Policy Pulse - Ministries & Regulators - 13 Oct 2026

The FM Puts LTCG and STT on the Budget Table, and the Market Adds Rs 4.3 Lakh Crore

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on October 13 that the government would be "keen to hear views" on the removal of long-term capital gains tax, and framed the securities transaction tax as part of the same question.

• "LTCG, a lot of people are commenting on, both Indian and foreign investors. This debate on STT in market and question of treating all asset classes similarly, there is a lot of debate. It is healthy to have this debate."
• She stopped well short of promising anything: "We are very close to the Budget and the preparation for the Budget has started, and it may not be the best time for me to say what I will or what I will not consider."
• A senior government official said the same day that the Centre has received proposals to review LTCG on equity and is examining them.
• The push came from SBI Research, which on October 12 proposed abolishing LTCG on equity and extending the qualifying holding period to two or three years to anchor "hot money" flows. FPIs have sold Rs 44,166 crore of Indian equities in October and about Rs 3.04 lakh crore in 2026 to date.
• What is actually on the books: 12.5% LTCG on listed equity and equity mutual funds held over 12 months, with Rs 1.25 lakh of annual gains exempt (July 2024 Budget). Budget 2026 left that structure intact but raised STT — futures to 0.05% from 0.02%, options premiums to 0.15% from 0.1%, and exercised options to 0.15% from 0.125%.
• This is a consultation, not an announcement. No rate has been changed, and the FM declined to indicate a direction.

The tape took the remarks and ran. All levels are October 13 closes unless stated.

• Sensex +1,109.10 points (+1.54%) to 73,033.78. Nifty 50 +358.60 points (+1.60%) to 22,721.95. Nifty Bank +1.03% to 55,481.05. BSE-listed market capitalisation rose Rs 4.31 lakh crore to Rs 469.76 lakh crore.
• Nifty IT +5.22% to 29,830.10, its biggest single-day gain since May 2025. Nifty Realty +2.46%, Financial Services +1.46%, PSU Bank +1.44%, FMCG +1.40%, Auto +1.23%, Metal +1.15%, Media +0.55%. Nifty Pharma was the sole laggard at -0.01%; Energy also closed lower.
• Gainers: HCLTECH +8.28%, TCS +6.35%, TECHM +4.76%, INFY +4.33%, SHRIRAMFIN about +6% on reports of a Mitsubishi UFJ stake increase, HINDUNILVR +2.94%, TRENT +2.61%, BAJAJFINSV +2.40%, BEL +1.70%, HDFCBANK +1.53%. Losers: KOTAKBANK -0.90%, ETERNAL -0.82%, MARUTI -0.60%, MAXHEALTH, POWERGRID, ASIANPAINT.
• Flows and currency: FIIs net sold Rs 1,305.13 crore, DIIs net bought Rs 2,439.24 crore. The rupee appreciated 40 paise to close at 95.38 (intraday high 94.96), a third straight session of gains after Monday's 93-paise move, with the dollar index at 102.32, down 0.26%.
• Note the earnings overlap: HCLTech's Q2 FY27 beat (PAT Rs 5,132 crore, +21% YoY; EBIT margin 18.2%; bookings USD 3.3bn) did most of the work in IT. Do not attribute that move to the tax remarks alone.

BEL Discloses Rs 533 Crore of Fresh Orders in Three Weeks

Bharat Electronics (BEL) said on October 13 that it had received additional orders worth Rs 533 crore since its last disclosure on September 17, 2026, filed under Regulation 30 of the SEBI LODR Regulations.

• The order wins span communication equipment, avionics, cybersecurity solutions, drones, jammers, software solutions, upgrades, spares and services.
• The Navratna defence PSU did not provide a customer-wise breakdown or individual contract values.

The Army Takes Delivery of 450 Loitering Munitions — the Order Was Placed in June 2025

The Army has inducted 450 Nagastra-1R loitering munitions, its largest single batch of the "kamikaze" drones, per the New Indian Express on October 13.

