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Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Parag Milk Foods to invest ₹105 crore to double cheese manufacturing capacity by FY28

The investment comes as India’s cheese market is projected to grow sharply over the next decade, supported by urbanisation, changing consumption patterns and expansion of the organised food service sector. Parag Milk Foods Ltd. (PMFL) announced on Friday that its board has approved a plan to double its cheese manufacturing capacity from 60 metric tonnes per day to 120 mt/day, at an estimated capital expenditure of ₹105 crore. The expansion is expected to be completed by FY28 and will be funded through a mix of internal accruals and debt. The Mumbai-based dairy company said the additional capacity is aimed at meeting rising demand for cheese and whey protein products. PMFL’s cheese brand, Go Cheese, currently holds approximately 35% market share and supplies retail and institutional customers, including hotels, restaurants, and catering businesses. Chief Operating Officer Rahul Kumar Srivastava said the board approval reflects the company’s confidence in the long-term potential of the cheese category and that the expanded capacity would improve manufacturing efficiency and support product innovation. The move is backed by broader industry growth projections. According to research firm IMARC Group, India’s cheese market is forecast to expand from roughly ₹129 billion in 2025 to around ₹620 billion by 2034, driven by urbanisation and the growth of the organised food service sector. PMFL’s Go Cheese portfolio spans mozzarella, cheddar, processed cheese, cream cheese, pizza cheese and specialty variants serving both retail and foodservice segments. The company, founded in 1992, also markets products under the Gowardhan, Pride of Cows and Avvatar brands. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Parag Milk Foods to invest ₹105 crore to double cheese manufacturing capacity by FY28
Europe
BBC Business

Passenger on British Airways mayday flight describes fear and shout of 'I don't want to die'

A passenger on a British Airways flight that issued a distress call on approach to Heathrow Airport earlier this month has described the rising fear in the cabin and a lack of information from the crew. Edward Killiwick had been travelling back from a friend's birthday party with his partner Julie, on the flight from Dusseldorf in Germany on 6 July. He said passengers were told that the landing had been aborted, and then he felt a "very violent manoeuvre" and "did think we could crash". He and his partner had to comfort a woman who "completely lost it and started screaming, 'I don't want to die'". The flight landed safely, but the incident is being investigated with assistance from BA. The UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said it was "investigating a serious incident", and France's accident investigation authority, the BEA, said on Wednesday that the plane, an Airbus A320, had issued a distress call. Edward said: "The violent manoeuvre almost felt like it was avoiding another aircraft. You could feel the engines going at full power. "It was a bit odd going around in a holding pattern with no information. I thought if they're not talking, then they're not in a good place." The BEA said that as the plane approached Heathrow, there was a data system failure which triggered a stall warning. The crew then flew the aircraft in a different mode called "alternate law", which removes some automated flight protection systems. Another stall warning then occurred at 3,000 feet — which experts say was likely to have been just miles away from the airport. The urgency call the crew had already made was upgraded to mayday, indicating imminent danger. A British Airways spokesperson said the airline was assisting the AAIB with its investigation and was not legally able to comment further at this stage. Edward said: "I was definitely scared. After the violent manoeuvre I thought, there is definitely something very badly wrong here. I did think we could crash.

Passenger on British Airways mayday flight describes fear and shout of 'I don't want to die'
Europe
BBC Business

India wants to join the strawberry superpowers

In the west of India, the mountainous region of Mahabaleshwar is home to most of India's strawberry farms. An altitude of more than 1,000m (3,280ft) gifts the region a long cool growing season between November and March. But that doesn't mean farmers have an easy life - it's a labour intensive and risky way to make a living. "If you have a field full of strawberries and sudden heavy rains hit, the entire crop is ruined and we have to bear massive losses," says Sheetal Danavle who, with her husband, grows strawberries on half of their three-acre farm. Strawberry plants have to be replaced every season and are not grown from seed. Instead, farmers buy young plants from suppliers. For Danavle, on her small farm, that's an outlay of $2,500 (£1,900) every year. "If the season goes well, you can earn double your investment. But the climate makes it a huge gamble," she says. Thousands of farmers grow strawberries across the Mahabaleshwar region, making the fruit one of the most profitable horticultural crops in western India. Despite that success the industry still relies on varieties that are imported from California, Florida, Italy and Spain, as no one in India has developed a domestic plant. It can take 10 to 15 years for breeders in the US and Europe to develop a top quality fruit and they patent their varieties. "We import the certified mother plant from the breeder abroad," says Nelson Sequeira, the founder and director of Tara Farms Fresh, a licensed strawberry propagator. Once imported the plants have to go through a government quarantine, before they are planted in a nursery. There the mother plant produces daughter plants and those are then sold to farmers. "One single imported mother plant becomes an engine. That single mother plant will shoot out runners to yield an average of 20 daughter plants - with some advanced growers pushing that up to 30 or 40," says Sequeira.

