Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Saudi Arabia, Russia and five other Opec+ producers agreed on Sunday to raise their collective oil production quota by 188,000 barrels per day from June, pressing ahead with a planned supply increase despite severe disruption to Gulf exports and the UAE’s exit from the alliance. The decision was taken at a virtual meeting of Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman, […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Abu Dhabi National Oil Company will award Dh200 billion worth of project contracts between 2026 and 2028, marking one of the largest new execution phases in the Gulf energy sector as Abu Dhabi moves to expand capacity, secure supply chains and deepen local manufacturing. The planned awards, equivalent to about $55 billion, form the first major tranche of ADNOC’s $150 billion capital expenditure […]
Palo Alto Networks has agreed to acquire Portkey, a Bengaluru-founded AI infrastructure startup, as the cybersecurity group pushes further into securing autonomous software agents now moving from pilot projects into business-critical systems. The Santa Clara-based company said the deal is expected to close in its fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, subject to customary conditions. Financial terms were not disclosed, though market estimates place Portkey’s potential valuation at […]
Crypto exploit losses have crossed $770 million in the first four months of 2026, intensifying concern that decentralised finance is entering a harsher phase of cyber risk as attackers combine old weaknesses with faster automation, sharper social engineering and increasingly advanced reconnaissance tools. The scale of the damage has been driven by two major breaches. Drift Protocol, a Solana-based decentralised exchange, lost about $285 million after an […]
In 2024, the two sides adopted an Action Plan to implement the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for the 2024-2028 period. This document not only consolidates traditional areas of cooperation but also expands into new domains such as science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, energy and sustainable development.
Economy continues to be a bright spot in bilateral cooperation
Over the past decade, Vietnam-India economic cooperation has recorded significant positive developments. Bilateral trade turnover has maintained steady growth, increasing from over USD 14 billion in 2023 to nearly USD 16.5 billion in 2025, reflecting the increasingly close integration between the two dynamic Asian economies.
The structure of two-way trade has increasingly demonstrated complementarity. Vietnam has strengthened its exports of electronics, machinery, processed agricultural products, wood, and seafood, while India serves as an important supplier of steel, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and textiles to Vietnam.
Amid the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, both Vietnam and India are intensifying efforts to diversify their partners and reduce dependency risks. This creates significant room for the two countries to promote supply chain linkages in areas such as processing and manufacturing industries, supporting industries, logistics, and high-tech agriculture. Vietnam, with its strategic location in Southeast Asia, can serve as a gateway for Indian enterprises to expand their presence deeper into ASEAN, while India represents a vast market with rapidly increasing consumer demand.
Science and technology: a new driver for deeper cooperation
Scientific and technological cooperation has seen remarkable development recently, gradually shifting from exchanges to more substantive collaboration, tied to specific products and developmental needs. Priority areas of cooperation include information technology, biotechnology, clean energy, and digital transformation.
Several representative projects, such as the Satellite Data Receiving Station and Satellite Image Processing Center, the Vietnam-India Nuclear Science Center (Da Lat), the Army Software Park (Nha Trang), and the Center of Excellence in Software Development and Training (CESDT), have been contributing to enhancing Vietnam’s technological capacity. Notably, the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) program continues to be an effective channel for human resource training, helping Vietnamese officials and experts access modern management knowledge and experience.
Against the backdrop of the vigorous Fourth Industrial Revolution, the potential for cooperation between the two countries remains vast. The two sides can expand their cooperation into emerging areas such as Artificial Intelligence, semiconductors, cybersecurity, fintech, and biotechnology, aiming for the goals of co-development and co-innovation.
Environmental cooperation and sustainable development are gradually expanding
In the context of increasingly complex climate change, environmental cooperation between Vietnam and India is becoming an important component of the bilateral agenda. Areas such as renewable energy, water resource management, circular economy, and disaster-resilient infrastructure are receiving growing attention and promotion from both sides.
