What’s Behind India & USA's biggest defence pact yet?

Narayana’s UK leap, Digital arrests, and Jio-Google freebie deal.

🗓 Morning, folks! It’s a new week.

💡 Spotlight: a decade of defence deal for US & India

India and the United States signed a 10-year defence framework, marking one of the biggest boosts yet to their strategic partnership.

The deal covers everything from military cooperation and tech sharing to intelligence coordination, with both sides calling it a cornerstone for stability in the Indo-Pacific.

This also comes as trade talks heat up following Donald Trump’s tariff hike over India’s Russian oil buys.

But despite the friction, New Delhi and Washington seem to be playing the long game.

Let’s hit it!

1 Big Thing: India plans ₹7,000 crore push for rare earth magnets 🧲

India is planning to nearly triple its incentive program for rare earth magnet manufacturing to over ₹7,000 crore ($788 million).

Context: the global rare earth market is still dominated by China, which controls nearly 90% of processing capacity.

China’s export restrictions earlier this year disrupted supplies worldwide, especially for automakers, and exposed the world’s reliance on a single source. Mining and processing rare earths also remain tough due to high costs and environmental challenges.

What’s the matter: the new plan, awaiting cabinet approval, marks a sharp increase from the earlier $290 million proposal.

Why it’s needed: the initiative aims to secure key materials essential for electric vehicles, renewable power systems, and defence technology.

It will support around five companies through a mix of production-linked incentives and capital subsidies. Meanwhile, state-run firms are leading efforts to build global mining partnerships as domestic production remains unviable without government support.

2. Narayana Health buys UK’s Practice Plus Group 💷

Narayana Health has made one of the biggest overseas hospital buys by an Indian healthcare firm, acquiring UK-based Practice Plus Group Hospitals for £188.78 million (₹1,930 crore) in an all-cash deal.

Practice Plus Group is a global private equity investor. It is the fifth-largest private hospital chain in the UK, performing nearly 80,000 surgeries a year with annual revenue of £250 million.

What it means: by buying Practice Plus Group, Narayana is entering one of the world’s most high-demand healthcare markets.

UK’s public health system is under pressure, with long waiting times pushing patients toward private hospitals. Narayana can use its low-cost, high-efficiency model to make operations more affordable and profitable.

For India, this is more than just a cross-border acquisition, it’s a soft power moment. It shows how Indian healthcare institutions are mature enough to own and run hospitals in developed markets.

In short, Narayana’s UK push puts “Made in India” healthcare on the global stage.

3. TCS joins hands with Tata Motors for green tech drive 🌱

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has joined forces with Tata Motors for a five-year partnership to use technology that helps the carmaker track and reduce its environmental impact and make sustainability reporting faster and easier.

What’s the deal: the move combines Tata Motors’ sustainability goals with TCS’s AI and analytics expertise.

The project will use TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange (IUX) to power Tata Motors’ Prakriti platform.

This digital system will automate ESG data collection, provide real-time sustainability insights, and simplify compliance under SEBI’s Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) framework.

Why it matters: this tech-led upgrade will help Tata Motors track emissions, monitor biodiversity efforts, and drive toward net-zero by 2040 for passenger vehicles and 2045 for commercial ones.

4. Snapmint raises $125M Series B to power EMI-on-UPI growth 💸

Snapmint, a buy now, pay later startup, has raised $125 million in Series B funding led by General Atlantic & existing angels.

Snapmint lets users shop and pay in EMIs without a credit card, serving 7 million monthly users across 23,000 pincodes and funding 1.5 million purchases a month.

The deets: of the total, $115 million came as primary capital, while the rest was a secondary transaction giving early investors an exit.

Post-fundraise, General Atlantic now holds an 18.8% stake in the company.

Why it matters: the company has turned profitable with ₹15 crore in FY25, growing revenue 80% YoY to ₹158.5 crore.

With this fresh capital, Snapmint aims to reach 100 million consumers and deepen its presence in the fast-growing EMI-on-UPI market, where it competes with CRED, Simpl, ZestMoney, and LazyPay.

5. Why is Google partnering with Reliance to roll out Gemini for free?

Reliance Industries through its arm Reliance Intelligence has teamed up with Google to roll out Gemini Pro worth ₹35,000 for free to Jio users aged 18 to 25.

The deets: the version will be available to users for 18 months who have subscribed for the Unlimited 5G plans. Gemini Pro includes unlimited chats, 2TB of cloud storage, video generation, image generation, and other advanced AI tools.

Why this matters: this deal gives Gemini direct access to Jio’s massive 505 million user base.

Adding to this, OpenAI has also announced a free roll out of the advanced version ChatGPT called ChatGPT Go for free for a year to Indian users.

Why is this happening: India is OpenAI’s second-largest market by user base, a goldmine for generative AI firms looking to scale fast.

Reliance, on the other hand, has perfected the free-first strategy, dominate first, monetize later. It played the same game with Facebook’s Free Basics and Jio, reshaping entire markets in the process.

Amid fierce competition, Google stands to gain big by teaming up with a trusted ally like Reliance unlocking massive growth potential in India’s rapidly expanding AI landscape.

6. Market Bites this week

Inside India’s Growing Cybercrime Industry, and Why the System Can’t Keep Up

India’s cybercrime industry is no longer operating from dark alleys, it’s industrialized. Leaked data, AI-generated voices, and deepfake calls are fueling a ₹25,000 crore scam economy that moves faster than the system meant to stop it.

Victims are coerced into “digital arrests,” banks deny liability, and law enforcement can’t keep up with cross-border syndicates.

Meanwhile, cybercriminals have turned panic into profit, using fear, not force, to break into wallets.

Because in today’s India, you don’t get robbed at gunpoint, you get robbed over a phone call.

Full story here.

7. Stocks that kept us interested 🚀

1. L&T teams up with General Atomics for made-in-India combat drones 🚀

L&T has joined hands with US-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) to manufacture advanced combat drones in India. The stock gained more than 1% following the update.

Note: this partnership also builds on the new 10-year US-India defence framework signed the same day.

Breaking it down: the partnership focuses on building Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS).

These are high-end military drones known for long flight endurance and precision strike capabilities. L&T will lead as the prime bidder for the Defence Ministry’s upcoming 87 MALE RPAS programme, while GA-ASI will provide technology transfer and expertise.

Why it’s important: the pact will allow India to locally produce combat-proven drones like the MQ-9B SeaGuardian, cutting dependence on imports and boosting the domestic defence ecosystem.