India wants to join the strawberry superpowers
North America
CNBC Finance

Ford wants more customers to customize vehicles to boost profits as it eyes 'Nike shoe drop' moments

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Ford Motor is expanding its accessory and parts business in an effort to boost profits and better tap into the $53 billion U.S. aftermarket industry. The automaker is planning to increase its aftermarket products — from exterior detailing and vehicle wraps to performance parts and systems — and have more exclusive moments it's comparing to a "Nike shoe drop," with new and special-edition vehicle models, according to Matt Simpson, Ford Customization's executive director. "Think like a 'Nike dropping a sneaker' is the vision," Simpson told CNBC during an event at the Michigan International Speedway racetrack here promoting the company's efforts. "We're significantly increasing our investment in this group to bring more choice and to engage customers in this aftersales." Automakers have long used special-edition vehicles and souped-up models to boost vehicle prices and profits, but Ford says it is methodically taking steps to increase customers' ability to customize vehicles across all price levels. That includes expanding accessories as well as investing additional resources in Ford Custom Garage, which launched last year as a one-stop shop for customizations from the carmaker. Ford Custom Garage's first shoe-like "vehicle drop" occurred Monday. It unveiled a sunrise-inspired Ford Bronco SUV that wouldn't be out of place in a new Barbie movie — although the company's designers say they did not have the Mattel toy in mind when developing the vehicle. The automaker said it will produce 1,000 of the limited-edition Broncos with the Desert Rising package as part of the Ford Custom Garage's new Bronco Horizon Series. The $13,695 package boosts the vehicle's price to $57,350. Other full packages through the Ford Custom Garage start at thousands of dollars and can run up to $16,000 to $18,000 for some Mustang performance packages and nearly $27,000 for a special performance version of the F-150 pickup truck. "It is a growth lever for us. It's been a good business for us. We think it can be significantly bigger, hence the investment," Simpson said. The efforts come as vehicles have grown increasingly more complex and harder for individual owners or non-automaker certified stores to work on in the aftermarket. CEO Jim Farley came under fire last month after President Donald Trump said Ford and crosstown rival General Motors were supporting legislation to make it harder to keep owners from working on their own vehicles. Farley later clarified that he thinks customers shouldn't work on cars under warranty since new vehicles require specialty tools. He has touted the automaker's aftermarket business as a major growth opportunity, including by boosting software services in addition to traditional parts and accessories.

Ford wants more customers to customize vehicles to boost profits as it eyes 'Nike shoe drop' moments
Asia-Pacific
The Straits Times