Cooperation agreements in marine science, along with Quick Impact Projects (QIPs) supporting communities, such as clean water supply, drought mitigation, and saline intrusion prevention in the Mekong Delta, have delivered practical results. Vietnam’s participation in the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), initiated by India, also opens up opportunities to strengthen cooperation in sustainable infrastructure and climate change adaptation.
In the coming period, areas encompassing solar energy, energy storage, waste management, marine pollution monitoring, and early warning systems for natural disasters are considered promising directions for cooperation.
Prospects for cooperation
The prospects for cooperation in the coming period are assessed as positive. With the economic and scientific-technological complementarity, along with strong political will from both sides, Vietnam-India relations have many favorable conditions to grow more strongly, particularly in areas such as the digital economy, green economy, innovation.
Orientations for promoting cooperation in the coming period
With a foundation of excellent relations and significant room for cooperation, the two countries have the basis to elevate the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to a new height, making it increasingly substantive and effective in the new phase, particularly in the context of the two countries heading towards new high-level engagements with the state visit of General Secretary and President To Lam to India in May 2026.
To effectively capitalize on opportunities, both sides need to continue maintaining high-level exchanges, intergovernmental mechanisms and specialized dialogues, and further translate strategic commitments into cooperation programs and projects with clear roadmaps and resources.
In the economic field, efforts should be intensified to remove trade barriers, improve logistics connectivity, and promote the review and upgrading of the ASEAN – India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA); strengthen the development of large-scale investment projects in priority areas such as pharmaceuticals, the marine economy, renewable energy, and supporting industries.
In the field of science and technology, establishing joint research cooperation mechanisms, strengthening linkages between research institutes, universities, enterprises, as well as promoting expert exchanges, technology transfer, and human resource training will play an important role.
In the environmental field, efforts should be directed toward building a comprehensive green cooperation framework, focusing on water management, marine science, plastic pollution reduction, clean energy, and disaster-resilient infrastructure, while also effectively leveraging regional initiatives such as the CDRI.
Hashtag: #MAE
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Matein Khalid As the world’s leading trading power, China’s vast export engine fuelled a $1.2 trillion current account surplus in 2025. At the same time, it is the largest importer of crude oil globally, with around 40 percent sourced from the Middle East. This exposure gives Beijing a clear stake in Gulf stability – prioritising secure maritime transit through energy chokepoints and uninterrupted access to the GCC’s trillion-dollar development […]
A publicly released exploit for a critical cPanel and WebHost Manager flaw has intensified pressure on hosting companies and website operators after monitoring groups reported tens of thousands of likely compromised internet-facing systems. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-41940, allows unauthenticated attackers to bypass login controls and obtain administrative access to affected cPanel & WHM environments. The weakness carries a CVSS severity score of 9.8, placing it among […]
By K Raveendran Election-season restraint on fuel pricing is giving way to a harsher economic reality, and Indian consumers are likely to feel the impact first through the everyday costs that rarely appear as headline inflation until they have already entered household budgets. Petrol, diesel and cooking fuel are not merely energy products in India; […]
The article With Elections Over, Realistic Pump Prices Only A Matter Of Time appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).
Prof. Dr. Yodchanan spoke about elevating “SPACE-F Batch 7” to the policy level and building awareness, stating that MHESI aims to present food innovation products from the startups in this batch at the upcoming Cabinet meeting. This will allow the Prime Minister to taste them, raising awareness that FoodTech is the nation’s new future. The products will be presented to the Cabinet in the next two weeks.
Regarding the core concept of combining technology with “Thai taste,” Prof. Dr. Yodchanan emphasized that no matter how advanced the technology is, it must maintain the “Nice taste of Thailand.” He cited a “high-tech omelet” he previously tasted as an example, noting that there is still room for improvement to make it taste closer to an authentic Thai omelet so that the technology can truly win over consumers’ hearts.
The MHESI Minister continued that regarding food innovation under the Wellness Economy, this year focuses on using the Wellness Economy as a New Growth Engine. This is not limited strictly to food but includes AI, ICT, and software, aiming to push Thailand into a global Wellness Tourism Hub with support from the BOI in connecting investment opportunities.
