Delhi's air quality improves, AQI at 183 in 'moderate' category

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 13, 2026 | Business

The National Capital’s air quality slightly improved on Friday, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded at 183 at 8 am, placing it in the ‘moderate’ category, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The city had registered a ‘poor’ AQI of 209 on Thursday and 294 on Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, the national capital recorded a temperature of 12 degrees Celsius at around 7 am, with humidity at 95 per cent, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Further, Mundka recorded the AQI at 230, followed by Shadipur (248), Nehru Nagar (207), Rohini (221), Bawana (220), Jahangirpuri (245), Wazirpur (207), Ashok Vihar (201), Narela (215), Vivek Vihar (204), Pusa (142), Siri Fort (218), and Chandni Chowk (176), according to the CPCB.

Sri Aurobindo Marg recorded the AQI at 123, with other areas including Lodhi Road (135), Major Dhyan Chand Stadium (142), Mandir Marg (141), IIT Delhi (144), Dwarka Sector 8 (190), and IGI Airport (141) reporting comparatively better air quality.

As per AQI classification, a reading between 0 and 50 is ‘good’, 51 to 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 to 200 ‘moderate’, 201 to 300 ‘poor’, 301 to 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 to 500 ‘severe’.

A day earlier, Sri Aurobindo Marg recorded the AQI at 159, followed by IIT Delhi (158), Lodhi Road (164), IGI Airport (165), Mandir Marg (166), Aya Nagar (168), and Chandni Chowk (167), reporting comparatively better air quality.

Mundka recorded 275, Siri Fort 277, Bawana 263, Wazirpur 259, Pusa 257, Nehru Nagar 249, Jahangirpuri 246, Rohini 238, Shadipur 236, Narela 240, and Ashok Vihar 229.

The worsening air quality has also sparked political debate.

On Tuesday, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) questioned the credibility of Delhi’s pollution data, raising objections to the BJP government’s decision to install six new AQI monitoring stations in the city’s green and open areas.

AAP Delhi State President Saurabh Bharadwaj said the intent of the BJP government led by Rekha Gupta was not to clean Delhi’s air but to artificially lower AQI readings by shifting monitoring infrastructure to greener zones, thereby creating a false impression of improvement without taking substantive anti-pollution measures.

In a post on X, Bharadwaj wrote, “CM Rekha Gupta’s new manipulation has come to the fore. The government has now installed new AQI monitoring stations in green and open areas. Without reducing pollution, the BJP government will manipulate AQI data and show lower pollution levels. Even the CAQM remains silent despite this manipulation, as all the IAS officers there are appointed by the Central Government. In Delhi, a system made by IAS officers for IAS officers is running.”

Published on February 13, 2026

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India will buy US LNG if offered at reasonable price, Petronet CEO says

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 13, 2026 | Business

India will ‌buy US liquefied natural gas if it is offered at reasonable rates, the head of the country’s ⁠top gas importer Petronet LNG said on Thursday, as New Delhi looks to boost imports from Washington.

US President Donald Trump last week ‌said he will slash tariffs on imported Indian goods to 18 per cent from 50 per cent, easing concerns in India, but ‌in exchange asked New Delhi to more than double ‌its ⁠annual imports from the United States.

Bilateral trade ⁠was $132 billion in 2024-2025, with a roughly $41 billion surplus in India’s favour.

“India is looking to source energy at the most competitive and affordable price for consumers,” Akshay Kumar ‌Singh said at a press conference, adding that consumers would use gas if “the prices are reasonable” compared to other fuels.

INDIA LOOKS TO INCREASE GAS USE IN ENERGY MIX

India ‌has about 27,000 megawatts of gas-fired power generation capacity, but plants are operating at less than a quarter of that capacity due to a shortage ⁠of gas available at “affordable prices”, Singh said.

India’s stated intention to buy $500 billion worth of US goods over five years ‌under a trade deal with Washington is drawing scepticism, with economists warning it could distort commercial procurement and sharply reshape the trade balance.

The appetite for liquefied natural gas in the world’s most populous nation is set to rise in the coming years, driven by demand across the fertiliser, city ‌gas, refining, and power sectors.

India is the world’s fourth-largest buyer of LNG and is seeking to raise the share of gas in its energy mix to 15 per cent by 2030 ⁠from around 6 per cent at present.

Petronet, which buys gas from ⁠Qatar and Australia, is exploring deals to lock in more long-term deals as it expands the capacity of ‌its existing plant and builds a new import terminal on the east coast.

LNG prices are expected to stabilise as more capacities are added globally, Singh said.

Published on February 13, 2026

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Share Market Live February 13: Stock to buy today: Life Insurance Corporation of India

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 13, 2026 | Business

“AI listened to 2 Cr calls, converted voice to text, and gave us data. Text-to-data conversion happened for 5.2 lakh customers. As a result, we generated 100,000 new offers for which we did not have information earlier.

