JD Vance proposes U.S. trade bloc with price floors for critical minerals

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 4, 2026 | Business

U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks during the Critical Minerals Ministerial at the State Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 4, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

U.S. Vice President JD
Vance on Wednesday unveiled plans to marshal allies into a
preferential trade bloc for critical minerals, proposing
coordinated price floors as Washington escalates efforts to
loosen China’s grip on materials crucial to advanced
manufacturing.

The Washington meeting comes after President Donald Trump
on Monday launched a strategic stockpile ⁠of critical minerals,
called Project Vault, backed by $10 billion in seed funding from
the U.S. Export-Import Bank and $2 billion in private funding.
China has ⁠wielded its chokehold on the processing of many
minerals as geo-economic leverage, at times curbing exports,
suppressing prices and undercutting other countries’ ability ‌to
diversify sources of the materials used to ‌make semiconductors,
electric vehicles and advanced weapons.

“We want to eliminate that problem of ‍people flooding into
our markets with cheap critical minerals to undercut our
domestic manufacturers,” Vance told the ‍gathering of visiting
ministers in Washington without mentioning China.

“We will establish reference prices for critical minerals at
each stage of production, pricing that reflects real-world fair
market value, and for members of the preferential zone, these
reference prices will operate as a floor maintained through
adjustable tariffs to uphold ⁠pricing integrity,” Vance said.

Shares of minerals companies fell on the news. MP Materials
lost 2.8%, Critical Metals dropped 7.7%,
NioCorp Developments was down ⁠2.8%, and USA Rare Earths
lost 6.6% in morning trading in New York.

Published on February 4, 2026

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Amazon AI Studio to accelerate movie and TV production while preserving human creativity

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 4, 2026 | Business

Led by entertainment executive Albert Cheng, the studio is developing AI tools to reduce costs, streamline workflows, and improve processes like character consistency and scene editing.
| Photo Credit:
FRANCIS MASCARENHAS

Amazon plans to use artificial intelligence to
speed up the process for making movies and TV shows even as
Hollywood fears that AI will ‌cut jobs and permanently reshape
the industry.

At the Amazon MGM Studio, veteran entertainment executive
Albert Cheng is leading a team charged with developing new AI
tools that he said will cut costs and streamline the creative
process. Amazon plans to launch a closed beta program in March,
inviting industry partners to test its AI tools. The company
expects to have results to share by May.

Cheng described AI Studio as a “startup” operating under
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s “two pizza team” philosophy —
keeping the group small enough to be fed by two pizzas. The team
consists primarily of product engineers and scientists, with a
smaller creative and business contingent.
Amazon is publicly embracing AI in response to spiraling
production ⁠budgets that limit the number of shows and films
companies can finance. The technology will fast-track certain
processes to make more movies and TV shows more efficiently.

“The cost of creating is so high that it really is hard to
make more and it really is hard to take ⁠great risk,” Cheng said
in an interview. “We fundamentally believe that AI can
accelerate, but it won’t replace, the innovation and the unique
aspects that (humans) bring to create the work.”

The move to adopt artificial intelligence comes as A-list
actors like Emily Blunt have expressed fears about the rise of
AI — and ‌particularly AI actress

Tilly Norwood would make their jobs obsolete.

Amazon emphasized writers, directors, actors, and character
designers ‌will be involved at every stage of production, using
AI as a tool to enhance creativity.
Like many other tech companies, Amazon is also pushing nearly
every division ‍to find uses for AI and pointed to the successes
of the technology as among the reasons it cut about 30,000
corporate jobs since October, its largest layoff ever. That
included a number of job cuts ‍at Prime Video.

Cheng said AI could help Prime Video overcome some of the
inherent challenges of large scale film and television
production.
The AI Studio is building tools that bridge what Cheng described
as “the last mile” — perhaps a cheeky reference to Amazon’s
delivery operation — between existing consumer AI offerings and
the granular control directors need for cinematic content. That
includes improving character consistency across shots, and
integrating with industry-standard creative tools.