Prof. Dr. Yodchanan further stated that regarding the use of biodiversity and quality ingredients (Biodiversity & GI), startups will be encouraged to utilize Thailand’s rich biodiversity and GI products as substitutes for imported raw materials. This will help reduce costs and create a unique identity.
“As for connecting the ‘Thinker’ with the ‘Doer,’ this program emphasizes linking startups with large industrial corporations and investors. This helps startups in the Accelerator group advance toward Series A or B funding, while helping the Incubator group learn business and pitching experiences from their seniors to cross the business ‘Death Valley.’ Furthermore, regarding food and nutrition security in the era of war: in the current global conditions facing wartime situations, Food Security and Nutrition Security are vital. This program is an opportunity for startups to create innovations that help solve problems for the whole world, with the government working closely with SPACE-F to create new services and products,” the MHESI Minister said.
However, “SPACE-F Batch 7” features 20 participating startups from 10 countries, focusing on the Proof of Concept (POC) strategy to ensure they can tangibly grow toward commercialization on an international scale.
Dr. Krithpaka Boonfueng, Executive Director of the National Innovation Agency (NIA), stated that NIA aims to strengthen the potential of startups and innovative entrepreneurs to overcome business crises and grow commercially in a tangible way. Over the past 6 years, the SPACE-F program has concretely reinforced its role as a regional food innovation hub by incubating and accelerating over 100 startups from 18 countries worldwide, generating a total funding value of over 5.1 billion THB. For the SPACE-F Year 7 program, it marks another major milestone of leapfrog growth, setting a new international record with an all-time high of 204 applicants, continuously increasing from 156 in Cohort 6 and 148 in Cohort 2, reflecting the confidence of global startups in the program’s potential. Concurrently, the program has significantly expanded its international reach, with applicants from 57 countries worldwide, up from 34 countries in the previous cohort, affirming that SPACE-F is a truly global platform connecting and driving world food innovation.
“The SPACE-F program is considered a vital mechanism in driving the development of a strong and comprehensive foodtech startup ecosystem by systematically connecting knowledge, technology, and the industrial sector together. Particularly, it provides opportunities for startups to co-develop and test real products (Proof of Concept: POC) with large corporate partners, as well as access expert networks and world-class infrastructure. This includes testing protein innovations focused on appearance, freshness, and taste with Thai Union; developing modern health and nutrition solutions with ThaiBev and Nestlé; utilizing deep-tech research laboratories from Mahidol University; and enhancing fundraising capabilities from Foodland Ventures, which plays a crucial role in reducing business risks and effectively increasing the chances of commercialization. For SPACE-F Year 7, it aims to elevate startup development through 2 main programs: the Incubator Program, which focuses on laying business foundations and developing prototypes into market-ready products, and the Accelerator Program, which focuses on accelerating business expansion through connections with strategic partners and investors. This covers 7 key areas of the food industry: 1) Personalized Nutrition, 2) Future Protein, 3) Circular Food Systems, 4) Smart Manufacturing, 5) Sustainable Production, 6) Food Safety, and 7) Novel Consumer Experience, to build high-potential startups capable of developing quality new products that directly meet market demands, ready to compete and grow sustainably on the global stage.”
Ms. Sirichit Jiraruangkiat, Senior Director – Group Innovation at Thai Union Group PCL, revealed, “As a co-founding partner of the SPACE-F program, Thai Union Group PCL continues to drive the development of Thailand’s foodtech startup ecosystem. We aim to support breakthrough growth by promoting the development and testing of innovations at the industrial level, particularly through the Proof of Concept (POC) process, to elevate the standards of future protein products to compete internationally. Thai Union prioritizes the application of modern food production and preservation technologies, covering everything from maintaining product quality and freshness and developing appealing appearances to sensory research to create textures and flavors that effectively meet the demands of global consumers. Simultaneously, the SPACE-F program remains committed to a ‘No Equity Taken’ approach, allowing startups to retain full ownership of their innovations, maintain business agility, and grow independently and sustainably in the long term.”