“This capability did not exist in Q1 and Q2. It just got deployed. We’ll be able to listen to 100 million calls next year,” said Jain. He added that loan disbursements through AI-powered call centres stood at about Rs 1,600 crore. That’s ~ 10% of the Rs 16,545 Cr of disbursals in Q3FY26

Data converting — data from those calls led to another INR 325 crores of volumes. So, this is just our first attempt.

Over the next six months, Bajaj Finance plans to invest heavily in its agents. The company expects to have more than 800 autonomous agents across sales, operations, HR, IT, risk, and DMS in the next fiscal.

Similarly, in terms of 100% of videos are now generated by us using AI, 100% of banners are generated using AI, 2.7 lakh videos were generated, and 1.2 lakh banners were generated. At the customer engagement level, we have 11 AI text BOTs that are live that engage with the customer. So rather than sending dumb SMSs for 11 products now, we have an AI text BOT, which allows you to engage, interact, and respond to your queries.

The company has 26 products. All 26 will be live between April and May’26. So, there will be no communication that we’ll be sending, which will not have a — whether service or sales, which will not have a conversational BOT embedded in it.

At the branch and point of sale, existing customers face match that we’re doing, we did 46 million face matches to ensure this is the same customer, if it’s an ETB customer who had actually principally come in, giving us much better control over identity.

Customer onboarding in terms of document — ensuring that auto-fill of the document happens, whether it’s a PAN card or an Aadhaar. There are 43 such documents that the company has now mapped, which an image extracts with a 95% – 96% accuracy and populate data in our platforms, delivering significant productivity for our employees.

Auto quality check of documents is now 41%. As we sharpen the model, it will take us to between 85% and 90% over a period of the next 15-odd months

On technology development, we are clearly seeing between 25% – 45% efficiencies emerging in terms of the development process, depending on whether it’s a legacy platform, then the benefit is much lower, or rather, I would say, none. But if it’s a digital infrastructure, then the efficiencies can be as high as 45% – 47%. So significant work is being done.

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NPST Q3 profit more than doubles to ₹12 crore; wins UPI and global payment mandates

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 13, 2026 | Business

Network People Services Technologies (NPST) recorded 60% incremental order growth in QR and soundbox solutions.

Network People Services Technologies, a digital banking and fintech infrastructure provider, has reported that its net profit in the December quarter more than doubled to ₹12 crore (₹5 crore).

Income more than doubled to ₹57 crore (₹23 crore) in the quarter under review.

The company has secured a mandate to acquire and operate a UPI switch for a large cooperative bank.

It has launched QR-based acquiring in partnership with a sponsor bank for the Cooperatives Bank segment and won the first order in this model.

The company has won a Hardware Security Module implementation order from a central payment body and emerged as the lowest bidder for eFRM implementation in Africa and the West Asia for the central payment body.

Payments Platform-as-a-Service (PPaaS)

The company has recorded 60 per cent incremental order value growth in QR and soundbox solutions and onboarded one NBFC for pay-in services.

Deepak Chand Thakur, Chairman and Managing Director, NPST, said the company’s performance in Q3 reflects consistent execution of its long-term strategy to build mission-critical payment infrastructure at scale.

“We are aligned with our growth objective of launching new products and acquiring new business in the domestic market along with footprint in international deals,” he said.

The company’s objective is to remain a dependable infrastructure partner for banks and regulated institutions, said Thakur.

Ashish Aggarwal, Co-Founder & Joint Managing Director, NPST, said the revenue growth and EBITDA expansion support healthy margin performance while the growth in PAT demonstrates operating leverage as scale improves.

“We will continue to strengthen the quality of our order book with a balanced mix of infrastructure mandates and recurring platform engagements, improving revenue visibility and predictability,” he added.

Shares of the company were down 10 per cent at ₹1,232 on Thursday.

Published on February 13, 2026

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Waste cotton price hike impacts OE spinning mills and grey yarn production in Tamil Nadu

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 13, 2026 | Business

The cost escalation is cascading across the textile value chain, from spinning mills and weavers to fabric processors in Ahmedabad.
| Photo Credit:
GOVARTHAN M/The Hindu

The waste cotton price hike has severely impacted Open End Spinning Mills’ production of grey cotton yarn. There are over 250 Open End (OE) spinning mills in Tamil Nadu supplying yarn to powerlooms in the Palladam, Somanur, Avinashi, Mangalam, and Erode regions, where the yarn is woven into grey fabric and sold in the northern states.

