Kingdom Holding Company has agreed to buy a 70% stake in Al Hilal from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, in a transaction that marks a new phase in the Kingdom’s football privatisation drive and puts one of the country’s highest-profile clubs under the control of Prince Al Waleed bin Talal’s investment group. The binding agreement, announced on Thursday, values Al Hilal at an implied enterprise value of […]
Tether has moved to support a $150 million recovery package for Solana-based Drift Protocol after the trading platform was hit by one of the biggest crypto exploits of the year, with the plan aimed at repaying affected users over time and helping relaunch the protocol under tighter security controls. Drift said the package would include up to $127.5 million from Tether and a further $20 million […]
Schools across the UAE are due to reopen for in-person learning on April 20, but a full return to classrooms is unlikely to happen everywhere on the same day, with some private institutions in Dubai and elsewhere warning families that campus teaching may be pushed back by several days while final inspections, compliance checks and regulator approvals are completed. The phased picture leaves parents with clarity on […]
Alarm over the Strait of Hormuz is spilling far beyond the Gulf, sharpening attention on the Malacca Strait near Singapore as traders, shipowners and Asian governments weigh what a prolonged disruption in West Asian energy flows could mean for the region’s busiest maritime corridor. The immediate military confrontation is centred on Hormuz, where Iran has tightened restrictions and the United States has imposed a blockade on Iranian […]
Cookeville Regional Medical Center has begun notifying 337,917 people that personal and medical information was exposed after a ransomware attack discovered on 14 July 2025, a breach that has taken about nine months to fully assess and disclose at scale. The Tennessee hospital said an unauthorised third party accessed or acquired files between 11 July and 14 July 2025, with the compromised data varying by individual and […]
By Dr. Gyan Pathak On the first day of the three-day Special Session – April 16 to April 18, 2026 – of the Parliament convened by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government, three legislations have been introduced seeking to change the electoral map of India. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has said that there […]
The article Modi Government Introduced Three Bills To Change Electoral Map Of India appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology has announced a new advance in stem cell-based embryo modelling that researchers say could improve how scientists study the earliest phase of human development, an area tied closely to infertility, miscarriage and some developmental disorders. The work, led by Associate Professor Mo Li and linked to KAUST’s Center of Excellence for Smart Health, centres on improving the formation and control […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Aldar Properties has closed an AED 5 billion five-year syndicated sustainability-linked revolving credit facility, giving Abu Dhabi’s biggest listed developer a fresh layer of financial flexibility as it pushes ahead with expansion across development, investment properties and strategic capital partnerships. The senior unsecured facility, structured across conventional and Islamic tranches in dirhams and US dollars, lifts Aldar’s total available liquidity to AED 38.2 […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Middle East conflict damage to energy infrastructure could leave the region facing as much as $58 billion in repair costs, according to a sharply revised estimate from Rystad Energy, with oil and gas facilities alone accounting for up to $50 billion and much of the burden falling on complex plants whose restoration may take years rather than months. The research firm said the […]
Iran has floated a proposal that could allow ships to use the Omani side of the Strait of Hormuz without facing attack, according to a person briefed on Tehran’s negotiating position, offering a possible path to ease one of the biggest shocks to global energy trade in modern times if talks with the United States produce a wider settlement. The idea has emerged as the U. […]
Splunk has disclosed a high-severity security flaw that can allow remote code execution in affected Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Cloud Platform deployments, raising concern for organisations that rely on the software to collect, search and analyse machine data for cyber defence, compliance and operations. The issue, tracked as CVE-2026-20204, was published on April 15 and carries a CVSS score of 7.1. Splunk said the weakness affects Splunk […]
YouTube is changing how advertising appears during livestreams, pulling back commercial interruptions at moments when audience activity is surging or when viewers are paying to support creators. The move marks a notable adjustment in how the platform balances revenue with viewer experience, and it signals a wider push towards automated ad placement shaped by what is happening on screen and in chat in real time. Under the […]
More than 30 WordPress plugins tied to the developer Essential Plugin were taken offline after a hidden backdoor was found in code distributed to live websites, exposing site owners to unauthorised access, malware installation and search-spam abuse. The campaign, traced by security researchers to code inserted in August 2025 and activated in April 2026, is being treated as a serious software supply-chain breach rather than an ordinary […]
Google has issued an emergency-style security update for Chrome after disclosing 31 vulnerabilities in the desktop browser, including five rated critical, in a release that underlines how quickly memory-safety flaws in widely used software can become a serious risk for consumers, businesses and public institutions. The stable desktop channel moved on April 15 to version 147.0.7727.101/102 for Windows and Mac, and 147.0.7727.101 for Linux, with the rollout […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Marine fuel sales at Fujairah fell to a record low in March as the US-Iran conflict upended shipping patterns, strained fuel supply chains and pushed vessels to avoid one of the Gulf’s most important refuelling hubs. Data cited by traders and market reports showed sales at the port dropped to 158,852 cubic metres, down more than 70 per cent from February and from […]
Pressure on the economy is already visible in trade and commodity data. Merchandise trade with the Middle East has been hit by shipping disruption linked to the conflict, even as stronger exports to the United States helped keep March’s overall trade deficit lower than expected. At the same time, the fertiliser bill has jumped sharply: urea import offers to Indian Potash Ltd clustered near $1,000 a tonne this week, roughly double the level seen two months ago, raising the prospect of a larger subsidy burden just as the kharif cycle approaches. For policymakers, that combination matters because it hits both external accounts and domestic costs, especially in food production.
