Category: World

NEW DELHI: After a delay of several months, India and the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) have begun discussing the contours of a free trade agreement, which may not include a bilateral investment treaty. Through the agreement, India will be eyeing a large and affluent market for its goods and also concessions on visas in a […]

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MUMBAI: Bank chiefs have signalled that the stress in unsecured loans is originating in fintech-driven digital lending of small-ticket personal loans — a segment in which most banks are not present. There is also an expectation that RBI may make it tougher for banks to lend to this segment (loans under Rs 50,000), which is […]

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An accused in the Mahadev betting case, who has been named by the Enforcement Directorate as one of the top management of the online app, on Sunday named Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and a 2008-batch IPS officer for allegedly accepting bribe in exchange for granting protection from arrest. Identified as Shubham Soni, he alleged […]

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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has emerged as one of the most popular figures in Indian politics on the X (formerly known as Twitter), said a state government spokesperson. He said that the recognition comes from the hashtag tracking tool, Tweet Binder, which has confirmed this trend. According to the latest report by Tweet Binder, […]

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Delhi’s air quality plummeted to the ‘severe plus’ category again, making the national capital the most polluted city in the country today. The real-time Air Quality Index (AQI) is over 500 in different parts of the capital. At noon, the highest level was recorded at the Wazirpur monitoring station in Delhi, reporting an AQI level of […]

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By Dr. Gyan Pathak ILO has moved one step closer to social justice and decent work by adopting a proposal to establish a Global Coalition for Social Justice in the ongoing 349th Session (30 October – 9 November, 2023) of its Governing Body at Geneva, Switzerland. It is just a beginning, and the Coalition will […]

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By K Raveendran A failure by Russia to fulfil its commitment of 300,000 barrels per day of voluntary cut in crude exports as per the understanding with OPEC is likely to cause friction between Moscow and Saudi Arabia, the prime driver of the cartel’s supply control strategy to shore up crude prices. Any problem in

By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala has, once again, lived up to its reputation of being a trail blazer. The State has shown the way to defeat determined attempts to disturb communal harmony, a hallmark of the State. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government lost no time in nipping in the bud the sinister designs of […]

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By James M Dorsey Israel’s options are central to discussions about the day after the guns fall silent in Gaza. Absent from the debate is what Palestinians want. Also absent is any discussion of funding for Gaza’s reconstruction, although the assumption is that oil-rich Gulf states will step up to the plate. The significance of

Action will be taken on those spreading chaos in the name of ”love jihad” and cow smuggling in Chhattisgarh after the Bharatiya Janata Party comes to power, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Saturday. Addressing a poll rally in Kawardha Assembly seat, Adityanath termed the Congress as a ”problem for the country, society […]

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Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said his party is making preparations on all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh as it will also help support its INDIA partners on the seats allocated to them in the 2024 elections. This comes days after the SP, which is a major constituent of the […]

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the Congress leaders, their ”dialogues” and their announcements are all ”filmy” as he took a jibe at ’tear clothes’ remarks of the Madhya Pradesh Congress leaders. Speaking at a rally at Ratlam in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh ahead of the November 17 assembly elections, he also announced that the […]

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Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday convened a meeting with the ministers to discuss the Parliamentary elections to be held next year and has set a target of winning at least 20 out of 28 LS seats. Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy said in the meeting attended by 19 ministers, the CM and his deputy D […]

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The blame game between the ruling AAP and the opposition BJP on the pollution crisis intensified on Saturday even as Delhi remained gripped by the crisis of hazardous air quality. The AAP blamed the BJP-governed Haryana for the crisis faced by people in the national capital, while BJP MP Manoj Tiwari in a letter to […]

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MUMBAI: The government’s auction of the first 50-year bond evoked a strong demand from investors on Friday as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) received bids worth Rs 40,200 crore (4x) for these ultra-long bonds, against the notified amount of Rs 10,000 crore. The RBI set a coupon rate of 7.46% on the

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who accused the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee of asking humiliating questions during a ”cash-for-query” hearing, expressed her readiness to cooperate with the probe while stressing the importance of protection from misogyny and maintaining a standard of decency. In an interview with PTI, Moitra dubbed the ethics committee probe as a […]

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MUMBAI: Indian lenders expect North Block to seek a lower premium while selling green bonds in a higher-for-longer yield environment this fiscal year and are concerned the relative currency-market stability, a fallout of calibrated central bank interventions, might cause a spurt in unhedged risks that could later roil exchange rates. Recent meetings between senior officials […]