GIC, Temasek and MAS face a tougher world, but their long game is paying off

Economies are under relentless pressure to manage the balance between growth and inflation as the world economic order frays at the seams. SINGAPORE – The steady performance of three Singapore entities – GIC, Temasek and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) – that manage the country’s national reserves shows they continue to maintain the capability to generate sustainable returns over the long term even when the odds are against them.Starting with the US-China trade war that broke out in 2018, the global economy and capital markets worldwide have weathered a series of shocks, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, the US’ new round of sweeping tariffs on its friends and foes alike, and the onset of the Iran war in February. These upheavals have menaced businesses worldwide with higher operating costs and lower margins, amid sporadic supply chain disruptions and volatile pricing of energy and raw materials.Meanwhile, economies are under relentless pressure to manage the balance between growth and inflation as the world economic order frays at the seams.Hence, these are testing times for the guardians of Singapore’s reserves, even as their mandates, portfolio construction approaches, investment horizons and reporting frameworks are different. GIC – the primary manager of government assets invested abroad – posted in its annual report for the financial year ended March 31, 2026, its lowest 20-year annualised returns since 2020.However, it still managed to nearly double the inflation-adjusted purchasing power of its reserves over that period.MAS – which maintains a globally diversified, liquid official foreign reserves (OFR) portfolio to support its functions as a central bank – recorded a net profit of $20 billion, backed by investment gains of $39.8 billion that exceeded its 10-year historical average of $18.3 billion.MAS uses the OFR to buy and sell assets, allowing the Singapore dollar to maintain an appropriate value against other currencies. This is a monetary policy imperative because, unlike most central banks which target interest rates, MAS uses the exchange rate to manage inflation.MAS said it will contribute $1 billion to the Government’s Consolidated Fund, and return a further $2.5 billion of its net profit to the national financial account, where all public revenues are deposited.Temasek – the active, value-oriented equity investor wholly owned by the Government – reported its net portfolio value hitting a record $518 billion, up by $49 billion in the last year, amid a strong performance by its Singapore-based portfolio companies.The investment company, which holds a mix of foreign and local assets, delivered a one-year total shareholder return of 10.5 per cent and a 20-year total return of 6.8 per cent. The overall performance and risks to the portfolio of assets invested by the three entities are meaningful for Singapore’s economy and citizens in more ways than one.They not only preserve and grow reserves that can be used in times of economic stress and crisis, but also provide a stream of income to help finance part of the annual government budget.Up to 50 per cent of the expected returns from the three entities flow directly back into Singapore’s annual national budget via the Net Investment Returns Contribution (NIRC).Their steady performance allows the NIRC to consistently remain the single-largest source of government revenue, directly funding public infrastructure, healthcare subsidies and education without relying solely on taxation.Hence, their views on the global economy and their strategies to fulfil their mandates while mitigating risks matter.The unprecedented convergence of geopolitical tensions, protectionism, technological competition and transformation, and energy security concerns – exacerbated by the Middle East conflict – may keep inflation sticky and interest rates higher. MAS also warned that uncertainty over sustaining the AI investment boom – which has been an important plank of global and domestic growth – can become a key economic and markets risk.MAS managing director Chia Der Jiun said global growth, investment and financial market performance have become highly dependent on projections of large and increasing investment in data centres and semiconductor chips continuing well into the future. He added that besides financial stability risks, a significant pullback in AI investments is likely to sharply weaken economic expansion around the world – especially in Asia, where AI-driven electronics exports account for more than 70 per cent of the region’s export growth year to date, up from 46 per cent in 2024.However, the investment boom and the global economy in general remain resilient despite repeated shocks, from higher US tariffs to the Iran war, he noted.Looking ahead, he said, growth of the Singapore economy should stay firm for the rest of 2026, with global AI-related demand likely to continue providing a meaningful boost.Both GIC and Temasek remain committed to their investment strategies to harness the growth potential of a broad spectrum of AI-related firms.GIC said it will broaden its focus across the AI value chain from “enablers” of artificial intelligence – creating the foundational infrastructure for the technology – to monetisers building AI-powered products and platforms, as well as companies that have adopted AI to transform their operations and growth prospects.Temasek had a similar view on AI, with chief executive Dilhan Pillay saying that promising companies across technology’s value chain will remain a key focus area, along with core-plus infrastructure and private credit.He said Temasek has set targets to grow its portfolio exposure to these three areas by March 2031. AI-focused investments will grow by up to 15 per cent, and 5 per cent each for core-plus infrastructure and private credit.However, Temasek will remain selective and disciplined about risks, especially pertaining to the AI segment, he noted. Ovais Subhani is senior business correspondent at The Straits Times. He writes stories that demystify the latest economics, trade and finance news.

GIC, Temasek and MAS face a tougher world, but their long game is paying off
Europe
BBC Business

