Jio Prices India’s Biggest IPO

Reliance Jio Platforms, India’s largest telecom and digital services company, has officially priced its much‑anticipated initial public offering (IPO), setting the stage for what is being called India’s biggest IPO ever. This landmark event is expected to reshape the country’s stock market landscape and attract global investor attention.

India’s biggest IPO before Jio was Hyundai Motor India’s ₹27,870 crore issue in 2024, while globally the record is SpaceX’s massive $75 billion IPO in 2026, far surpassing Saudi Aramco’s $25.6 billion in 2019.

India’s IPO landscape has rapidly scaled, with Jio surpassing Hyundai, NSE, and LIC to set a new benchmark. While some mega IPOs (like Coal India) delivered strong listing gains, others (like Paytm, LIC) struggled post-listing.

What Is Happening?

Jio has announced a price band of ₹1,065–₹1,119 per share, aiming to raise up to ₹30,213 crore through a fresh issue of 27 crore shares. Unlike many other IPOs, this one does not include an offer for sale (OFS); all proceeds will go directly to the company.

The IPO opens for public subscription on October 21, 2026, and closes on October 23, 2026. Shares are expected to list on the NSE and BSE on October 28, 2026.

Key Highlights

• Price Band: ₹1,065–₹1,119 per share
• Issue Size: Up to ₹30,213 crore
• Shares Offered: 27 crore equity shares
• Lot Size: 12 shares (minimum retail investment ~₹13,428 at upper band)
• Listing Date: October 28, 2026

Special Allocations

• Employee Quota: ₹500 crore reserved, with a ₹54 per share discount
• Reliance Shareholders Quota: ₹2,500 crore reserved for eligible RIL shareholders
• Allocation Split: 50% for institutional investors, 15% for non‑institutional investors, and 35% for retail investors

Why This Matters

• Debt Reduction: Jio plans to use up to ₹27,500 crore from the IPO proceeds to repay or prepay borrowings of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL)
• Valuation: The IPO values Jio at around ₹10.3 lakh crore (~$106 billion), making it one of India’s most valuable listed companies
• Investor Buzz: The grey market premium (GMP) is hovering around ₹217–₹222 per share, suggesting strong demand and a possible 20% listing gain

Comparison With Past Mega IPOs

India has seen large IPOs before—such as Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in 2022 and Coal India in 2010—but Jio’s offering surpasses them in scale and valuation. This makes it a historic moment for the Indian capital markets.

Risks To Keep In Mind

• High Valuation: At ~34.6x FY26 earnings, Jio’s pricing is at a premium compared to peers
• Debt Focus: Since most proceeds are earmarked for debt repayment, direct growth funding is limited
• Crowded IPO Season: Multiple large IPOs in late 2026 could affect investor appetite

Why It’s a Big Deal Globally

Jio is not just a telecom operator—it’s a digital ecosystem spanning mobile services, broadband, streaming, and enterprise solutions. Its IPO is expected to attract global institutional investors, reinforcing India’s position as a major player in the digital economy.

Biggest IPOs So Far 

Here’s the infographic you asked for — a clean visual comparing India’s biggest IPOs with the world’s largest. It highlights Jio Platforms (₹30,213 crore) on the Indian side and SpaceX ($75 billion) globally, alongside Hyundai Motor India, NSE, Saudi Aramco, and Alibaba. This gives a quick snapshot of how India’s capital markets are scaling up to global benchmarks.

Largest IPOs in India

Company	Year	Issue Size	Notes
Jio Platforms	2026	₹30,213 crore	India’s largest IPO ever
Hyundai Motor India	2024	₹27,870 crore	Entirely Offer for Sale (OFS)
NSE	2026	₹22,569 crore	OFS by existing shareholders

Largest IPOs Globally

Company	Year	Proceeds Raised	Exchange	Notes
SpaceX	2026	$75 billion	Nasdaq	World’s largest IPO ever
Saudi Aramco	2019	$25.6 billion (expanded to $29.4B)	Tadawul	Largest oil company IPO
Alibaba	2014	$25 billion	NYSE	Landmark e-commerce IPO

Key Takeaways

• India’s IPO landscape has rapidly scaled, with Jio surpassing Hyundai, NSE, and LIC to set a new benchmark.
• Globally, tech and energy dominate the largest IPOs, with SpaceX’s $75B debut dwarfing all previous records.
• Investor sentiment varies: while some mega IPOs delivered strong listing gains, others struggled post-listing. 

