In this week’s wrapup, we talk about the Draft Digital Trade Facilitation Bill 2026, changes to India’s CPI, why SEBI wants tighter ETF bands, India’s carbon credit market and why China’s manufacturing playbook is irreplaceable.

Also, in this week’s Markets edition, we break down the Gaudium IVF and Women Health IPO. You can read it here.

With that out of the way, let’s look back at what we wrote this week.

Can India truly kill red tape?

India has spent years reforming business laws, from insolvency rules to GST. Yet some businesses still run into some problems that are far more old-fashioned: paperwork. One such industry is cross-border trade. You see, trade here often moves more slowly on documents than on ships.

And the Draft Digital Trade Facilitation Bill 2026 aims to change that by giving electronic trade documents the same legal status as paper ones, and recognising trusted foreign digital signatures. If implemented well, it could shorten clearance times and ease working capital pressure. But digitising these documents & approvals still has its own hurdles.

So, will this Bill finally remove India’s paper bias or just layer digital systems on top of old habits?

Find out in our Monday story.

India’s new CPI explained

India’s inflation numbers are shaped by what households buy — and how much importance each item carries. But those weights were frozen in time, based on spending patterns from 2012. Since then, consumption has steadily shifted away from food and towards housing, transport, healthcare, education, and services. 

The revamped Consumer Price Index updates the base year, expands the basket, and realigns weights to reflect how Indians actually spend today. It also brings India’s inflation measurement closer to global standards, subtly changing what drives headline inflation and how price pressures show up month to month. In our Tuesday story, we explain how India’s new CPI changes the way inflation is measured and felt.

SEBI wants tighter ETF bands

ETFs are suddenly everywhere, especially with all the chatter around gold and silver price volatility. They look simple on the surface. They track an asset, trade like a stock, done.

But behind the scenes, there’s a delicate mechanism that keeps their prices aligned with the real value of what they hold. And that mechanism depends heavily on how reference prices are set.

Now SEBI thinks that this system needs a rethink.

In a recent consultation paper, the market regulator has proposed changes to how ETF base prices are calculated and how extreme volatility is handled. It sounds technical. But it could meaningfully change how ETFs trade, especially on wild market days.

So what exactly is SEBI trying to fix, and could these tweaks help?

Find out in Wednesday’s newsletter here.

Can India get carbon credits right?

Historically, India has contributed only to a small share of global emissions. But pollution has become a very real economic cost in the country right now.

So, the Union Government introduced a ₹20,000 crore budget for carbon credit capture programmes and to implement a formal Carbon Credit Trading Scheme.

In theory, carbon markets reward those who cut emissions and penalise those who don’t. However, in practice, a weak verification system can turn the same credits into mere accounting tricks rather than measuring actual carbon captures.

So, can we design a carbon market that actually reduces pollution, and not just reshuffles it?

You can read about it here.

Why can’t the world replace China?

Over the past few decades, China has quietly built something far more powerful than cheap factories. Suppliers, component makers, logistics providers, engineers, and exporters operate side by side, allowing companies to move from design to mass production at a speed and scale few countries can match. 

This dense industrial clustering lowers costs, reduces uncertainty, and creates efficiencies that compound over time. Even as firms talk about “China-plus-one” strategies, shifting production isn’t just about finding cheaper labour elsewhere. In yesterday’s story, we explain what makes China’s edge so hard to replace.

Finshots Weekly Quiz v2.0 🧠

Hey folks! As you probably already know, the Finshots Weekly Quiz has a new avatar. If you missed out on it in the last couple of months, don’t worry. Click here to check out the rules and set a reminder to participate consistently starting next month!

Next, let’s move on to the top scorers from our previous weekly quiz. There were a whole bunch of you who participated, and many of you ended up with the same scores. So we’re calling you Bulls, Bears, Unicorns, Blue Chips, and Rising Stars. Here’s how the leaderboard looks right now:

If your name has been featured on the leaderboard, then congratulations! If not, don’t lose hope. If you attempted last week’s quiz, keep at it and answer all the weekly quizzes this month. You never know when the turntables! Click on this link to take this week’s quiz, which is open till 12 noon, Friday, 27th of February, 2026. The more answers you get right, the better your chances of appearing on the Finshots Weekly Quiz leaderboard. We’ll publish it every Saturday in the Weekly Wrapup. And the winner will be announced in the first week of March.

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