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pasit Pakawatpanurut, Deputy Dean for Research and Innovation, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, further added, “With expertise in food science, nutrition, biotechnology, and related fields, Mahidol University serves as an academic powerhouse and innovation infrastructure, providing startups with access to advanced laboratories, pilot plants, and modern research equipment. They also receive in-depth consultation from a team of expert researchers to successfully transition research into products that truly meet global market demands (Lab-to-Market). This collaboration is therefore a key mechanism in driving sustainable food innovation and enhancing Thailand’s competitiveness as a global foodtech hub. Mahidol University’s involvement in the SPACE-F program also plays a vital role in strengthening the country’s foodtech startup ecosystem in the long run.”
In addition, another key partner is Thai Beverage Public Company Limited, which places great importance on continuous research and development, believing it to be essential for startups. As a sponsor of the SPACE-F program, they are pleased to be part of an ecosystem that enhances the potential of foodtech startups and provides business and technological guidance to help startups discover solutions that truly meet the needs of the global food market.
Ms. Jenica Conde Cruz, Business Manager – Cereal Partners Worldwide & Incubator at Nestlé (Thai) Ltd., also stated, “Nestlé, a global leader in food and beverages, plays a vital role as a strategic partner of the SPACE-F program. We aim to elevate foodtech startups through the transfer of Research & Development (R&D) knowledge and product development experience under the ‘Good food, Good life’ concept. Nestlé also provides in-depth consultation to support the development of products that meet Nutrition, Health, and Wellness needs, while promoting the use of innovation to tackle global food industry challenges. In parallel, Nestlé also drives the development of innovations that align with sustainability goals by opening opportunities for startups to learn together with experts from our global research center network, in areas of food preservation technology, eco-friendly packaging, and responsible sourcing.”
Victor Chen, CEO of Foodland Ventures Co. closed with, “Foodland Ventures, a leading Venture Capital firm and Accelerator from Taiwan, has joined as a strategic partner in the SPACE-F program to push foodtech startups to expand their businesses into international markets. We aim to act as a bridge connecting innovation from Taiwan with food industry networks in Thailand and Southeast Asia. With expertise in key technologies such as Restaurant Automation, Alternative Protein, and Smart Supply Chain, Foodland Ventures is ready to support startups through access to the Taiwanese market and resources, providing investment and business strategy consultation, and connecting them with the industrial sector to test solutions in real-world environments. This collaboration marks a significant step in building a ‘FoodTech Corridor’ between Thailand and Taiwan to elevate startup potential and drive the food industry toward a sustainable global future.”
The “SPACE-F Year 7” program also introduced 20 startups from 10 countries worldwide: South Korea, Spain, Canada, USA/Argentina, Australia, Singapore, UK, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and Thailand, selected for this year’s program. All will have the opportunity to co-develop and test real innovations with leading industry partners, covering product development, industrial-level testing, and commercialization in the real market
Such collaboration is a key highlight of the program, providing startups the opportunity to test technology and innovations in real-world environments, reducing development limitations, and increasing the chances of creating business models that accurately meet market demands.
