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The Indian Navy is looking at procuring a series of counter-drone systems and longer range attack vectors following Operation Sindoor, Deputy Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Tarun Sobti said on Tuesday. The vice admiral said changes are being incorporated to boost the Navy's combat capabilities following an analysis of the May 7 to 10 military conflict between India and Pakistan. The warships which are equipped with expensive surface-to-air missiles running into millions of dollars cannot really afford to expand their limited arsenal to combat low cost unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), he told reporters on the sidelines of a tri-services conference. "We have to develop systems, especially counter UAVs which will help us take down the low cost drones," he said. Vice Admiral Sobti suggested that most of the lessons learnt following Operation Sindoor and changes being incorporated into the Navy post the operation are being analysed. The Navy is looking into long range vectors to influence targets at land and sea. Vice Admiral Sobti, talking about Operation Sindoor, said the naval personnel "were raring to go". "We were ready. So our troops were absolutely raring to go," he said. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 targeting terrorist infrastructure in territories controlled by Pakistan in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. The strikes triggered four days of intense clashes that ended on May 10.

Network outages were reported across all service providers in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday due to damage to optical fibres at multiple places amid heavy rainfall, officials said. Technical teams have been despatched to locate the faults and rectify them, they said. Officials said calls are not going through and mobile internet has stopped working across all network service providers due to "fiber cuts at multiple locations". Fiber services and landline services on state-owned BSNL were also down. The outage caused problems among people as mobiles showed no signals, they said. Telecom operators said it was a network issue due to "multiple fibre cuts" at various places, including in Jammu, Srinagar as well as Shimla. "We will try to restore the network and services as fast as possible," they added.

The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has entered the global top 10 list of exchanges for the first time, securing the ninth spot in Brand Finance’s latest “Exchanges 10 2025” report.The UK-based consultancy firm attributed the ranking to the exchange's robust performance in IPO fundraising, index-related business, and derivative markets.In 2025, NSE’s brand value climbed 39% to USD 526 million, marking a major milestone for India’s leading stock exchange. This rise reflects an increase in revenue projections, a booming IPO market, and strong derivatives performance. In FY2023–24, the exchange’s revenue grew 25% YoY to Rs 14,780 crore (USD 1.78 billion), while net profit rose 13% to Rs 8,306 crore (USD 1 billion).NSE’s fundraising momentum also played a significant role. With 91 large companies raising Rs 1.6 trillion (USD 19.3 billion) through IPOs in 2024 and total equity fundraising more than doubling to Rs 3.73 trillion (USD 44.9 billion), the exchange has demonstrated the growing global stature of India’s capital markets.Ranked as the seventh strongest exchange brand globally, NSE also received a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score of 78.1/100 and an AA+ brand strength rating. Brand Finance highlighted that this score reflects high levels of familiarity, trust, and positive stakeholder sentiment.NSE’s inclusion in the top 10 further cements India’s expanding role in global financial markets. Among Asian exchanges, only three—including NSE—made the list, underlining India’s increasing influence in the global financial ecosystem.“NSE’s debut in the global top 10 signals more than just impressive brand value growth. It reflects a broader shift in global financial gravity. NSE’s standout quality is the technology backbone that it offers and various tech-driven services that investors can avail to ensure safe and quick transactions. India’s deepening capital markets, supported by rising investor participation, record IPO activities, and innovation in products, are gaining global relevance,” said Ajimon Francis, Managing Director of Brand Finance India.Global InsightsNasdaq tops brand value list: Nasdaq has become the world’s most valuable exchange brand for the first time, overtaking CME, with a 33% growth in brand value to USD 3.1 billion.HKEX leads in brand strength: The Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) was rated the world’s strongest exchange brand with a BSI score of 89.1/100 and a AAA rating.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

Indian crypto platforms appear to be thriving in a regulatory grey zone coupled with lower taxes and extreme leverage in the futures & options segment, Zerodha founder and CEO Nithin Kamath said in a tweet on Tuesday, expressing his surprise over the kind of popularity crypto F&O has achieved."I hadn’t realised how popular crypto F&O has become. These Indian crypto platforms seem to be thriving in a regulatory grey zone, and because of lower taxes and extreme leverage in derivatives," Kamath tweeted, pointing to The Economic Times article.The ET story describes how crypto futures trading has whizzed past spot deals across all local exchanges offering derivatives of virtual digital assets (VDAs). In India's discreet, and sometimes furtive world of cryptocurrencies, a new story is playing out.A traction in crypto derivatives segment comes on the back of high profits being tasted by traders, escaping the high tax deducted at source (TDS) and paying a lower tax on profits. The charm of betting big with little money has pushed up futures volumes to three times or even more of spot volumes, this report said.Futures are leveraged trades where traders can take exposure of as high as 10 to over 50 times the margin amount they chip in, as against a spot transaction where the full consideration is paid. Here, the leverage is far higher than stock futures. Globally, some exchanges allow 100 times leverage.Besides a bullish market, what also fuelled futures in over the past few months is the readiness of domestic platforms to accept margins in Indian rupees.Also Read: Zerodha's Nithin Kamath calls for lower STT, higher leverage to boost trading volumes in cash, futuresIn crypto exchanges abroad, stable coins like USDT (and not fiat currency) are placed as futures margins. In India, exchanges spend the INR received as margin from traders to buy USDT, and cut a countertrade with a large global exchange like Binance to execute the futures trade. Thus, INR is converted into USDT to access a larger futures order book.Crypto exchanges in India do not disclose daily trade volumes, but it's estimated at $3-5 million for each of the half a dozen top exchanges. Exchange officials prefer not talking about futures. Of late, few exchanges have been advertising futures on social media and OTT platforms.Read more: Why are Indian traders flocking to crypto futures over spot deals?Crypto deals attract a TDS of 1% which, deducted from sale proceeds, is paid irrespective of whether money is made. However, no TDS is paid when a trader unwinds positions in futures as trading in a crypto derivative, though deriving its value from a crypto as underlier does not result in VDAs changing hands.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)