News from Home — March 21, 2026

Headlines

Indian Navy deploys warships to Arabian Sea as Iran tensions persist. INS Vikramaditya carrier group now patrolling shipping lanes near the Strait of Hormuz. Defence Minister called it "precautionary" — which is what they always call it until it isn't.
2.68 lakh Indians now repatriated from West Asia. Up from 2.44 lakh three days ago. Kuwait and Bahrain are seeing the largest outflows. MEA says repatriation flights will continue "as long as necessary."
RBI holds rates steady at 6.25%. No surprise. Governor Das cited "global uncertainty" — the polite way of saying oil at $100 makes everything harder. Next review in April.
Lok Sabha reconvenes Monday. Parliament resumes March 23 after passing Demands for Grants last week. The Opposition wants a debate on repatriation costs. The government wants to talk about infrastructure spending. As is tradition.
CBDT extends ITR filing deadline for NRIs to August 31. Previously July 31. The official reason is "disruptions to international banking channels." The practical reason is that half the Gulf-based filers just lost their jobs.

Weather

Delhi: 35°C, hazy. IMD's thunderstorm warning from earlier this week has passed. Back to the standard March heat that makes you wonder why anyone lives there voluntarily.
Mumbai: 33°C, humid. Sea breeze keeping the coast tolerable. Interior suburbs less fortunate.
Bengaluru: 29°C, partly cloudy. Still the city that doesn't need air conditioning. For now.
Chennai: 34°C, humid. Pre-summer conditions settling in. The real heat starts next month.

Markets

Sensex: 77,142 (+438 pts / +0.57%) — four out of five green days this week
Nifty: 23,912 (+134 pts / +0.56%) — banking and pharma leading
USD/INR: 84.92 — rupee slipping slightly as oil stays elevated
Brent crude: $98/barrel — dipped below $100 for the first time since March 8. Markets are cautiously optimistic about diplomatic back-channels.

The rally has legs, or at least the market thinks it does. FIIs turned net buyers for the first time in three weeks. Pharma stocks are up on expectations that Gulf repatriation will increase domestic healthcare demand. That's dark math, but accurate math.

Sports

IPL 2026 kicks off in one week. March 28, CSK vs RCB in Chennai. If you're abroad, start negotiating your sleep schedule now. More on this below — or rather, in our blog.
India women's cricket: Beat Sri Lanka by 7 wickets in the second ODI. Smriti Mandhana scored 89. Series level at 1-1.
Hockey: India men ranked #4 in FIH rankings after the Pro League results. Harmanpreet Singh continues to be the most underappreciated athlete in the country.

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