Sainsbury's agrees to sell Argos for £120m

Image source, PA MediaByMitchell Labiak, Business reporter and Emma Simpson, Business correspondentPublished31 July 2026, 07:50 BSTUpdated 1 hour agoSainsbury's has agreed to sell Argos for £120m after a long process of trying to offload it as the supermarket chain aims to focus on its main food business. Sainsbury's said it would be "business as usual" for Argos customers, staff, and suppliers. Shoppers will see no change as Argos will still operate in Sainsbury's shops, sell Habitat products, and offer Nectar points. The buyer, Swift Partners, is a company that has been created to buy the brand and includes former Co-operative Group boss Richard Pennycook. There are 667 Argos shops across the UK, with 201 operating as standalone stores and 466 operating within Sainsbury's. It also has more than 450 collection points. Founded in 1973, Argos opened shops where customers browsed its catalogues and placed their orders, with products being delivered to tills from warehouses connected to the stores. The Argos catalogue, once described by comedian Bill Bailey as the "laminated book of dreams", used to be a physical book. Argos no longer prints this hefty tome, with its full range now available online instead. In store, customers can browse the product collection on tablet computers. Sainsbury's has been trying to sell Argos - which has been seen as an underperforming brand - for some time. Sainsbury's bought Argos – together with Habitat and all the other retail brands owned by Home Retail Group – in 2016 for £1.4bn. It then sold Argos financial services, which runs the Argos card, for around £720m in 2024. In September last year, its talks to sell the rest of Argos to Chinese online retailer JD.com fell through. Sainsbury's chief executive Simon Robert said that all of Argos's nearly 14,000 staff would be transferred over to Swift Partners as part of the deal. Swift Partners' Pennycook said he believed "strongly in Argos's future and see real opportunities to invest and build on its progress".

Sainsbury's agrees to sell Argos for £120m
North America
CNBC Finance

Consolidated food supply may be worsening cyclospora outbreaks, experts say

The cyclospora outbreak that has sickened thousands in the U.S. is drawing renewed attention to a decades-long shift in how fresh food moves through the country. While investigators work to identify the original source of contamination, some food safety experts say the industry's centralized sourcing and distribution networks after a wave of consolidation can help turn what once may have been an isolated contamination event into a multistate outbreak. "The general trends that have taken place in the food industry, the way in which food has been sourced and then distributed has played some role here," said Dr. David Relman, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University. The cyclospora parasite's long incubation period, the difficulty in tracking its path and what some experts have criticized as a bumpy federal response have all played a role in the widening outbreak. Some experts say the structure of the food system has also contributed. "It's possible that as food sourcing and distribution becomes consolidated you get pooling and then redistribution of what might have been a very local contamination problem, so that it now becomes a widely distributed contamination problem," Relman said. Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, said the shrinking of the industry has amplified the consequences when contamination occurs. "Consolidation means that if something goes wrong, it goes wrong big time," Nestle said. The current FDA investigation around cyclosporiasis has focused on shredded iceberg lettuce distributed through Taylor Farms' foodservice business, an ingredient that reached Taco Bell restaurants and other foodservice customers across multiple states. Relman referenced bagged lettuce as one example of how changes in distribution could spread a foodborne illness. "Think of the difference between one head of lettuce and a bag of chopped lettuce that may have come from many, many heads," he said. "These bags are now being produced in huge numbers and distributed in far-flung distribution networks." The industry's evolution toward fewer distributors has been driven in part by a push for efficiency. Nestle said those improvements for businesses come with trade-offs for food safety. "Big is not necessarily better," she said. "The bigger the supplier, the greater the opportunity for contamination."

Consolidated food supply may be worsening cyclospora outbreaks, experts say
Europe
The Guardian

ABC argues that early license review by FCC is ‘retaliation’ for network’s coverage