Energy remains the central fault line. The Strait of Hormuz handles about a fifth of global oil and gas shipments, and for India it is a vital corridor for roughly half of crude and LPG imports. That vulnerability has been laid bare by delays to vessel movements and the stranding of India-flagged ships in the Gulf. Iran’s envoy in New Delhi has denied any toll demand on tankers, and India has also said no such payments were made, but the broader message from the episode is that the route can no longer be treated as a routine artery for commerce when conflict risk is this high.
Oil traders have taken some comfort from ceasefire diplomacy and indirect talks between Washington and Tehran, yet prices remain elevated because markets do not believe a durable fix is close. Brent crude was still around $95 a barrel on April 16, and analysts say disruptions to flows through Hormuz remain severe. That leaves New Delhi facing a familiar but uncomfortable calculation: protect households from a fuel shock and risk wider fiscal stress, or let higher import costs work their way through the system and accept stronger inflation. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank have both warned that the conflict could scar global growth, raise prices and impose lasting damage even if the battlefield quietens.
Those warnings matter because the shock is broader than petrol and diesel. Wholesale prices are already climbing, and manufacturers are absorbing costlier freight, energy and feedstock. Fertiliser is a particular worry. If elevated urea prices persist, the state may have to spend more to shield farmers, while any squeeze on supply would carry risks for sowing costs and food inflation later in the year. Economists have argued for targeted support rather than broad subsidies, but that is easier said than done in a country where energy and fertiliser costs have immediate political as well as economic consequences.
There are, however, offsets that could soften the blow. March trade numbers showed that stronger shipments to the United States helped compensate for weaker business with the Middle East, and India continues to diversify its energy basket through Russian supplies and other alternatives where pricing works in its favour. A sanctioned LNG cargo from Russia is heading to Dahej, underlining the government’s willingness to prioritise supply security and consumer interests over diplomatic noise around purchasing patterns. That flexibility has given India more room than many pure importers, though it does not erase the strategic dependence on Gulf routes.
By Nitya Chakraborty President Donald Trump as usual has been talking in conflicting voices on his immediate stand on Iran war. The U.S. President ordered naval blockade of Iranian ports after the failure of the Islamabad peace talks on Sunday but on Tuesday, he indicated that another round of talks would be held in the […]
The article Trump Can’t Afford Escalation Of US War With Iran At The Moment appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 15 April 2026 – Aspire, the finance stack for global founders, today announced that its subsidiary, AFT HK Treasury Limited, has been granted Type 1 (dealing in securities), Type 4 (advising on securities), and Type 9 (asset management) licences by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong.