10 FoodTech Startups Joining the Accelerator Program
10 FoodTech Startups Joining the Incubator Program
Hashtag: #NIA #NationalInnovationAgency
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Oil at $80 would once have been considered elevated. Now it would be interpreted as stability, and that shift alone reveals how fundamentally the market has changed. Brent crude moving beyond $120 this week is widely being described as a spike driven by geopolitical tension. That interpretation is too narrow. Price action reflects something deeper and more consequential: a structural reset in how energy is priced, traded, […]
Apple is turning restraint into a strategic advantage as rivals pour record sums into artificial intelligence infrastructure, betting that a narrower, device-centred approach can protect margins while keeping investors focused on earnings rather than data-centre bills. The iPhone maker’s latest quarterly performance has strengthened that argument. Apple reported March-quarter revenue of $111.2 billion, up 17 per cent from a year earlier, with diluted earnings per share rising […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Ras Al Khaimah’s economic regulator has stepped up public and business awareness over counterfeit goods, warning that fake products threaten consumer safety, undermine legitimate traders and expose offenders to serious legal action. The Ras Al Khaimah Department of Economic Development, through its Commercial Control and Protection Department, carried out an awareness campaign titled “Protect Your Products from Counterfeiting” as part of wider efforts […]
Tehran has sharpened its confrontation with Washington and Gulf shipping powers after Mojtaba Khamenei declared that the Strait of Hormuz would be “managed by new rules”, signalling Iran’s intention to tighten political and operational control over the world’s most sensitive energy corridor. Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader and the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the waterway would no longer be treated as a passage subject […]
Vermont farmer Anne O’Connor expected two lambs from Teemu, a Finnsheep at Clover & Bee Farm in Underhill. Instead, the ewe delivered six healthy lambs, turning an ordinary spring lambing into an unusually large birth for the small wool-focused farm. The sextuplets arrived earlier this month after a check-up had suggested Teemu was carrying twins. O’Connor, who runs the farm with her husband, Gunnar, had suspected the […]
Attackers are shifting credential theft campaigns towards QR codes, fake CAPTCHA pages and ClickFix-style prompts, turning familiar security checks into tools for large-scale account compromise. Fresh threat telemetry for the first quarter of 2026 shows email-based phishing remains vast in scale, with about 8.3 billion threats detected between January and March. Although monthly volumes eased from 2.9 billion in January to 2.6 billion in March, the composition […]
Japan’s yen rallied sharply against the dollar on Friday as traders braced for further official action from Tokyo after suspected currency intervention jolted global markets during a packed week of central bank decisions.
The dollar fell to around 155.60 yen at one point in London trading, before recovering part of the move to trade near 156.40. The rebound in the yen followed a dramatic reversal on Thursday, when the Japanese currency strengthened by about 3 per cent after the dollar briefly climbed above 160 yen, a level widely viewed in markets as politically sensitive for Tokyo.
Japan’s top currency official Atsushi Mimura said authorities remained concerned about speculative moves and were watching markets closely. Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama had already warned that Tokyo was ready to take decisive action if currency movements became disorderly. The comments reinforced market expectations that further intervention could follow, particularly during Japan’s Golden Week holiday period, when thinner trading conditions can magnify exchange-rate swings.
Bank of Japan money-market data suggested authorities may have spent about 5.48 trillion yen, or roughly $35 billion, to support the currency on Thursday. The scale would be close to the size of Japan’s July 2024 intervention, when authorities moved after the yen weakened to a 38-year low near 162 per dollar. Tokyo typically does not confirm intervention immediately, preferring to disclose monthly figures later, but unusually large projected fund flows at the central bank often provide an early signal of official activity.
The pressure on the yen has been building for months as the interest-rate gap between Japan and the United States remains wide. The Bank of Japan kept its policy rate at around 0.75 per cent this week, although three board members dissented and argued for a rise to 1 per cent. That split underlined growing concern inside the central bank that imported inflation, higher energy costs and yen weakness could feed into domestic prices.
The Federal Reserve also left rates unchanged, keeping its target range at 3.5 to 3.75 per cent. The gap between US and Japanese yields continues to encourage carry trades, in which investors borrow cheaply in yen and invest in higher-yielding dollar assets. Such positioning has made the yen vulnerable whenever markets believe Tokyo’s warnings lack force.
The intervention threat gained urgency after oil prices climbed on concerns over disruption linked to the Iran conflict and risks around the Strait of Hormuz. Japan, heavily dependent on imported energy, faces a double blow from higher crude prices and a weaker currency, which raises the local cost of fuel, food and raw materials. That dynamic complicates the Bank of Japan’s effort to normalise policy gradually without damaging a fragile recovery.
