Business
Digital Economy In India: ‘BharatNetra’ Fintech Hub Launched In Bhubaneswar To Boost Financial Tech
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Odisha will play a central role in making India a global economic leader, says Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi.
The hub has been launched by the Odisha government in collaboration with GFTN, National University of Singapore, and the Asian Institute of Digital Finance.
Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has launched an Integrated Global Financial Technology Capability Hub, called the BharatNetra Initiative, in Bhubaneswar. Describing it as a transformative step that will shape the future of finance in Odisha, Majhi said it would strengthen India’s global leadership in the digital economy.
“Odisha will play a central role in making India a global economic leader,” he added.
The hub has been launched by the Odisha government in collaboration with Global Finance & Technology Network Singapore (GFTN), the National University of Singapore, and the Asian Institute of Digital Finance, according to an official statement.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Odisha Electronics & IT Minister Mukesh Mahaling, and Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN) CEO Sopnendu Mohanty were also present at the event.
Speaking on the occasion, Majhi said the initiative would skill more than 7,000 students across all 30 districts of Odisha. It will run certification programmes designed by the Asian Institute of Digital Finance at the National University of Singapore.
The chief minister said the collaboration had been forged during the historic visit of Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam to Odisha in January this year.
Majhi added that the state would nurture start-ups and entrepreneurs by establishing a dedicated Centre of Excellence within the hub. In addition, the project will also establish a Global Capability Centre (GCC), which will act as a strong foundation for attracting global financial institutions and new investments into Odisha.
Highlighting efforts to improve digital infrastructure, Majhi announced that a cable landing station connecting Bhubaneswar to Singapore is being established.
Noting that Odisha is the first state to formulate an AI Policy, he said preparations are underway to launch a dedicated FinTech Policy and GCC Policy to attract global investments.
The CM further said that the initiative is aligned with the vision of the Prime Minister, who during his Independence Day speech this year had envisioned skilling three crore youth with an investment of ₹1 lakh crore. “Odisha is ready to contribute to this grand vision,” he remarked.
Underscoring the state’s talent pool, he said Odisha produces around 1.8 lakh graduates annually in engineering, polytechnics, and IT streams, along with skilled youth from 950 ITIs.
Emphasising the importance of research, Majhi noted that in addition to skilling, Odisha has established a Deep Neural Network Laboratory and other Centres of Excellence. “Our vision is to make Odisha the ‘Research Capital of the East’,” he underlined.
He also thanked the Prime Minister for central government approval of two semiconductor fabrication units in Odisha. “Semiconductors are the building blocks of the digital economy, and Odisha is proud to play a leadership role in this national mission,” he said.
On the occasion, Majhi launched the BharatNetra Hackathon website, and a GCC+ overall programme was also announced.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Odisha’s vision aligns with India’s national priority of skilling youth for the global digital economy. “The BharatNetra Initiative will not only open pathways for employment and entrepreneurship but also strengthen India’s leadership in financial inclusion and innovation,” he added.
Odisha Minister for Electronics & IT, Dr Mukesh Mahaling, said the state is emerging as India’s innovation frontier, outpacing national growth and securing over $23 billion in new investments this year. “With progressive IT and AI policies, we are creating an ecosystem where advanced infrastructure, world-class talent, and start-up energy converge,” he added.
GFTN Group CEO Sopnendu Mohanty said: “The BharatNetra Initiative and the Integrated Global Financial Technology Capability Hub will redefine Odisha’s role as India’s strategic gateway to the Asia-Pacific financial technology corridor. This partnership with GFTN will empower talent, foster innovation, and connect Odisha to the world’s most dynamic financial ecosystems.”
It may be noted that the I-GFTCH in Odisha will focus on four pillars: Global Learning, Global Mindshare, Global Innovation, and Global Capability Hub — developed in partnership with Singapore-based GFTN.
Over the next five years, the initiative will equip 7,000 students across the state with critical skills in technology, regulation, and business for careers in financial technology.
The programme has already selected its first batch of 375 students from more than 3,800 applicants representing over 60 colleges across all districts of Odisha. The first batch is set to graduate by January 2026.
Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris h…Read More
Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris h… Read More
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The Eli Lilly logo appears on the company’s office in San Diego, California, U.S., Nov. 21, 2025.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Eli Lilly on Monday said it is lowering the cash prices of single-dose vials of its blockbuster weight loss drug Zepbound on its direct-to-consumer platform, LillyDirect, building on efforts by the company and the Trump administration to make the medicine more accessible.
The announcement also comes weeks after chief rival Novo Nordisk unveiled additional discounts on the cash prices of its obesity and diabetes drugs.
Starting Monday, cash-paying patients with a valid prescription can get the starting dose of Zepbound vials for as low as $299 per month on LillyDirect, down from a previous price of $349 per month. They can also access the next dose, 5 milligrams, for $399 per month and all other doses for $449 per month, down from $499 per month across those sizes.
Zepbound carries a list price of roughly $1,086 per month. That price point, and spotty insurance coverage for weight loss drugs in the U.S., have been significant barriers to access for some patients.
Eli Lilly’s announcement comes just weeks after President Donald Trump inked deals with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to make their GLP-1 drugs easier for Americans to get and afford. The agreements will cut the prices the government pays for the drugs, introduce Medicare coverage of obesity drugs for the first time for certain patients and offer discounted medicines on the government’s new direct-to-consumer website launching in January, TrumpRx.
