New Delhi: Well stocked granaries, low oil prices and longer-lasting drivers of core disinflation are likely to keep India inflation benign in FY27 as well, according to a new report. 

HSBC Global Investment Research said in its report that “we do not forecast more RBI repo rate cuts, but the risks, if any, are of more easing, if growth disappoints”.

November CPI inflation came in at 0.7 per cent (on-year), in line with market expectation. Despite a sequential uptick of 0.4 per cent (on-month), the annual prints remained depressed due to base effect.

Excluding gold, headline CPI remained in deflation (-0.1 per cent in November compared to -0.6 per cent previously).

“Deflation in food prices continued for a third month in annual terms. Sequentially, food prices rose 0.5 per cent on-month after two months of contraction. Vegetables prices picked up after falling for two straight months along with a rise in the prices of protein items like egg, meat and fish,” said the report.

“Gold prices kept core inflation elevated. With a weight of 1.1 per cent in the CPI basket and prices up 59 per cent in November, gold alone explains c63bp of CPI inflation. Our preferred definition of core (excluding food, energy, housing and gold) had been steady at 3.2 per cent y-o-y in 3Q25, and has now fallen to 2.5 per cent in November,” said the report.

Following a sharp fall in October, November goods inflation remained benign.

According to the report, strong cereal production, well-stocked granaries, and winter disinflation are likely to help keep a lid on food inflation over the near future.

“And it is not just easing food prices. The high base of last year is likely to keep CPI inflation soft for the next few months. Global oil prices, too, have been low, and cheaper imports from China will likely keep core inflation soft for a prolonged period,” it noted.

The RBI has lowered H1 FY27 inflation forecast by 50 bp (4.5 per cent previously to 4 per cent now).

“However our forecasts are 50 bp lower than the RBI’s (at 3.5 per cent). If we are correct, and the RBI eventually makes further downward adjustment to inflation, there would be space to ease further, if growth requires it,” said the report.

Three members of Ben & Jerry’s independent board will no longer be eligible to serve in their roles, after the ice cream company introduced a new set of governance practices.

These include a nine-year limit set on board members’ terms. Chair Anuradha Mittal, who earlier said she had no plans to resign under pressure, is among those affected.

The move was criticised by the company’s co-founder Ben Cohen, who called it a “blatant power grab designed to strip the board of legal authority and independence”.

His remarks are the latest in a long-running row between Ben and Jerry’s and its owner over the Cherry Garcia maker’s social activism and the continued independence of its board.

The BBC understands that Ms Mittal will leave the company immediately, while board members Mr Dodson and Ms Henderson will go at the end of this year.

“Anuradha Mittal, Daryn Dodson, and Jennifer Henderson have served this company with integrity and courage. Over many years, they helped the board make bold, often difficult decisions to uphold Ben & Jerry’s social mission,” said Mr Cohen.

Ben & Jerry’s said the move is aimed “to preserve and enhance the brand’s historical social mission and safeguard its essential integrity.”

The Vermont-based firm is now owned by The Magnum Ice Cream Company, after a spinoff from Unilever last week that created the world’s largest standalone ice cream maker.

A spokesperson for Magnum said the firm wanted to build and strengthen Ben & Jerry’s “powerful, non-partisan values-based position in the world”.

But Ben & Jerry’s would be destroyed as a brand if it remains with Magnum, Mr Cohen told the BBC.

Ben & Jerry’s was sold to Unilever in 2000 in a deal which allowed it to retain an independent board and the right to make decisions about its social mission.

Since the sale there have been deepening clashes between the Vermont-based brand and Unilever, with this conflict now inherited by Magnum.

In 2021, Ben & Jerry’s refused to sell its products in areas occupied by Israel, resulting in its Israeli operation being sold by Unilever to a local licensee.

Co-founder Jerry Greenfield left Ben & Jerry’s in September after almost half a century at the firm, deepening a dispute with parent company Unilever.

In a letter shared on social media by Mr Cohen, Mr Greenfield said Ben & Jerry’s had lost its independence after Unilever put a halt to its social activism.

Last Updated:December 16, 2025, 08:36 IST

Amazon cuts 84 jobs in Seattle and Bellevue, separate from 14000 global layoffs, citing routine business reviews. CEO Andy Jassy links future reductions to generative AI expansion.

The spree of layoffs doesn’t appear to be ebbing despite large-scale firings in tech giants. Amazon has reportedly cut 84 jobs, separate from 14000 corporate layoffs in October globally, according to a report of Greekwire.

Amazon said as reported by Greekwire that these job cuts aren’t linked to broader workforce actions. “Each of its businesses regularly reviews its organizational structure and may make adjustments as a result. Terming it a “routine process”.

“We’ve informed a relatively small number of employees that their roles will be eliminated as the result of individual business decisions,” said Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser. “We don’t make decisions like this lightly,” he added, noting that the company is providing affected employees with 90 days of full pay and benefits, transitional health coverage, and job placement services.

As a new State law the State’s new version of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, known as the WARN Act. requires companies/employers to disclose all terminations within 90 days of a prior notice, Amazon intimated the Washington Authorities.

According to an Amazon filing, the separations are set to take place between February 2 and February 23, 2026, affecting staff across more than 30 office locations in Seattle and Bellevue, along with six remote employees based in Washington.

The roles impacted reportedly include software development engineers, program managers, recruiters, HR specialists and UX designers, spanning levels from entry-level positions to directors and principals.

Amazon said employees were informed beginning in early November and were given at least 89 days’ advance notice, well above the 60-day requirement under the law. The company added that employees who secure internal transfers before their separation date will not be laid off.

In June, CEO Andy Jassy, who has aggressively sought to cut costs since becoming CEO in 2021, said that he anticipated generative AI would reduce Amazon’s corporate workforce in the next few years.

Jassy said at the time that Amazon had more than 1,000 generative AI services and applications in progress or built, but that figure was a “small fraction” of what it plans to build. Jassy encouraged employees to get on board with the company’s AI plans after it announced plans to invest $10 billion building a campus in North Carolina to expand its cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure.

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