G. Arulmozhi, President, Open End Spinning Mills Association, said that two months ago, spinning mills sold comber waste cotton at ₹105 per kg. However, they have increased the price to ₹128 per kg. This increase has affected OE mills and powerloom weavers, he said.

Despite cotton prices dropping to ₹1600/candy last week, spinning mills’ decision to hike waste cotton prices has impacted all players in the textile value chain, he added.

Spinning mills use cotton as their main raw material. During that process, different types of cotton waste are generated, and if they use 100 per cent cotton, 65 per cent of the yarn is realised, with 35 per cent cotton waste generated in combed yarn production. This 35 per cent waste is being used by open-end spinning mills. This OE yarn is then sent to power loom cloth manufacturers to produce various grey fabrics, which are then sent to Ahmedabad for dying and printing.

A Sureshkumar, Keerthana Textiles Mills, Palladam, said the mills are forced to sell yarn to customers at a 10-15 per cent increase, mainly in Gujarat. The customers making fabrics pass on the increase to their customers, he said.

Published on February 13, 2026

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TCS, Wipro, Infosys stocks fall 5% as AI fears drag Nifty IT index down

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 12, 2026 | Business

IT stocks came under heavy selling pressure on Thursday in line with Wall Street peers. The Nifty IT index declined sharply by 5.5 per cent as investor concerns mounted over the potential impact of artificial intelligence-led disruption on software services earnings, as the new advanced AI models could automate several traditional IT services, potentially impacting future business growth.

Major IT names led the decline, with Infosys,Wipro, TCS, Coforge and HCL Tech among the top losers on the index.

Heavyweight Infosys ended 6 per cent lower at ₹1,386. TCS settled 5.49 per cent lower at ₹2,750.10 after hitting a 52-week low of ₹2,740. Wipro also hit a 52-week low of ₹218.50 before closing 4.67 per cent lower at ₹219.08.

Coforge fell 6.50 per cent to ₹1,421.50, Tech Mahindra depreciated 6 per cent to ₹1,536.60, and HCL Tech were down 5 per cent to ₹1,476.10.

AI concerns

Amidst AI threat, Nifty IT index crashed over 13 per cent YTD. IT majors such as TCS, Infosys lost over 15 per cent YTD, while Wipro fared poor by falling over 18 per cent. Tech Mahindra was better with 5 per cent drop.

Market participants said the drop was driven by intensifying fears that AI-driven automation could pressure billing rates and reduce demand for certain service lines, potentially weighing on medium-term revenue visibility. Concerns have also surfaced around increased investments required to adapt to evolving technologies, which may impact margins.

Reports that the Trump administration is expanding in an effort to revoke the US citizenship for foreign-born Americans as it works to curb immigration, also spooked sentiment, as Indian IT majors employ them as well.

The sell-off comes amid broader global debates over the pace at which generative AI and automation tools are being adopted by enterprises, prompting investors to reassess growth assumptions for IT service providers. While companies have highlighted opportunities in AI-led transformation deals, the near-term uncertainty has led to cautious sentiment in the market.

Globally, AI is reshaping markets by compressing margins in service-intensive sectors and increasing concentration-led volatility. In India, this technology shift is likely to structurally transform IT services by accelerating delivery timelines and automating volume-driven tasks, thereby challenging the traditional headcount-based outsourcing model, Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments, said.

Echoing broader macroeconomic concerns, Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Research for Wealth Management at Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, said the decline in IT stocks was largely due to diminishing expectations of a near-term rate cut by the US Federal Reserve following stronger-than-expected January employment data. It had also impacted Wall Street tech giants.

Last week, the stocks witnessed significant pressure due to Anthropic’s launch of the Claude chatbot.

Analysts expect volatility in IT stocks to persist as investors track deal pipelines, spending trends in key markets and management commentary on AI adoption strategies. For now, the sector remains under pressure as the market recalibrates expectations around the evolving technology landscape.

However, the weaknes could be an overreaction.

The RSI across the sector is in oversold territory, suggesting the possibility of a technical bounce; however, the broader trend remains negative. Any recovery towards resistance zones is likely to face selling pressure. In the near term, a cautious approach is advised, with a preference for a sell-on-rise strategy until the index regains strength above critical resistance levels, Bonanza analyst Drumil Vithlani vsaid.

According to Dr. Ravi Singh, Chief Research Officer at Master Capital Services, investors are still factoring in legitimate concerns about slower growth, pricing power and margin pressure as automation increases. Singh said the recent weakness should be seen more as a valuation reset than a structural breakdown, advising long-term investors to selectively accumulate quality names in phases, while short-term traders wait for clearer signs of stability before taking positions.

Key stocks such as Wipro and Tech Mahindra traded below important support levels, reflecting weak momentum, according to Drumil Vithlani, Technical Analyst at Bonanza.

Published on February 12, 2026

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