• The Rs 158 crore order was placed in June 2025 under the emergency procurement (EP) powers granted after Operation Sindoor. It is a follow-on to the earlier EP contract for 480 Nagastra-1 units, inducted through 2024 — the first 120 delivered to the Pulgaon ammunition depot in June that year, with the full lot in by December.
• The manufacturer is Nagpur-based Solar Defence and Aerospace Ltd (SDAL), formerly Economic Explosives Ltd — a wholly owned subsidiary of listed Solar Industries India (SOLARINDS).
• The armed forces have signed roughly Rs 30,000 crore of emergency procurement contracts, largely for drones, counter-drone systems, radars and electronic warfare equipment.
• Read this as an induction, not as order inflow. The award was booked in FY26; what changed on October 13 is that the capability is in service.

The MoD Signals a 10-15 Year Capability Roadmap and a Rewrite of Acquisition Rules

A. Anbarasu, Additional Secretary and Director General (Acquisition) at the Ministry of Defence, set out the direction on October 13:

• A revised Integrated Capability Development Plan (ICDP) will lead to a detailed Technology Perspective and Capability Roadmap (TPCR), giving industry a 10 to 15 year outlook on military requirements — explicitly including emerging domains such as drones and counter-drone systems.
• A centre for drone excellence at IIT Kanpur is to be established as a single research location for the domain.
• The central element of the proposed Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2026 reforms is a shift from manufacturing products domestically to India developing and owning critical technologies.

No company was named. All mappings below are inferred from the platforms and domains the MoD itself listed.

NSE Ends Polycab's Derivatives Contracts, and the Stock Falls 5%

The National Stock Exchange said, in a circular dated October 12, that it will not introduce contracts for new expiry months in Polycab India after the existing contract months expire.

• October, November and December 2026 contracts stay available until their respective expiries. New strike prices will still be introduced in the existing months. The final contract expires on December 30, 2026, and all positions must be squared off by that maturity.
• The background: an insolvency case alleging Rs 2.79 crore of operational dues, in which NCLAT has stayed the earlier NCLT order admitting insolvency proceedings. Admission to the IBC framework or NCLT proceedings is among the disqualifiers under SEBI and NSE eligibility criteria, alongside the revised Rs 1,500 crore market-wide position limit threshold.
• A stock removed from the F&O segment cannot be reintroduced for 12 months, and must then satisfy the eligibility criteria for six consecutive months before the exchange's Risk Management Committee will verify it.
• Polycab shares fell more than 5% on October 13.

Flows, Currency and Countdown

• FIIs have now sold Indian equities for a sixth straight session — Rs 1,305.13 crore on October 13, after Rs 1,708.48 crore on October 12 and Rs 3,568.90 crore on October 9. October's cumulative FII outflow stands at about Rs 41,487 crore through October 12 (seven sessions); DIIs have been net buyers in every one of those sessions, cumulatively about Rs 43,400 crore, or 104.6% of the FII selling. On an NSE cash-market basis, FIIs have net sold roughly Rs 4.46 lakh crore in 2026 against DII net buying of about Rs 6.73 lakh crore.
• The rupee is doing the work on the flows side: three consecutive sessions of gains to 95.38 after the RBI's October 10 package, which expanded the cash-deposit requirement for FX hedging to all such transactions, restricted IFSC units and primary dealers to offering non-deliverable rupee derivatives for hedging only, and installed the dedicated dollar window for the oil marketing companies.
• Next in the calendar: TCS Rs 12 interim dividend record date and US September CPI on October 14; the DGHS expert-committee deadline for the anti-cancer drug positive list on October 14; UPI MDR go-live and India's September trade data on October 15; HCLTech's record date on October 16; Jio Platforms' anchor book on October 19 with subscription October 21-23 and listing around October 28, at a Rs 1,065-1,119 band for a record Rs 30,200 crore issue and a grey-market premium of about Rs 200.

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Policy Pulse — Ministries & Regulators. Where an official release named no company, the mapping is marked ⚠️ inferred and scored down; where a company is named in the release or a Regulation 30 filing it is marked ✅. No buy or sell recommendation is made — direction and confidence only.