West Asia War; Global flight, shipping disruptions hitting India; Market under pressure & more

Good morning! Today’s edition of the 11:11 tracks the widening West Asia war after US-Israel strikes kill Iran’s leadership, Tehran’s refusal to negotiate, and global flight and shipping disruptions hitting India. Markets reel as defence stocks surge.

Also inside: Afghanistan-Pakistan escalation, India’s PMI rebound, China’s new AI race, and rising HNI insurance demand.

Iran’s National Security Chief Ali Larijani on Monday said the country would not negotiate after President Donald Trump indicated Tehran’s new leadership wanted to open dialogue. The statement directly contradicts remarks made by Trump recently, suggesting that Iranian leaders had sought contact.

Air travel across India and key international corridors continues to face disruption as the Iran-Israel war impacts airspace availability across parts of the West Asian region. Airlines have cancelled or rerouted hundreds of flights over the past three days, with more changes expected on Monday, March 2.

Air travel across West Asia remained severely disrupted for a third straight day on Monday (March 2) after the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran, triggering retaliatory action and widespread airspace restrictions.

Major transit hubs including Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi scaled back or temporarily suspended operations as airlines rerouted aircraft to avoid affected corridors. Thousands of passengers, including many Indians connecting through Gulf airports, have been stranded as carriers cancelled services at short notice, citing safety concerns.

The number of stranded export containers at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) has increased since Monday, as shipments already en route have now reached the port amid disruptions linked to the escalating US-Israel-Iran conflict, sources told CNBC-TV18.

Exporters, particularly those dealing in perishable goods, are bearing rising costs as uncertainty over shipping routes and vessel movements persists.

Israeli and American authorities spent weeks tracking the movements of senior Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sharing information that allowed the strikes to be carried out in a surprise daylight attack, according to an Israeli military official and a person familiar with the operation.

The eventual barrage of US-Israeli attacks on Iran came so quickly that they were nearly simultaneous — with three strikes in three locations hitting within a single minute — killing Khamenei and some 40 senior figures, including the head of the Revolutionary Guard and the country’s defense minister, the Israeli military official said Sunday (March 1).

CNBC-TV18’s live blog on the latest war and conflict situation in the West Asian region involving the United States and Israel’s attack on Iran. Track live updates here.

Indian equity markets have seen sharp cuts at the start of trade after the Iran conflict escalated over the weekend and the situation has deteriorated over the weekend across the entire Gulf region. The initial minutes of trade have led to an erosion of over ₹8 lakh crore in investor wealth. Here’s a list of stocks impacted due to the ongoing conflict.

India’s defence companies, Paras Defence and ideaForge Technology, are trading with gains of up to 13% each after the escalation of the geopolitical tensions in West Asia, which have translated into a full-blown war across the region. Shares of Bharat Dynamics and Data Patterns are also trading up 3% to 4%.

As per the recent updates, Hezbollah has attacked Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei, claiming that it has fired rockets and drones into Israel.

Afghanistan said it struck several key Pakistani military bases, including the Command and Control Centre at Rawalpindi’s Nur Khan Air Base, in a sharp escalation of cross-border hostilities between the two countries. In a statement on X, Afghanistan’s Ministry of National Defence said its Air Force carried out coordinated aerial operations against multiple targets inside Pakistan. These included Nur Khan Air Base in Rawalpindi, the 12th Division headquarters in Quetta, and the Khwazai camp in Mohmand Agency, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, along with other military facilities.

India’s manufacturing activity strengthened in February 2026, with the HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rising to 56.9, up from 55.4 in January, according to data released by S&P Global on March 2.

Although the reading was revised lower from the flash estimate of 57.5, it marked a four-month high and pointed to a notable improvement in operating conditions across the sector.

As speculation over a new version of the DeepSeek AI model grows, several other Chinese tech companies have released their own generative artificial intelligence models in the past few weeks.

They range from Alibaba’s Qwen 3.5 to ByteDance’s video-generating Seedance 2.0.

But what’s caught the eye of AI users — and UBS stock analysts — is MiniMax, which only went public in Hong Kong in January. The company in mid-February released its M2.5 model, with performance rivalling Claude’s latest Opus 4.6 at a lower price.

India’s affluent households are increasing their allocation to pure protection products, with high net worth individual (HNI) term insurance purchases doubling in the past two years, according to data released by Policybazaar.

The HNI segment has expanded 100% over two years and more than 200% over five years, significantly outpacing the overall term insurance market, which has grown around 50%. The HNI category alone is clocking 45% year-on-year growth, making it one of the fastest-growing pockets within the protection space.