Amazon is leaning on its cloud computing division, Amazon
Web Services, for help and plans to work with multiple large
language model providers to give creators a wider array of
options for pre- and post-production filmmaking. Cheng said
protecting intellectual ⁠property and ensuring AI-created content
won’t be absorbed into other AI models are essential to making
the AI Studio work.
The AI Studio is working with producers Robert Stromberg
(“Maleficent”) and his company Secret City, Kunal Nayyar (“The
Big Bang Theory”) and his company Good Karma Productions; and
former Pixar ⁠and ILM animator Colin Brady, as it explores new
tools and how best to implement them.

The Studio, which launched last August, points to its hit
series, “House of David,” as an example of how AI could be used
in the future.

For the second season of the biblical epic, director Jon
Erwin used AI combined with live-action footage to create battle
scenes, seamlessly editing the ⁠two together to expand the scope
of sequences at lower cost.

Published on February 4, 2026

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Russia says ready for close cooperation with India in hydrocarbons trade

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 4, 2026 | Business

Washington has been pressuring India to stop buying Russian crude oil as it wants to restrict Moscow’s exports to force it to stop its war with Ukraine. (Representational image)

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday that it stands ready to continue close cooperation with India on hydrocarbons trade.

“We are convinced that India’s purchase of Russian hydrocarbons is mutually beneficial and contributes to maintaining stability in the global energy market. We stand ready to continue close cooperation in this area with our Indian partners,” the Ministry said in a statement on X.

Russia’s comments come as the United States has been continuously asserting that India has agreed to stop importing Russian crude oil.

Washington has been pressuring India to stop buying Russian crude oil as it wants to restrict Moscow’s exports to force it to stop its war with Ukraine.

Currently, there is no official confirmation from the Indian government on whether the world’s third largest crude oil consumer will stop its hydrocarbons trade with Moscow.

However, sources in the government have said that India will continue to buy Russian crude oil from non-sanctioned entities.

Sumit Ritolia, Kpler’s Lead Research Analyst for Refining & Modeling, said on Tuesday that the trade deal announced on February 2 (2026) is unlikely to result in a near-term reduction in India’s Russian crude imports.

“Russian volumes remain largely locked in for the next 8–10 weeks and continue to be economically critical for India’s complex refining system, supported by deep discounts on Urals relative to ICE Brent. Imports are expected to stay broadly stable in around 1.1–1.3 million barrels per day (mb/d) range through Q1 and early Q2 (2026), with any recent moderation offset by higher Middle East inflows rather than a structural shift away from Russian barrels,” he added.

Refiners are technically capable of operating without Urals, but a rapid disengagement would be commercially challenging and politically sensitive, making any policy-driven recalibration gradual rather than immediate, Ritolia had stressed.

Published on February 4, 2026

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bl. profile: Mild mannered, hard-working Tonse to be new YES Bank boss

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 4, 2026 | Business

Vinay Tonse, former SBI MD

A career State Bank of India (SBI) banker Vinay Tonse is all set to become the new MD, CEO of YES Bank. Tonse superannuated in November last year from his post as MD of the country’s largest bank, while YES Bank chief Prashant Kumar—who was ex SBI CFO himself–is demitting office in April. Apart from his proven banking experience, timing worked perfectly for Tonse’s appointment, who, according to his colleagues is among the hardest-working professional in the industry.

“He is a mild-mannered banker, not aggressive in his behaviour. I have seen him working hard, with sincerity and he is very knowledgable having worked across credit, treasury and international business segments,” said an ex-colleague of Tonse.

Career trajectory

Tonse started his career with SBI in 1988 as a Probationary Officer. Working across different regions in India and globally, he managed business areas touted as most critical in India’s banking landscape, such as corporate credit, international banking, treasury operations, equity portfolio management, retail banking and agriculture and rural banking.