The broader central bank backdrop added to volatility. The European Central Bank kept its deposit rate at 2 per cent while signalling that inflation risks had intensified. The Bank of England held Bank Rate at 3.75 per cent in an 8-1 vote, with one policymaker favouring an increase. Across major economies, policymakers are balancing weaker growth signals against renewed price pressures from energy and supply disruptions.
Currency traders said Japan’s challenge is that intervention can slow a slide but rarely reverses a trend unless supported by monetary policy or a shift in global rates. A one-off operation may force investors to cut speculative positions, but renewed dollar strength can quickly restore pressure on the yen if US yields remain elevated and the Bank of Japan moves cautiously.
The timing of the suspected intervention was also significant. With European markets partly thinned by the May Day holiday and Japan heading into an extended holiday stretch, liquidity conditions were expected to remain fragile. Authorities have often chosen moments of thin trading to maximise the impact of currency operations, but such moves also increase the risk of sudden reversals when full market participation returns.
For households and companies in Japan, the exchange-rate battle has direct economic consequences. A weaker yen benefits exporters by raising the value of overseas earnings, but it also lifts import bills and squeezes consumers through higher costs. Large manufacturers have been able to absorb some of the pressure, while smaller businesses reliant on imported inputs face tighter margins.
Wireshark has issued version 4.6.5 after a large batch of security flaws was identified across its packet dissection engine, protocol parsers and file-handling components, underscoring the risk faced by administrators and security teams using the tool to inspect untrusted network traffic. The release fixes more than 40 vulnerabilities, including several flaws that may allow arbitrary code execution when malformed packets, crafted trace files or malicious configuration profiles […]
Global internet reliability came under sharper pressure in the first quarter of 2026 as shutdowns, war damage, power failures and cable incidents disrupted connectivity across several regions, exposing a widening risk for enterprises that depend on cloud platforms, cross-border data flows and always-on digital services. Cloudflare’s review of disruptions from January to March showed that the most damaging incidents were not dominated by software faults alone. Political […]
Australia’s data centre industry is moving from rapid expansion to sharper scrutiny as new forecasting shows a widening gap between announced projects and capacity likely to be delivered by 2030. A joint market intelligence initiative by Data Centres Australia and DC Byte has put operational IT capacity at about 1.4 gigawatts at the end of 2025, with the market projected to reach 3.1GW to 3.2GW by 2030. […]
MCP’s rapid rise as the preferred bridge between AI assistants and external tools is running into a harder test inside production software teams: whether convenience justifies the security, reliability and governance risks now surfacing around the protocol. Model Context Protocol, introduced by Anthropic in November 2024 and later moved into broader open governance under the Linux Foundation’s Agentic AI Foundation, was designed to solve a real engineering […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai US President Donald Trump urged Iran to “get smart soon” and agree to a deal as Washington weighed a longer blockade of Iranian ports, raising the stakes in a confrontation that has already unsettled energy markets, shipping routes and diplomacy across the Gulf. Trump’s message on Truth Social followed several days of stalled contacts aimed at ending the conflict and securing restrictions on […]
Samsung’s next free Android upgrade is set to sharpen security controls on Galaxy phones, even as some owners of flagship models complain of battery drain, overheating and shorter screen-on time after April software patches. One UI 8.5, Samsung’s Android 16-based interface, is expected to expand a package of privacy and anti-theft protections across supported Galaxy devices after debuting on the Galaxy S26 series. The update is expected […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Samsung Electronics has signalled plans to expand its wearable device ambitions into AI glasses, even as it warned that a deepening global memory shortage could intensify through 2027 and raise costs across consumer electronics, servers and mobile devices. The remarks came during the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call, where executives linked the squeeze in RAM and storage supply to the rapid build-out of […]
Google has issued an urgent Chrome security update after fixing 30 vulnerabilities, including four critical memory-related flaws that could expose users to attacks through compromised or malicious web pages. The update moves Chrome’s stable desktop channel to version 147.0.7727.137 or 147.0.7727.138, depending on platform, and is being rolled out across Windows, macOS and Linux. Users have been advised to restart the browser after the update is installed, […]
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