Federal Bank Q2 FY27 Profit Surges 45% to Record ₹1,386 Cr, NPA at Decadal Lows

Total business crosses ₹6 lakh crore | Gross advances cross ₹3 lakh crore | NII up 26% | CASA up 23% | Fee income at all-time high, up 32% | RoA at 1.32%

Federal Bank today reported net profit of ₹1,386.09 crore for the quarter ended 30 September 2026 (Q2 FY27), up 45.10% over the corresponding quarter of the previous year. This is the highest quarterly profit in the Bank’s history. The core franchise drove the earnings growth: net interest income grew 26.38%, fee income grew 31.86%, and gross and net NPA both reached decadal lows.

Key Highlights – Q2 FY27

• Profitability: Net profit ₹1,386.09 crore, highest ever, up 45.10% YoY and 17.77% QoQ. EPS rose 44.34% to ₹22.26. Operating profit grew 35.35% to ₹2,225.37 crore.
• Core Earnings Engine: Net Interest Income grew 26.38% to ₹3,153.40 crore, ahead of advances growth of 21.66%.
• Margin Expansion: NIM expanded 26 bps YoY to 3.32%. Cost of Funds fell 40 bps YoY. Cost of Deposits declined 39 bps YoY to 5.18%.
• Record Other Income: Other income reached ₹1,490.44 crore, up 37.73% YoY. Fee income grew 31.86% to ₹1,167.71 crore. Fee income to average earning assets at all-time high of 1.11%.
• Asset Quality: Gross NPA improved to 1.32% and Net NPA to 0.17%, both decadal lows.
• Fortified Coverage: PCR (excluding TWO) strengthened to 86.78%, up 1,333 bps YoY. Coverage including technical write-offs at 94.49%. Credit cost declined 19 bps YoY to 0.31%.
• Balance Sheet Scale: Total business franchise over ₹6.4 lakh crore, up 20.12% YoY. Deposits ₹3,42,693.56 crore, up 18.61% YoY. Gross advances ₹3,01,687.80 crore, up 21.66% YoY.
• CASA Franchise: CASA balances ₹1,09,803.15 crore, up 22.56% YoY. CASA ratio improved 103 bps YoY to 32.04%. Average CASA crossed ₹1 lakh crore.
• NR Franchise: NR deposits ₹1,19,055.98 crore, up 26.63% YoY. FCNR(B) deposits rose 239.14% YoY to ₹23,547.72 crore.
• Chosen Segments: Gold Loans grew 37.13% YoY; LAP grew 32.21% YoY; Credit Cards grew 28.27% YoY; Commercial Banking grew 25.46% YoY; CV/CE grew 21.74% YoY; Corporate & Institutional Banking grew 17.19% YoY to ₹1,04,666.02 crore; Business Banking returned to growth at 12.39% YoY.
• Operating Efficiency: Cost-to-Income ratio improved 196 bps YoY to 52.08%.
• Return Metrics: RoA improved 23 bps YoY to 1.32%. RoE expanded 256 bps YoY to 13.57%. Book value per share grew 17.48% YoY to ₹166.32.
• Capital: CRAR at 16.84% and Tier I at 15.76%, up 113 bps and 139 bps YoY.
• Network: 12 branches added, total 1,662 outlets.

MD & CEO’s Comment

This quarter marks several milestones for the Bank: our highest-ever profit, our total business franchise now stands at over ₹6.4 lakh crore and advances crossing ₹3 lakh crore. More importantly, the growth is coming from the core. Net interest income grew 26% and fee income 32%, and fee income relative to our earning assets is at an all-time high.

“Gross and net NPA are at their lowest levels in a decade, slippages are down 27% and provision coverage stands at 87%. We are growing faster while keeping the quality of the book intact.

“Our chosen segments are delivering as intended, and the CASA and NR franchises continue to deepen. As the rate environment turns, we enter the second half of the year with a strong capital position, a granular balance sheet and good momentum in our core business.

Asset Quality and Resilience

Gross and net NPA at decadal lows. Fresh slippages declined 27.48% YoY, slippage ratio improved to 0.59% from 0.94%. Restructured book reduced to ₹1,389.55 crore, or 0.46% of gross advances. Balanced approach to risk and shift towards secured, granular segments provide buffer against uncertainty.