ABC lawyers say the FCC’s actions are retaliation for the exercise of the network’s first amendment rights. Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/ReutersView image in fullscreenABC lawyers say the FCC’s actions are retaliation for the exercise of the network’s first amendment rights. Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/ReutersABC ABC argues that early license review by FCC is ‘retaliation’ for network’s coverageIn filing, network’s lawyers urged FCC to reject petitions to deny license renewals for eight ABC-owned local stations ABC has pushed back aggressively against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for putting the network under an expedited license renewal process for eight local television stations it owns, charging in a lengthy filing that the process is payback for the network’s editorial decision-making and coverage of Donald Trump. “The retaliation against ABC is a signal to every media company in the country: Accommodate the administration’s view of what news coverage should look like or pay the price,” lawyers representing the Disney-owned network wrote in a 109-page filing, submitted as a reply to petitions from conservative media groups to deny ABC’s licenses. “The tools vary; the objective does not: a media industry too fearful of official reprisal to report the news freely.” The FCC chair, Brendan Carr, has denied that inquiries into the network relate to its editorial decision-making and instead said they stem from concerns about the company’s employment practices and compliance with statutory obligations. ABC’s lawyers pointed out how unusual it is for the FCC to demand that a group of network-owned stations apply several years early to renew their licenses. Other ABC-owned stations have licenses that run all the way until 2031. “The commission’s departure from those norms lays bare what is really going on: the administration is retaliating against ABC for the exercise of its First Amendment rights,” ABC’s lawyers wrote. “Because this whole proceeding rests on an unconstitutional premise, the stations should never have been asked to justify license renewal years early.” Responding to petitions to deny ABC’s licenses based on accusations of liberal bias, the network’s lawyers pointed out that the “commission has no authority to regulate the content of television programming”. “No Petitioner has established any ‘violations’ of Commission rules or regulations, let alone the ‘serious’ ones or the ‘pattern of abuse’ required to warrant denying renewal,” they added. ABC’s lawyers also argued that its eight stations had made “essential contributions to their local communities” in markets such as New York City and Philadelphia and argued that the FCC should dismiss the petitions to deny their licenses. Participants have until 5 August to reply to petitions to deny. After that time, the FCC could choose to either grant the license renewal requests – an unlikely prospect – or schedule hearings on the matter, beginning a potentially onerous and time-consuming process that could run for several years, particularly if an adverse ruling is challenged in the courts. On Tuesday, a bipartisan coalition of former FCC commissioners and staffers submitted a filing urging the commission to reject the petitions to deny ABC’s license renewals, arguing that the early renewal process ordered by Carr’s FCC in April is “a grave violation of both the Communications Act and the Constitution”. Thousands of commenters have filed on behalf of ABC in both the license renewal inquiry and another FCC investigation into the daytime talkshow The View for a potential violation of rules guarding political candidate appearances.

ABC argues that early license review by FCC is ‘retaliation’ for network’s coverage
Europe
The Guardian

Oil prices fall as US pauses strikes on Iran over strait of Hormuz

The US has suspended its bombing campaign around the strait of Hormuz. Photograph: Amirhosein Khorgooi/APView image in fullscreenThe US has suspended its bombing campaign around the strait of Hormuz. Photograph: Amirhosein Khorgooi/APOilOil prices fall as US pauses strikes on Iran over strait of HormuzBrent crude drops 9% to below $88 a barrel, prompting UK government bond yields to fall Oil prices have dropped sharply as traders bet that a pause in US attacks on Iran could prevent an escalation in the conflict that would further restrict global supply. Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, initially fell 9% to below $88 a barrel on Monday after climbing to $100 last week, when the Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Red Sea. An attempted recovery later in the day was halted by comments from Donald Trump that the US was having “good talks” with Iran, pushing Brent back down about 8%. The retreat from the short-lived return to more than $100 a barrel came as the US and Iran paused hostilities after 13 days of fighting, amid Trump’s comments suggesting that talks to end the conflict had resumed. Iran said it had stopped “retaliatory” attacks after two nights without American missiles, after the US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, told journalists on Sunday that Trump had decided to pause the attacks to allow more time for diplomacy. Separate reports claimed that US military officials had told Trump that the bombing campaign had reached the limits of its effectiveness and warned of dwindling stocks of munitions. The comments raised hopes that a renewed focus on diplomatic solutions could de-escalate the regional conflict, which since the end of February has disrupted flows of oil and gas from Gulf states via the strait of Hormuz, and in recent weeks has interrupted vessels leaving the Red Sea via the Bab al-Mandab strait, too. However, the brief reprieve from rising oil prices was met with scepticism by some market observers. “We’ve been here multiple times since March,” said Ole Hvalbye, an analyst at SEB Research. “And each rally on a leak has faded as substance failed to materialise.” John Evans, an analyst at PVM, said he expected oil prices would only be able to fall further if there was a meaningful decline in demand, “not questionable mini-ceasefires”. He said: “The market seems to be forever seeking good news from an arena that really is not providing any. A stay of military strikes might seem an improvement, but it does not come with any guarantees that oil will soon flow from the area.” Analysts at Deutsche Bank led by Jim Reid said the 10% increase in Brent crude prices last week had “added to fears that the global economy was facing a prolonged inflation shock, and that the Fed might need to hike rates more aggressively in response”. The expectation of higher inflation caused by rising global energy costs has put pressure on central banks to raise interest rates. In recent weeks that has pushed up sovereign bond yields, which move inversely to prices. However, the oil price drop on Monday prompted yields to fall. The yield on UK 10-year government debt dropped below 5%, down 0.05 percentage points during the day. The rate-sensitive two-year yield fell 0.06 percentage points to 4.35%.

Oil prices fall as US pauses strikes on Iran over strait of Hormuz