Hashtag: #Aspire
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Saudi Arabia has pledged an additional $3 billion in support for Pakistan and agreed to extend a $5 billion deposit for a longer period, giving Islamabad fresh breathing space as it works to manage external financing pressures and a looming $3.5 billion repayment obligation to the United Arab Emirates this month. Pakistan’s finance minister, Muhammad Aurangzeb, disclosed the support in Washington, and the arrangement was confirmed by […]
The International Monetary Fund, World Bank and International Energy Agency are moving towards scheduled calls every two weeks as they deepen coordination over the economic and energy fallout from the war in the Middle East, with officials warning that prolonged disruption could sharpen inflation, weaken growth and hit poorer energy-importing countries hardest. The three bodies first set up a joint coordination group at the start of April […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Gold prices steadied on Wednesday after touching a one-month high earlier in the session, with traders weighing the pull of geopolitical risk against tentative signs that Washington and Tehran could return to the negotiating table within days. The metal’s pause came as broader markets turned cautious, reflecting uncertainty over whether diplomacy will gain traction or merely offer a brief respite in a […]
Super Typhoon Sinlaku battered Saipan and Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands on Wednesday, ripping away roofs, toppling power lines and flooding homes as one of the fiercest storms to strike the Western Pacific this year swept across the remote U. S. territory. Officials said residents were told to remain in reinforced shelters and concrete buildings as dangerous winds and heavy rain continued long after the eye […]
The backdrop is a funding strain that has become harder for lenders to ignore. Data cited in market reports show credit growth has continued to outpace deposit growth, with loans rising 14.5% year on year as of late February against deposit growth of 11.9%. By mid-March, the system credit-deposit ratio had climbed above 83%, a level analysts describe as historically stretched, underscoring how aggressively banks have had to deploy funds to sustain lending across retail, corporate and small business segments.
That imbalance is feeding directly into banks’ funding costs. Lenders have increasingly turned to certificates of deposit, a short-term market instrument used to raise money from institutional investors, because traditional deposit inflows have not kept pace with credit demand. Reuters reported that outstanding certificates of deposit had risen to a record 6.64 trillion rupees by February 28, while the premium banks were paying over comparable treasury bill yields had widened to levels last seen during the Covid-era funding stress of 2020.
Senior bankers have acknowledged the pressure. Indian Bank managing director and chief executive Binod Kumar told Reuters that some lenders had already raised fixed deposit rates, but that strong credit growth meant funding pressure was likely to persist. That suggests the central bank’s consultations are not merely precautionary; they reflect a structural concern inside the financial system over the quality and stability of bank liabilities, especially at a time when competition for household savings is no longer confined to rival banks.
A key reason lies outside the banking sector. The Economic Survey for 2025-26 said the share of equity and mutual funds in annual household financial savings had risen from about 2% in FY12 to more than 15.2% in FY25, a sharp reallocation that captures how retail investors are moving towards market-linked products. The same survey said individual investors’ share in equity ownership had reached 18.8% by September 2025, while household equity wealth had expanded by about 53 lakh crore rupees between April 2020 and September 2025.
That shift has continued into this year. Reuters reported that inflows into equity mutual funds rose 56% in March to 404.5 billion rupees, the highest in eight months, while monthly SIP contributions climbed to a record near 321 billion rupees. Data published by the Association of Mutual Funds in India separately showed total SIP collections of 32,087 crore rupees in March. Together, those figures point to a household investor base that remains willing to keep allocating money to market instruments even during volatile trading conditions.
For banks, the result is a more expensive contest for deposits. Lenders have already been raising term deposit rates in pockets of the market, particularly where they need to defend margins or maintain funding for loan books growing faster than system averages. Yet higher deposit rates carry their own cost, squeezing net interest margins at a time when analysts are already warning that wholesale funding dependence and tighter liability conditions could drag on profitability.
The RBI is trying to contain the wider liquidity effects while keeping monetary transmission orderly. In its April monetary policy communication, the central bank said it wanted the weighted average call rate, its operative rate, to stay close to the 5.25% repo rate. It indicated that maintaining liquidity surplus in a range of 0.6% to 1.1% of deposits would help keep the spread between the call rate and the policy rate within 5 to 10 basis points. Banking system liquidity surplus has already risen above 4 trillion rupees this month, giving lenders some immediate relief even as the deeper deposit challenge remains unresolved.
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Global smartphone shipments fell in the first quarter, ending the run of growth that had followed the sector’s rebound from its 2023 downturn, as a squeeze in memory supply and higher component prices forced brands to trim volumes, raise prices and rethink launch plans. IDC said worldwide shipments declined 4.1 per cent in the January-March period, while Samsung and Apple were the only […]
