Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and Smart City Ahmedabad Development Ltd unveiled a ₹250-crore startup policy with a dedicated innovation fund for five years. Startups can pitch solutions for civic issues like waste, flooding and pollution and avail support exceeding ₹35 lakh. Meanwhile, no bill or invoice will be required in this process. Startups will be given priority in large projects.

Fintech firm Sezzle stated in a filing that it dismissed its independent auditor, Baker Tilly, and ​instead appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for 2026. Sezzle flagged material weaknesses in its financial controls over certain classified cash flows for fiscal 2024 and 2025. It stated that Baker Tilly's audit opinions for the years were ​unqualified and didn't contain a disclaimer.

HDFC Bank has fired Sampath Kumar, group head of branch banking, along with two other senior executives, for their alleged involvement in the mis-selling of additional tier-1 (AT-1) bonds of Credit Suisse, CNBCTV18 reported. The two other executives are Harsh Gupta and Payal Mandhyan. This comes after Chairman Atanu Chakraborty's resignation triggered a sharp fall in the bank's share price.

Oil marketing companies have hiked the price of premium petrol by up to ₹2.35 per litre. XP95 Retail Selling Price in New Delhi is ₹101.89/litre, while it is being sold at ₹112.53/litre in Mumbai, ₹114.95/litre in Kolkata and ₹108.9/litre in Chennai, reported PTI. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai also witnessed a hike in commercial diesel prices.

Eightco Holdings (ORBS) shares fell despite investing an additional $40 million in OpenAI, bringing its total commitment to $90 million. The stock struggled to reclaim the $1 mark, risking a Nasdaq compliance notice. While the broader market slumped on Middle East tensions, retail sentiment on Stocktwits remained extremely bullish with high chatter levels.

Perplexity has introduced 'Perplexity Health' to let users integrate data from medical records, wearables, wellness apps and Apple Health. It would allow the system to aggregate such data into a single interface and provide "context-aware" answers to health-related queries. "Perplexity Health is designed for everyday informational use and is not intended to diagnose conditions," Perplexity said.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the company integrated 1 gigawatt of flexible electricity demand into utility contracts. As the first cloud provider to embed large-scale demand response, Google can shift data centre power usage based on grid needs. Alphabet Class A shares traded over 1% lower on Friday.

IO Fund analyst Beth Kindig says Nvidia's $20 billion Groq acquisition will be the next major revenue catalyst by driving token usage. The deal focuses on inference architecture, with Nvidia expecting Groq to boost token output by 15 times. Kindig compares the move to Nvidia's 2020 Mellanox acquisition. Nvidia shares fell over 1% on Friday.

Wall Street analysts expect Dell Technologies to benefit as Super Micro Computer shares plunge after employees were charged with smuggling AI servers to China. Wells Fargo stated Dell is a prime alternative to capture lost market share. While SMCI fell by over 27%, Dell rose nearly 6%.

An Air India flight to Vancouver returned to Delhi after nearly eight hours in the air as the airline mistakenly deployed an aircraft that did not have the regulatory clearance to enter Canada, reports said. The aircraft, which made a U-turn after four hours, was a Boeing 777-200LR while Air India has approval to operate Boeing 777-300ER fleet in Canada.