He led SBI Mutual Funds as MD, CEO between 2020-2022, the largest Asset Management Company in India. Before SBI MF, Tonse was heading the critical Chennai Circle of SBI as Chief General Manager, managing 15,000 employees and a network of 1,260 branches and offices of SBI situated in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Tonse also served as CEO, SBI Osaka Branch, Japan between 2009 to 2013, handled deputy MD position in-charge of corporate accounts group at SBI’s iconic corporate centre in Mumbai. In late 2023, Tonse was elevated to the position of MD, retail business and operations, handling on-ground operations across over 23,000 branches.

The incoming YES Bank boss is a B.Comm graduate from St. Joseph College of Commerce, Bangalore, and completed Master’s in Commerce from Bangalore University.

Task cut-out

Tonse’s biggest test would be to improve the retail segment profitability at YES Bank. After a SBI-led consortium rescued YES Bank by infusing about Rs 10,000 crore in 2020, the lender under Kumar’s leadership took a conservative approach in growing YES Bank’s loan book. The management focused on first gaining confidence of worried depositors, addressing legacy asset quality challenges, and growing secured loan business–which provided comfort to asset quality–but makes lesser returns than unsecured higher yielding products.

YES Bank’s net interest margin (NIM), a key indicator of profitability, standing at 2.6 per cent as on December end, is among the lowest among its peer set. SBI was the largest investor in YES Bank, but with Japanese lender SMBC picking up 24 per cent stake in YES, it is no longer the case and it will be the prerogative of Tonse to coordinate and work with the largest investors in the bank, who may gradually become promoters of the lender.

Being from SBI, Tonse is likely to continue with the conservatism that his predecessor brought to the table when it comes to lending. In order to grow NIMs, he may be open to expanding the unsecured lending, but only after having all the guardrails in place. Tonse has his tasks cut-out over the next three term.ENDS

Published on February 4, 2026

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Fractal Analytics IPO 2026: ₹857-900 Price Band, 35% Funds for AI and R&D

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 4, 2026 | Business

Fractal plans to leverage its Cogentic platform to expand margins and enhance AI solutions for industries like healthcare, BFSI, and consumer goods. The IPO will be open from February 9 to 11, with anchor investor bids starting February 6.

Announcing the launch of its initial public offering (IPO) on Monday at a price band of ₹857-900 per equity share of face value ₹1 each, Fractal Analytics said it will allocate over a third of the capital raised to AI and research and development.

On Tuesday, the company reduced its IPO size from ₹4,900 crore to around ₹2,834 crore. Speaking to businessline, Fractal said it lowered pricing in line with stronger investor confidence.

“Based on a lot of good advice from some of the top funds in the country, we agreed on the ₹857 to ₹900 price range. Then some of the selling shareholders wanted to stay on instead of selling at that price, because saying they are pretty confident on where Fractal is going,” said Co-Founder, Group Chief Executive & Executive Vice-Chairman, Fractal Analytics.

About ₹355 crore, or 35 per cent of the capital raised from this IPO, is earmarked for AI revenue, R&D, and alpha-related investments. According to Velamakanni, AI revenue and R&D are crucial for Fractal’s future success, as the space is evolving and “only the most innovative companies willing to invest in AI, R&D have a strong chance of success.” The rest of the IPO proceeds will be used for loan repayment and some basic capex.

The anchor investor bidding date is February 6. The offer will be open from February 9 to February 11. Bids can be made for a minimum of 16 Equity Shares of face value of ₹ 1 each, and multiples of 16 thereafter.

Margin expansion plans

Fractal will primarily focus on the homegrown Cogentic platform to build AI solutions for margin expansion, such as an invoice-to-cash solution, customer experience, and revenue growth, and to make the platform a greater contributor to company revenue. Cogentic revenues have a significantly higher margin than the rest of the business, thereby improving our overall margin.

“We have a long way to go in terms of making people understand AI and AI companies, and having a few public AI companies is going to help market understanding,” he said.