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NEW DELHI: Services activity grew at the slowest pace in seven months in October as fierce competition and subdued demand due to an uptick in price pressures weighed down on expansion and dented business sentiment. The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Services PMI Business Activity Index declined to 58.4 in October from 61 in September, […]

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NEW DELHI: The share of companies looking to increase permanent employees in the next six months nearly halved to 15.9 per cent in the September quarter from 30.9 per cent in the previous quarter, reflecting the stress in the labour market. Similarly, the share of firms planning to add more temporary workers to their workforce […]

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NEW DELHI: India’s sunrise food processing sector has attracted Rs 50,000 crore FDI in the last nine years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday, as he stressed on reducing post-harvest losses and food wastage. He also said India’s food processing capacity has witnessed significant growth in the last nine years leading

By Sushil Kutty The regularity with which the Enforcement Directorate discovers alleged wrongdoings of opposition parties on the eve of elections should be a matter of investigation. But that calls for a regime change; the Narendra Modi government should be divested of power for discovering a nexus, if any. The ED, sometimes working in tandem […]

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By Girish Linganna Along the border between Lebanon and Israel, a missile expert from Hezbollah is currently preparing for a war situation with a level of intensity and readiness he has never experienced before. Dressed in black tactical pants, green camouflage attire, and armed with a pistol, the officer from the Iran-backed Shiite militia wears […]

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By Harihar Swarup Nawaz Sharif’s celebratory return to Pakistan after several years in exile will turn into a political triumph only if the country’s military establishment, which had banished him from politics six years ago and now facilitated his recent insurrection, fundamentally changed its behaviour. So far, it seems that the establishment sees Sharif as

By Arun Srivastava “Listen, Bihar is not a BIMARU state”. This message was sent on Friday to Narendra Modi and his lieutenant Amit Shah by none else but Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The two leaders from Gujarat have a habit of deprecating Bihar and describe it as a state with no

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday claimed that Congress leader Kamal Nath’s reported comments on Ayodhya Ram temple issue show that Congress had an equal role in the demolition of Babri Masjid as that of BJP-RSS. He was responding to Kamal Nath’s reported comments that the BJP cannot claim credit for the Ram temple at […]

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Jailed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh on Friday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court order dismissing his plea against his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case related to the now-scrapped excise policy of the city government. The high court had on October 20 refused to […]

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Giving more fodder to the opposition in Chhattisgarh, the Enforcement Directorate has alleged that chief minister Bhupesh Baghel was a direct beneficiary in the Mahadev app scam. The agency quoted its probe into accused Asim Das and said, “Mr Asim Das admitted that he was carrying Rs 5 crore to deliver to the ruling political […]

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The Enforcement Directorate on Friday alleged that Delhi minister and AAP leader Raaj Kumar Anand has been accused by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) of making hawala payments to China and evading customs duty of Rs 7 crore on imports. The federal probe agency raided the premises of the 57-year-old minister in connection with […]

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The International Labour Organisation has said the 70-hour work-week is not mandated under any national law in any country. Instead developed nations are moving towards the ILO’s latest convention that mandates a 40-hour work-week in place of the 48- hour work convention, which was ratified by several countries including India way back in 1921. This […]

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NEW DELHI: In a bid to streamline the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) and prevent delays in the execution of the resolution plans, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has floated a discussion paper and proposed amendments to the existing regulations. The proposed amendments suggest to structure the resolution plan in two parts […]

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MUMBAI: Indian Inc raised as much as ₹5.33 trillion during the first seven months of this fiscal through corporate bond issuances, up by 3.2% compared to the same period in FY22. While the fund raised has improved marginally, what is surprising is the sharp slowdown since July. The fund raised through corporate bonds fell a […]

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NEW DELHI: Two major industry issues which has divided telecom operators and big tech firms — regulation of OTT (over-the-top) communication services and allotment of satellite spectrum – are unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. This is because the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) which has to submit its recommendations on the same to […]

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MUMBAI: Switzerland-based Zurich Insurance Group will acquire a 51 per cent stake in Kotak Mahindra General Insurance Company for about Rs 4,051 crore through a combination of fresh capital infusion and share purchase. This will be the largest investment by a global strategic insurer in an Indian non-life insurance firm. Kotak

By Nitya Chakraborty Nikhil Chakravartty, a pioneering figure in Indian journalism for more than four decades of the last century, is being deeply missed by sections of the media fighting hard to protect the hard-won freedom of the press against the onslaughts of the Narendra Modi government. In the second half of the twentieth century,