gained a little over 1% after Bloomberg reported its founding Chhabria family is considering a company sale.
š„³ Augmont Enterprises jumped 10% after NSE selected the company and its subsidiaries to promote trading in Electronic Gold Receipts.
ā”ļø Shares of air-conditioner makers rose on expectations that companies would raise prices, with Voltas gaining 1.5%.
What went down ā¬ļø
š¤ PB Fintech slipped 1% despite Bernstein retaining its Outperform rating and ā¹2,310 target price.
š° Shares of gold financing companies tumbled alongside declining gold prices on Monday, with Manappuram Finance dropping by about 6%.
šš» Adani Enterprises fell nearly 3% after Adani Group companies traded 86 lakh of its shares on Friday.
š Dhoot Transmission slipped 3% after Kotak initiated coverage with a Sell rating and ā¹1,400 target.
What else are we snackinā šæ
š®āšØ Manufacturing boost: Indiaās industrial output grew 8% year-on-year in August, accelerating from Julyās 6.7%, driven by sharp rises in manufacturing and electricity.
š¤ Deal done: Rashtriya Chemicals approved a ā¹797 crore deal with L&T to upgrade its ammonia plant and cut energy costs.
šš¼āāļø Order buzz: Kalpataru Projects shares turned lower after opening higher, despite winning a UAE gas pipeline contract classified as a major order.
š Howzat, ChatGPT: Sachin Tendulkar has announced a partnership with OpenAI. He announced the collaboration through a post on X, teasing that āinteresting thingsā are in store.
Thatās a wrap! Donāt let the weekday blues get to you.
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Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and research purposes only. Nothing here should be considered financial, investment, legal, or professional advice.
