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Bengaluru, May 6: Leading commercial property insurer FM today announced the wider launch of FM Essential, an insurance product to support a broader group of manufacturing companies seeking to strengthen their resilience and more proactively embrace a culture of loss prevention.

Unveiled at RISKWORLD in Philadelphia, USA, the new product comes at a time when manufacturing companies are facing an increasingly challenging global risk landscape. FM Essential offers manufacturers a flexible path to navigate those challenges.

“Resilience has evolved from a ‘nice to have’ to an essential priority for businesses around the globe,” said Alex Tadmoury, executive vice president, International, at FM. “FM Essential brings together engineering insight, data analytics and competitive risk transfer capabilities to help manufacturers navigate complexity and focus investment where it has the greatest impact.”

“Manufacturers in India are scaling rapidly ranging from relatively simple manufacturing operations with critical bottlenecks to highly complex sites with interconnected supply chains and operational dependencies,” said Sumit Khanna, CEO, FMIC India – Reinsurance Branch. “FM Essential is designed to meet organizations at an earlier stage of their resilience journey, combining engineering insight from a loss‑prevention standpoint with data‑led intelligence and a more flexible (re)insurance pathway. In India, with our cedants, the reinsurance offering reflects the realities of growth in this market and provides manufacturers with an option to a long‑term, risk‑to‑resilience strategy and towards continual stability.”

A new insurance option for manufacturers

Offered through FM’s broker partners, FM Essential is initially designed to serve manufacturing companies with a medium risk complexity profile. The solution features a more streamlined quote process and supports both 100% capacity placements as well as insurance programs shared by multiple insurers.

FM Essential goes beyond a traditional insurance product by combining core engineering solutions and claims expertise with intelligence built on FM’s unique understanding of property risk. FM’s artificial intelligence capability is grounded in data from more than 40,000 client location evaluations conducted each year by 1,100 engineers and validated through real loss experience.

Through FM Essential, brokers can offer an additional placement option for their manufacturing clients, helping to strengthen client relationships by supporting their long‑term resilience journeys, not just renewal‑to‑renewal transactions.

In addition, FM Essential is designed to support manufacturers at earlier stages of their resilience journey, complementing FM’s broader suite of property insurance solutions.

After a successful pilot last year in New York, France and India, FM Essential is now expanding into further hubs in Chicago and Cleveland, with Atlanta and Dallas to follow shortly in the United States. On the international stage, Australia, South Korea, Italy, Spain and Switzerland launched the offering in the first quarter of 2026. Germany and the United Kingdom are slated for the second quarter. Additional countries will continue to be added in the future.

The new offering complements FM’s existing products—with FM Affiliated dedicated to middle-market non-manufacturing occupancies and specific verticals; and the FM flagship mutual with market-leading coverage and risk management solutions for large, highly protected businesses, including specialty industries.

FM unveils ‘Protect Your Purpose’ brand campaign

FM this week also launched a new brand campaign to bring these new initiatives to light. Called “Protect Your Purpose,” the campaign—debuting at RISKWORLD 2026—will highlight how FM’s engineers, data-driven insights and proactive partnerships help clients mitigate risk, strengthen resilience and pursue progress with confidence.

The campaign will feature an integrated mix of digital and social media, events and sponsorships, and content on FM.com, reinforcing FM’s belief that a company’s purpose is its most vital asset—and worth protecting.

 

New Delhi, May 6 (BNP): India’s manufacturing sector continued to show a positive growth outlook in the fourth quarter of FY26, even as businesses faced rising raw material costs and global economic uncertainties, according to a latest FICCI survey.

The survey indicates that overall industry sentiment remains steady across key manufacturing segments, despite cost pressures impacting input expenses. Capacity utilisation witnessed a marginal decline to around 72%, compared to the previous quarter.

However, manufacturers continue to remain optimistic about the next six months, with a stable investment outlook reflecting confidence in demand conditions and long-term business prospects.

The survey covered major industries including automobiles, capital goods, chemicals, fertilizers and pharmaceuticals, electronics and electricals, machine tools, metals, and textiles.

Overall, the findings highlight the resilience of India’s manufacturing sector, with sustained optimism expected to support production growth, investment activity, and broader industrial expansion in the coming months.

May 6 (BNP): Indian equity markets continued their upward momentum on Wednesday, with benchmark indices closing strongly in positive territory amid broad-based buying across sectors.

The BSE Sensex surged by 941 points, while the NSE Nifty 50 advanced by 298 points, reflecting strong investor sentiment.

The rally was supported by positive global cues and sustained domestic inflows, with financials, energy, and IT stocks leading the gains. Market participants noted improved risk appetite and continued optimism in key sectors.

Overall, the trading session highlighted strong bullish momentum, with benchmarks extending their gains on broad market participation.

New Delhi, May 6 (BNP): India and the European Union have announced a joint initiative worth ₹169 crore aimed at accelerating the development of advanced technologies for recycling electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

The collaboration is designed to support sustainable mobility by improving the way used EV batteries are processed, recovered, and reused. The focus will be on developing innovative recycling methods that can help recover critical materials, reduce environmental waste, and strengthen the circular economy in the clean energy sector.

Officials noted that the partnership reflects a shared commitment between India and the EU to promote greener transportation solutions and reduce dependency on raw material extraction through more efficient resource recovery systems.

The initiative is expected to encourage research and innovation in battery recycling technologies while also supporting long-term environmental and economic sustainability goals in the EV ecosystem.

May 6 (BNP): India’s external trade has reached a historic milestone, with total exports of goods and services touching an all-time high of $863.11 billion in FY 2025–26.

The sharp rise was primarily driven by the robust performance of the services sector, which continued to outperform merchandise exports. Strong global demand for India’s IT services, business process outsourcing, consulting, and professional services played a major role in boosting overall export earnings.

 Merchandise exports also contributed to the growth, though at a more moderate pace compared to services. At the same time, imports increased due to higher demand for crude oil, raw materials, and other industrial inputs, reflecting continued domestic consumption and manufacturing activity.

Despite global economic uncertainties, India’s export sector remained resilient and diversified. The strong services-led growth highlights the country’s increasing integration into global value chains and its rising importance as a global services hub.

Overall, the record export performance underscores the structural strength of India’s external sector, with services emerging as the key driver of growth in FY 2025–26.