Five reads from the last 24 hours, and what each one actually changes.
India opened the top of its car market
The India-EU trade deal’s car tariff schedules were published on September 12. European carmakers get a lower-duty quota of 100,000 petrol and hybrid cars into India in the first year, against the 17,191 EU cars India actually imported in all of 2025. Duty on cars priced between 15,000 and 35,000 euros drops from 110 per cent to 35 per cent immediately. Cars below 15,000 euros get no concession at all, which shields the mass market and aims the entire opening at the premium shelf where Mercedes, BMW and Audi already sit. India gets a 250,000-unit export window back. (Business Standard)
Tata Sons has run out of exits
In a letter dated September 11, the RBI rejected Tata Sons’ application to leave the core investment company category, making a stock market listing mandatory. The regulator first classified it as an upper-layer NBFC in September 2022 with a three-year deadline that passed unmet last year. Tata Trusts, which holds 66 per cent, has resisted a listing; Shapoorji Pallonji has wanted one so it can sell down stake and service its debt. A listing changes who reads the group’s numbers. Titan, Trent, Tata Consumer, Croma and Air India all sit under a parent no public market has ever priced. (Business Standard)
Zomato now charges extra for paying in cash
Zomato has begun adding at least Rs 5 to orders paid by cash on delivery, with users reporting up to Rs 20 in some cities. It joins a delivery fee, a platform fee, restaurant packing charges and GST on three separate lines. The platform fee itself rose 19.2 per cent in March, from Rs 12.50 to Rs 14.90, and now reads Rs 14.99 before tax. Handling cash does cost a platform real money. The pattern worth watching is where the margin now lives: menu price is what customers compare across apps, so the earnings have migrated to the lines printed underneath it. (Business Standard)
The food regulator says Old Monk is not rum
FSSAI told the Bombay High Court last week that Old Monk is a rum-flavoured spirit, having found that matured rum makes up less than 5 per cent of the product, and has banned its sale in Maharashtra over the ‘7 years old blended’ claim. Indian rules leave room for this: rum may be built on neutral agricultural spirit provided the finished product tastes like rum, and blended whisky needs as little as 2 per cent malt. Ageing in Indian heat loses 10 to 15 per cent a year; flavouring takes 12 to 18 days. (Business Standard)
Cotton and polyester turned expensive together
Polyester in China hit a near four-year high as the Iran war lifted crude, while cotton futures reached their highest level since March 2024. Before the war polyester traded at roughly half cotton’s price, so brands could always switch between them. Both are climbing at once now, which removes the lever. Raw materials are about 60 per cent of the cost of a basic T-shirt and factory margins run 2 to 3 per cent. India’s garment exports fell 4.5 per cent in July. McKinsey expects basic apparel prices to rise 10 to 20 per cent. (Bloomberg)
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Read today’s full edition, including the Old Monk explainer and SBI’s plan to lend against UPI history, here: https://theinsightlabs.in/daily/2026-09-13
— Satyam · The Insight Labs