New Delhi, July 6 -- Amid a patchy demand recovery and lingering global uncertainty, India Inc. continued to hoard cash in the last fiscal year, choosing financial buffers over fresh investments. Despite rising profits and healthy balance sheets, companies showed little urgency to deploy capital, preferring to return more to shareholders instead.

A Mint analysis of cash holdings of 285 BSE-listed firms, excluding banking, financial services and insurance companies, showed a 12% year-on-year rise to Rs.5.09 trillion in FY25.







Yet, new project announcements fell 5% in the same period, following a 3% contraction in FY24, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy's (CMIE) project-tracking database.







Companies are now ...