But Eli Lilly’s deal with Trump centers around lowering the prices of a different form of Zepbound – a multi-dose pen – after it wins Food and Drug Administration approval.
That means Eli Lilly’s Monday announcement around cutting prices on the existing single-dose vials could allow more patients to get discounted treatments more quickly.
“We will keep working to provide more options — expanding choices for delivery devices and creating new pathways for access — so more people can get the medicines they need,” said Ilya Yuffa, president of Lilly USA and global customer capabilities, in a statement.
Eli Lilly’s stock, which has climbed more than 36% this year, fell nearly 2% on Monday. Its meteoric rise due to the success of Zepbound and its diabetes injection Mounjaro vaulted it to becoming the first health-care company to hit a $1 trillion market value last month. Though cutting prices means lower revenue per medication sold, Eli Lilly’s sales — and shares — have continued to soar through past pricing announcements as demand balloons.
With single-dose vials, patients need to use a syringe and needle to draw up the medicine and inject it into themselves. Eli Lilly first introduced that form of Zepbound in August 2024.
It’s unclear how many patients are currently using single-dose vials of Zepbound. But Eli Lilly previously said that direct-to-consumer sales now account for more than a third of new prescriptions of Zepbound.
Novo Nordisk earlier this month lowered the price of its obesity drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic for existing cash-paying patients to $349 per month from $499 per month. That excludes the highest dose of Ozempic.
The company also launched a temporary introductory offer, which will allow new cash-paying patients to access the two lowest doses of Wegovy and Ozempic for $199 per month for the first two months of treatment.
The chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has resigned over the early publication of the watchdog’s forecasts.
Richard Hughes said he was resigning to allow the OBR to “quickly move on from this regrettable incident”.
His resignation follows publication of a report that described the leak as “the worst failure in the 15-year history of the OBR” and strongly criticised the watchdog’s processes for protecting sensitive information.
In a letter to the Chancellor and the chairwoman of the Commons Treasury Committee, Mr Hughes said he took “full responsibility” for “the shortcomings identified in the report”.
He said: “By implementing the recommendations in this report, I am certain the OBR can quickly regain and restore the confidence and esteem that it has earned through 15 years of rigorous, independent economic analysis.”
Mr Hughes has served as chairman of the OBR since 2020 and was reappointed to the job for a second five-year term in July this year.
Speaking in the Commons as the news of the resignation broke, Chief Secretary to the Treasury James Murray offered the Government’s thanks to Mr Hughes “for his dedication to public service”.
Later, the Chancellor herself offered her thanks for Mr Hughes’ “many years of public service”, adding: “This Government is committed to protecting the independence of the OBR and the integrity of our fiscal framework and institutions.”
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused the Chancellor of using Mr Hughes as a “human shield” and called on Rachel Reeves to resign.
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said Mr Hughes was “a dedicated public servant” who had “rightly taken responsibility for a failure on his watch”, adding the OBR needed to learn from its “catastrophic error”.
Treasury Committee chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier also thanked Mr Hughes, saying: “I commend his decision to take full responsibility for the incident and I wish him well for the future.”
The Treasury said it would begin the process of finding a replacement for Mr Hughes “in the coming weeks”.
The OBR launched an investigation after official forecasts were uploaded to the watchdog’s website, releasing details of the Budget almost an hour early.
In a report published on Monday, the OBR said the leak had been “seriously disruptive to the Chancellor, who had every right to expect that the (forecasts) would not be publicly available until she sat down at the end of her Budget speech”.
Noting Mr Hughes had already “rightly” apologised for the leak, the report said it was “not a case of intentional leakage” or a matter of pressing publish too early.
The OBR said it was caused by two errors linked to the WordPress publishing site it used.
The report into the incident said that, while it knew web addresses for its files follow a pattern, it assumed “the protections provided” by WordPress “would ensure it could not be accessed”.
But two configuration errors were the technical causes of the premature access.
The forecast for the last spring statement in March was also “accessed prematurely” on one occasion, the report noted, but concluded that no activity appeared to have been taken as a result and the most likely explanation is “benign”.
The report recommended a review of the watchdog’s processes for publishing such documents.
“To rebuild trust, the leadership of the OBR must take immediate steps to change completely the publication arrangements for the two important and time-sensitive documents containing the results of its biannual forecasts that it publishes in a normal year, and review arrangements for all other publications,” the report said.
One option would be for the watchdog to use the Government’s digital architecture but publish when it wants.
Another would be to have the Treasury publish the forecasts for the Budget and spring statement, but this would only work if safeguards for “real and perceived independence” could be put in place.
There may need to be an interim solution, the report noted, but said new arrangements must be in place in time for the next statement in spring 2026.
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has approved a fresh increase in the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), raising the cost for both domestic consumers and commercial users.
According to the notification issued, the LPG price has been increased by Rs7.39 per kilogram, setting the new rate at Rs209 per kg for December. As a result, the price of a domestic LPG cylinder has risen by Rs87.21, bringing the new price to Rs2,466.10.
In November, the price of LPG stood at Rs201 per kg, while the domestic cylinder was priced at Rs2,378.89.
The latest price hike is expected to put additional pressure on households already grappling with rising living costs nationwide.
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Eli Lilly cuts cash prices of Zepbound weight loss drug vials on direct-to-consumer site
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