Mercor's Indian-American Co-founders, Surya Midha and Adarsh Hiremath, first met at the age of 10 while competing in school debate tournaments. The duo later joined the debate team at Bellarmine College Preparatory in US' California and met their third Co-founder, Brendan Foody, at the age of 14, also through the debate team. All three are now world's youngest self-made billionaires.

Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) proposed a three-step plan to safeguard India-US trade. It urged India to halt sanctioned Russian oil imports from Rosneft and Lukoil to avoid exposure to secondary sanctions that could cripple financial and digital systems. Further, India must press US to withdraw punitive 25% tariffs and resume trade talks on "fair and balanced terms", it said.

Meeting FY26's fiscal targets appears challenging amid subdued growth in corporate and income tax revenues, stated a report by Union Bank of India. The reduced fiscal deficit target was premised on strong tax collections, it said. In April-September FY26, fiscal deficit reached ₹5.73 lakh crore, a 21%YoY increase, primarily driven by higher capital expenditure in first half of FY26.

India's exports to US declined 37.5% from $8.8 billion to $5.5 billion, sharpest short-term fall in years, during May-September 2025, stated Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) report. Comparing export performance to assess tariff fallout, it found that duties began at 10% in April, rose to 25% and reached 50% by August. Tariff-free products dropped 47% to $1.8 billion in September.

India plans to triple size of its incentive programme for rare earth magnet production to more than ₹7,000 crore ($788 million) to build domestic capacity in a China-dominated sector. The proposal currently awaits cabinet approval and marks significant hike from initial ₹2,574 crore ($290 million) plan. It will support five companies through production-linked and capital subsidies, said sources.

SEBI, in collaboration with Panchayati Raj Ministry, will be training sarpanches and Panchayati Raj Institution officials across six states to boost financial literacy in rural India. The scheme has been initiated in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, and Tripura. It aims to educate and guide rural communities on responsible investments in equities and other avenues.

The combined market capitalisation of four out of the top 10 most-valued companies in India increased by ₹95,447.38 crore last week. Reliance Industries emerged as the biggest gainer witnessing ₹47,431.32 crore surge. Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, and LIC were also among gainers, while HDFC Bank, TCS, Infosys and Hindustan Unilever faced combined erosion of ₹91,685.94 crore in valuation.

Delhi-based food entrepreneur Kawaljeet Singh recalled how people now see him opening new outlets but how he used to cry and had burned a lot of money to build his business. "I fought with my family, gave my whole jawani (youth) to this field. Didn't attend social gatherings because of my inner guilt of not making money," Singh said.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh praised McDonald's for launching India's 'Millet Bun Burger', calling it a symbol of "Videshi turns Swadeshi". He said the burger uses technology developed by CSIR's Mysore-based CFTRI and marks a proud milestone in India's Millet Movement, championed globally after the UN declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets.

Mercor's Indian-origin Co-founders Surya Midha and Adarsh Hiremath, who attended the all-boys Bellarmine College Preparatory in California, have beaten Mark Zuckerberg to become the world's youngest self-made billionaires at 22. Midha is a second-generation immigrant and dropped out of Georgetown University. Hiremath dropped out after studying Computer Science for two years at Harvard University.