India AI Mission

With regard to the India AI Mission, Fractal is planning to build an AI system for the healthcare sector by releasing a model that matches and exceeds global healthcare AI benchmarks, and then use that to launch healthcare AI for all. However, those expenses will not be budgeted in the IPO proceeds. Currently, consumer products and goods contribute to 37.5 per cent of the revenue, followed by telecommunication and media (27.2 per cent) followed by healthcare at 17 per cent. BFSI only contributes 12.2 per cent.

Macroeceonomics

When asked, Velamakanni said he viewed the US-India trade developments as a positive for companies like Fractal, since the settling of trade wars means less inflationary pressure and less uncertainty for companies.

“This is good for Fractal specifically because it has direct impact on our potential growth,” he said, adding how the favourable macro-environment encourages client companies on discretionary spending.

Published on February 4, 2026

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TReDS-related Budget announcements to give major boost to volumes, M1xchange CEO says

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 4, 2026 | Business

Sundeep Mohindru, Founder & Promoter, M1xchange

The proposals made in the Union Budget for FY27, including mandating TReDS platforms to be transaction settlement platforms for all purchases made from MSMEs by CPSEs (central public sector undertakings) and linking of government e-market place (GeM) will give a major fillip to business volumes of TReDS platforms, Sundeep Mohindru, founder and CEO of M1xchange, told businessline in an interaction. Even as the Centre is yet to share the finer details on credit guarantee support mechanism for invoice discounting on TReDS platform and using TReDS receivables as asset-backed securities, M1xchange is confident of achieving ₹1.25-1.30 lakh crore of volumes in FY26 and around ₹1.75 lakh crore next fiscal.

Edited excerpts:

The Centre has announced ₹10,000 crore SME growth fund and ₹2,000 crore top-up to self-reliant Indian fund. Will these schemes have large impact on small enterprises?

All these funds that government sets up are very active. The government allocates funds to private equity and venture capital (PE, VC) funds who in-turn distribute funds to SMEs. These players have a good mechanism to spot star-performers, guide on right usage of capital, and new-age technology. In fact, M1 had also used this equity from SIDBI in 2017 and that is how it got set up. This is a very useful tool which will enhance equity capital for SMEs, which is not easy to come by. SMEs don’t have much access to PE/VC funds otherwise.

Centre has mandated TReDS to be transaction settlement platform for all purchases made from MSMEs by CPSEs. How many CPSEs already use TReDS and how many are expected to start using?

Almost 100 CPSEs are already registered on TReDS platforms. When a CPSE is onboarded, its entire supplier base is mapped onto the platform and invoices approved by the CPSE are uploaded. However, only suppliers who are aware of the platform and choose to avail invoice discounting actively onboard themselves on TReDS.

The key benefit of the new change is that awareness and access to the facility can now reach 100 per cent of the CPSEs supplier ecosystem. Once suppliers know that their payments are being routed through TReDS, they can opt for early payment by paying a nominal discounting fee without recourse, the platform will see higher participation from these vendors. Currently, this awareness is limited, as CPSEs typically inform only a select set of suppliers.

This awareness process has already begun with three CPSEs last week and is showing early results, with all their vendor payments being routed through the M1xchange TReDS platform.

Do you expect material up-tick in invoice discounting/financing due to linking of GeM with TReDS?

There is a lot of traffic coming in from this platform. A significant volume of PSU Purchases happens through GeM. As mentioned 75-100 CPSEs that are live on TReDS, purchases made by these CPSEs through GeM currently follow GeM’s mandatory payment mechanism and cannot be routed through TReDS. With the proposed integration, this payment flow can also be enabled on TReDS, allowing vendors selling through GeM to access early payment options by discounting their invoices.

With these Budget-related announcements, are you expecting pick-up in volumes?

This fiscal, we should be doing around ₹1.25-₹1.30 lakh crore in volumes. These announcements will give us an opportunity to do at least about ₹1.75 lakh crore next fiscal.

Published on February 4, 2026

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