ServiceNow Launches AI Passport to Reinvent Enterprise AI Governance

ServiceNow advances its operational harness for enterprise AI with AI Passport and expanded governance capabilities

• New AI Passport solution verifies first- and third-party AI agents’ scopes in real time
• Super Intelligence Control Tower expands discovery, visibility, control, and cost-to-value measurement capabilities on a single data model

ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW), the Super Intelligence Control Tower for business reinvention, today announced a new AI Passport solution and significant advances in AI governance to help ensure AI agents are production-ready by combining runtime governance, platform integration, and comprehensive oversight, all inside ServiceNow’s operational AI harness. Specifically, AI Passport is a new authority layer that gives enterprises runtime control over what AI agents and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers are authorized to do at every point in a multi-agent workflow. ServiceNow also enables enterprises to discover what AI is running, control what AI agents do, and measure spend against outcomes with a broadened set of governance capabilities.

AI agents need more than a reasoning model to execute enterprise workflows securely. They need structure: which data or tools they can access, clear rules for what actions they’re allowed to do, and an auditable record of who authorized it. ServiceNow provides the operational foundation that helps enterprises make AI agents safe for production. AI Passport is a cryptographically signed credential that AI agents refer to at runtime, including environments such as NVIDIA OpenShell, to verify their authorized scope, grounded in enterprise business context for governed decisions. When an AI agent stays within its passport scope, it can operate freely. When it drifts, graduated responses can be enforced — redirecting, restricting, or reconnecting the AI agent with proper context — including kill switch capabilities at machine speed if termination is needed. ServiceNow’s Super Intelligence Control Tower keeps the full audit record behind actions, transforming AI agent execution into governed, auditable, and accountable work.

"As AI agents proliferate across the enterprise, visibility alone isn’t enough. Enterprises need confidence that every AI agent is operating within its authorized scope,” said Jon Sigler, executive vice president and general manager, AI Platform at ServiceNow. “ServiceNow closes that gap with an operational harness across AI Passport and new capabilities that unify agent authority, governance, and operational oversight so enterprises can scale agentic AI with control."

AI Passport: attested authority, enforceable at the edge

AI Passport is built on open specifications so that any governance product, identity provider, or enforcement point can issue and verify credentials for their own and third-party AI agents. Credentials are verifiable at every step in multi-agent workflows.

This represents a fundamental shift from reaction to prevention. Unlike audit trails, which show what happened after the fact, AI Passport helps prevent AI agents from acting outside their scope by authorizing what they can do at runtime. It brings ServiceNow’s ‘Shift Zero’ approach to life: secure by design, at inception. Each AI agent receives its own AI Passport, issued by the Super Intelligence Control Tower and grounded in the enterprise's live business context through ServiceNow Configuration Management Database (CMDB), Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) policies, and workflow approvals. For third-party AI agents especially, this creates a verifiable permissions record rather than relying on the AI agent’s own ‘claims’ about its permissions.

The approach to AI Passport enables precision revocation and scoped delegation that narrows at each step for third-party agent governance, along with audit trails that include full compliance signatures. ServiceNow is also announcing NVIDIA as a design and launch partner, building a production-ready enforcement implementation using the NVIDIA Open Agent Safety Platform, which features NVIDIA OpenShell open-source secure runtime software and the NVIDIA Sentry security framework.

"As enterprises shift from experimenting with agents to running them in production, securing those agents demands enforcement at the infrastructure layer," said Itay Ozery, director of Product Marketing for Networking and Cybersecurity at NVIDIA. "By implementing AI Passport with the NVIDIA Open Agent Safety Platform, ServiceNow customers can continuously verify and enforce what every agent is authorized to do — at machine speed and at runtime."

Unified discovery, visibility, and measurement

In addition to AI Passport, ServiceNow delivers end-to-end AI governance on one unified platform across discovery, visibility, control, measurement, and compliance. The new capabilities announced today build on ServiceNow’s autonomous remediation and kill switch capabilities that empower enterprises to act with speed.

• Shadow AI detection that finds unapproved AI agents running in the network
• 400+ out-of-box connectors that will enable AI discovery across platforms and vendors
• Access mapping that grounds authorization decisions in actual entitlements
• Continuous enterprise AI observability that keeps track of AI agent traces and behavior

Beyond discovering what AI is running, enterprises need visibility into whether that AI is delivering value and operating within budget. ServiceNow is announcing:

• Cost governance that tracks user, department, and runtime spending
• Value intelligence that connects consumption, cost, quality, and realized user value
• AI Cost Management as part of IT Asset Management (ITAM), integrating frontier model, SaaS AI, hyperscaler, and GPU costs into a single view
• Policy enforcement that will manage alert-to-throttle-to-block graduated responses

AI control in highly regulated industries

For financial institutions, ungoverned assets and shadow AI multiply risk across compliance clocks. Regulators are shrinking incident notification windows far faster than manual, spreadsheet-driven programs can respond. ServiceNow's 2026 Banking AI Maturity Index reveals that gap: while 100 percent of banks report using AI, only 24 percent have the governance to match it.

ServiceNow's new Operational Resilience solution brings AI governance, risk, and security together in one place, with centralized data that helps financial institutions respond quickly. It gives CROs and CISOs the same real-time visibility and control. The Super Intelligence Control Tower senses ungoverned assets, identities, and AI agents across IT, OT, cloud, and third-party systems on one data model and unified platform. It is designed to treat a rogue AI agent like any other exposed asset: it finds it, flags it, and shuts it down, if needed.

What customers are saying

LTM Limited, "As we accelerate LTM’s growth as an AI-led enterprise, we have deployed 1,500 AI agents across the organization, each assigned an employee ID and manager to ensure accountability, oversight, and continuous improvement,” said Chandan Pani, Chief Information Security Officer, LTM. "ServiceNow’s control tower provides a single system of record for these AI agents, giving us centralized visibility into inventory, risk, and compliance. By streamlining AI asset management and strengthening governance, we expect to improve operational efficiency significantly."

Availability

AI Passport, shadow AI detection, and AI Cost Management are expected to be available in Q4 2026. ServiceNow’s Operational Resilience solution for financial services is available today.

About ServiceNow

ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) is the Super Intelligence Control Tower for business reinvention. The ServiceNow platform integrates with any model, any cloud, and any data source to orchestrate, govern, and secure work across the agentic enterprise. ServiceNow gives customers the enterprise context and control to build and scale confidently.

Nucleus Software’s AI Agent Gives Loan Statements a Voice, Wins CII National AI Award

The Loan Statement Finds Its Voice: Nucleus Software's Generative AI agent turns Loan Data into Personalized Videos in 11+ languages, Wins CII National AI Award

Recognised in the 'Most Innovative Practice' category, Nucleus Software's Visual Report Agent uses Generative AI to simplify financial communication, with an estimated 10–15% reduction in customer education costs and a projected 50% improvement in customer experience.

Nucleus Software, a global provider of digital lending and transaction banking solutions, has won the 'Most Innovative Practice' award at the 3rd CII National AI Awards 2026, held in conjunction with the CII Global Artificial Intelligence Summit, for its Generative AI-powered Visual Report Agent, integrated with its flagship digital lending platform, FinnOne Neo®.

Beyond Regulatory Disclosure: Making Financial Information Truly Understandable

India's rapidly expanding digital banking ecosystem serves customers across a vast diversity of languages, geographies and levels of financial literacy. While digitalisation has made accessing financial services easier, understanding complex financial information remains a challenge.

Recognising this broader challenge, Nucleus Software has taken the principle of borrower understanding a step further through its Visual Report Agent, applying Generative AI to simplify ongoing loan communication in customers' preferred languages.

Giving Loan Statements a Voice Through Generative AI

Integrated with FinnOne Neo®, the Visual Report Agent combines Generative AI, neural machine translation and text-to-speech technologies to convert complex loan statements into simple, personalised, narrated video summaries in more than 10 Indian vernacular languages and Arabic.
Built as an API-enabled, zero-touch microservice, the Visual Report Agent can be integrated into existing loan management environments without requiring fundamental changes to customer-facing channels.

• Transforms conventional loan statements into personalised financial explanations
• Aims to strengthen financial inclusion, confidence and engagement
• Helps reduce delinquency

Responsible AI with Tangible Business Potential

Beyond simplifying financial communication, the Visual Report Agent demonstrates how Generative AI can simultaneously support better customer experiences and greater operational efficiency.

• Estimated 10–15% reduction in operational costs associated with customer education
• Projected 50% improvement in overall customer experience
• Safeguards include domain-specific prompt engineering, hallucination controls, continuous monitoring, encryption and customer data isolation

Innovation at the Core: Leadership Perspective

Parag Bhise, CEO & Executive Director, Nucleus Software: “At Nucleus Software, innovation has always been at our core. For over four decades, we have embraced disruptive technologies, from AI to tokenization, to reimagine financial services. In a diverse country like India, our Generative AI-powered Visual Report Agent gives complex loan statements a voice in 10+ Indian vernacular languages and Arabic, making financial information simpler and more accessible, with the potential to reduce customer-education costs by 10–15%. This CII recognition reinforces our commitment to responsible, customer-first innovation and our vision of making financial services access easy and enriching worldwide. For us, true innovation is measured by the difference it makes in people's lives.”

Shaping the Future of Inclusive, AI-Powered Banking

The CII recognition reinforces Nucleus Software's commitment to responsible, purpose-driven AI innovation. As India advances towards greater financial transparency and informed borrowing, the Visual Report Agent goes beyond conventional reporting to make financial communication simpler, personalised and accessible.

About Nucleus Software

Nucleus Software Exports Ltd. is a publicly traded (BSE: 531209, NSE: NUCLEUS), software product company that provides lending and transaction banking products to global financial leaders.

• Delivers disruptive Fintech Solutions to 200+ Banks and Financial Institutions across 50 countries
• Solutions manage over $15 trillion value of yearly transactions
• Lending platform manages $1.2 trillion+ value of loans globally
• Flagship Products: FinnOne Neo® and FinnAxia®
• Recognized by Gartner® and Forrester®

FinnOne Neo®

The next-generation digital lending platform, designed to revolutionize the lending process. Built on advanced technology, empowering financial institutions to streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and drive growth.

FinnAxia®

An integrated global transaction banking suite, trusted worldwide to optimize transaction banking processes. Enables efficient cash management, trade finance, liquidity management, and more.

Nucleus Software Digital Services

Comprehensive suite of services tailored to assist banks and financial institutions in their digital transformation journey.

As You Asked Secures ₹45 Lakh to Simplify Children’s Nutrition

Founders – Nehal Sharma and Vinayak Dhingra 

Backed by ISB D-Labs and angel investors, the nutrition brand will use the capital to support its market launch, product development and expansion of its daily nutrition, hydration and micronutrient range for children aged 2–12.

As You Asked, a nutrition-focused brand rethinking everyday nutrition through clarity, restraint and usability, has raised ₹45 lakh in a pre-seed funding round from ISB D-Labs & and angel investors The round was entirely equity-funded. The capital will support the brand’s broader market launch and initial product expansion.

As You Asked plans to introduce daily nutrition support powders, hydration powders for active days and micronutrient gummies without added sugars, designed to fit into everyday routines without unnecessary ingredients or complexity. The initial range will focus on children aged 2–12, with age-calibrated formulations developed for consistent, long-term use.

“This didn’t start as a business idea, it started with two very different health journeys that eventually led to the same question: what does ‘normal’ nutrition actually mean over time?” said Nehal Sharma, Founder of As You Asked. “What became clear is that nutrition isn’t failing because people don’t care. We’ve seen extremes of anorexia, bulimia, obesity and then a moment where, despite doing everything ‘right’ as adults, a serious health event still happened. That changes how you think about prevention. It’s failing because the system around it is built on excess, not adequacy.”

The company has shaped its approach through conversations with 100+ parents, more than 200 child taste tests and an early pilot involving 200+ customers, helping the team understand how children’s eating patterns, taste preferences and family routines influence everyday nutrition choices.

“Today, you see high awareness around protein and performance, but very little confidence when it comes to everyday nutrition for children. Parents are still unsure what is safe to use daily, long-term, without unintended effects. That’s the gap we’re addressing. We avoid ingredients that are unnecessary or poorly justified. And we design everything for consistency, not intensity, because in nutrition, what holds up over years matters more than what looks impressive in a moment.”

The funds will be deployed across product development and building consumer trust, with a focus on formulation, manufacturing, distribution and transparent communication with parents. As You Asked plans to expand into other underserved areas of nutrition while maintaining its focus on making everyday nutrition simple, practical and easier to understand.

About As You Asked

As You Asked (AYA) is a nutrition brand focused on making everyday nutrition simpler, more considered and easier for families to incorporate into daily routines. Built on the principle of “Listen First, Then Build,” AYA develops nutrition products by listening to parents, understanding real routines and working with nutrition experts to create measured, purposeful formulations. Its approach is centred on clarity, repeatability and food-first nutrition, with products designed to complement everyday meals rather than replace them.

AYA’s initial range includes daily nutrition, hydration and vitamin products for children, including an age-specific milk mix with measured protein support, a hydration formulation combining sodium, potassium, magnesium and glucose for active days, and micronutrient gummies formulated without added sugar or sugar alcohols. The products are developed for everyday use and manufactured in GMP-certified, FDA-approved facilities, adhering to established quality and safety standards.

Wesbite: https://asyouasked.com/