Beyond Financial News

Marc-Andre Blanchard, executive vice president and global head of sustainability at CDPQ, one of the biggest global investors in infra-related assets in India. «When we talk about ESG and sustainability, we're really talking about good management and value creation,» Blanchard said. «As a pension fund, we are driven by the desire to build businesses that drive performance and progress. For us, capital takes on its full value when it generates positive change.» The Canadian leader stated that CDPQ is a global investment group with over $452 billion in assets under management, including 12% in the Asia-Pacific region. What sets CDPQ apart is its dual mandate: generating returns for its depositors-representing over 6 million Quebecers-while contributing to Quebec's economic development. CDPQ is also Canada's second-largest pension fund, he said.

Trinamool Congress president Ripun Bora on Sunday resigned from the party, claiming that the people of the northeastern state consider it as a «regional party» of West Bengal and are not willing to accept it as their own. In a letter to All India Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, Bora, the former Rajya Sabha member, said he had offered many suggestions to party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to make TMC acceptable in Assam, but those were «not implemented». "Assam TMC has great potential, but several recurring issues have hindered our progress, including the perception of TMC as a regional party of West Bengal. To counter this perception, we made several suggestions," Bora said in his resignation letter.

From California to Israel, companies are aiming to grow cocoa beyond the tropics in a bid to buffer chocolate's key ingredient from climate change

iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max could be discontinued soon after the iPhone 16 is launched. This move could make a lot of sense, as these are currently the only two iPhones capable of running Apple Intelligence, and the company would want to force buyers to buy the new iPhones in order to experience all the AI features it has to offer.Apple discontinued the iPhone 13 Mini after the launch of the iPhone 14 last year, and if this trend continues, the company could discontinue the iPhone 14 Plus this year, leaving only the standard iPhone 14 model on the shelves.

Brandon Miller, a prominent New York real estate developer, was well-known for showcasing a luxurious lifestyle alongside his wife, Candace, an influencer. On platforms like social media and their now-defunct lifestyle blog, 'Mama + Tata,' the couple presented themselves as living an enviable upper-crust life. However, recent revelations have shattered this facade, exposing that Miller was drowning in a hidden financial crisis, burdened by debts totaling nearly $34 million.

Driven by rapid urbanisation, mushrooming of shopping malls and surge in spending, tier II-III towns have seen a significant increase in manpower demand, said Yeshab Giri, chief commercial officer, operational talent solutions, at Randstad India, a talent management company. Cities such as Jaipur, Indore, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Lucknow, Vadodara, Surat, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Chandigarh and Vizag are witnessing 25-30% more demand than the previous festive season, he said. «Currently, ecommerce and logistics firms in tier II-III cities are hiring approximately 65% of the overall talent,» said Lohit Bhatia, president, workforce management, at Quess Corp. Metros and other tier I cities traditionally see a greater spurt in festive demand, he said.

Infosys has asked about 1,500 students from the April 2022 batch having offer letters to appear for two rounds of pre-training. Of the total, India’s second-largest software services company has given September 2 as the joining date to only about 115 students, while the rest remain in a state of flux about their job prospects. Hiring worries at Infosys underscore a broader squeeze in recruitment in the technology sector due to factors such as economic uncertainties and increasing automation. Indian IT firms are under pressure from students, public outcry and worker unions over the onboarding delays. In July, Infosys had called all the selected students for a mandatory virtual pre-training programme for 24 days. Following this, another self-learning module-based pre-training was organised for some students in August which resulted in joining dates allotted to the 115 students. For the remaining students, there is limited clarity on the assessment and confusion of login credentials to some students for the second pre-training round. There have been no rejection letters yet, multiple people including the students told ET.

custodians would make funds available to foreign portfolio investors on the day of settlement itself, a senior Sebi official said on Thursday. «Inefficiencies and opacity dog not only the Indian domestic investor; they also impact foreign portfolio investors (FPIs). While India fully moved to a T+1 settlement cycle in January 2023, most FPIs are only able to access their funds from sale of securities on T+2 or later,» Sebi whole time member Ananth Narayan said. He was speaking at the Global Fintech Fest.

Mint. Interestingly, the compensation of women independent directors has doubled in these five fiscal years, while their male counterparts have seen a 1.7x increase in the same timeframe.

iPhone 17 Pro Max could be its impressive 12GB of DRAM, a significant enhancement over the 8GB RAM that will be featured across the other 2025 iPhone models, such as the ultra-slim iPhone and the iPhone 17 Pro. This increase in memory is expected to significantly boost the device's on-device AI capabilities, making it an attractive option for users who prioritize high-performance smartphones.

reading — by which we mean book-size, long-form, anything lengthier than your 4-5 thumb scrolldowns — is not for everyone. While at any earlier age, reading beyond mashed-up info and opinions formed a bulk of the literate person's entertainment and information-gathering, now we have other far-quicker, more effective modes of uptake.

Blue Origin flew its latest group of six thrill-seekers to the edge of space and back again Thursday, including the youngest-ever woman to complete the feat. Mission NS-26 marked the eighth human spaceflight for the company, founded by Jeff Bezos, as it presses ahead in the emerging suborbital tourism market. Karsen Kitchen, a 21-year-old senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, became the youngest woman ever to cross the Karman Line, the internationally recognized boundary marking the edge of space, 100 kilometers (62 miles) above the Earth's surface.

SEOUL—Dozens of South Korean children sued their government over inadequate policies targeting climate change, arguing their rights to live in a clean environment had been violated. On Thursday, they earned a major legal victory. South Korea, home to major semiconductor, battery and electric-vehicle makers, has pledged by the end of this decade to reduce carbon emissions by 40% from a 2018 benchmark.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday said there is a need to review and put in place provisions, including regulating tariff for SMS and voice calls beyond a certain limit, to curb unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) from unregistered telemarketers (UTMs) using 10-digit numbers.

₹6,850 crore, driven by major contributions from Azim Premji and Shiv Nadar. The number of UHNI donors grew from 100 to 120 between 2020-21 and 2022-23, with 70 consistent donors and 50 contributing sporadically. This reveals significant potential for more sustained engagement.

Mumbai has become the 'billionaire capital' of Asia as it now comprises of more billionaire individuals than China's cpital city of Beijing, according to the Hurun India rich list 2024. «Home to 25% of the list – Mumbai is not only the billionaire capital of Asia, overtaking Beijing but also the preferred city for Hurun India Rich Listers, followed by New Delhi and Hyderabad,» the Hurun list data stated. Beyond this, Mumbai also registered a net increase of 58 billionaire individuals, adding to its growth momentum, the Hurun data revealed. This was followed by New Delhi, which added 18 new billionaires.

Bernstein has initiated coverage on seven retail and restaurant companies — Avenue Supermarts, Trent, Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail, Jubilant FoodWorks, Westlife Foodworld, Devyani International and Sapphire Foods India. The firm has ‘outperform’ rating on Avenue Supermarts, Trent, Jubilant FoodWorks and Devyani and ‘underweight’ on Aditya Birla and Westlife World. Bernstein said that as organised retailers scale up, tremendous value creation opportunities can be accessed currently by unlocking demand beyond the top 40 cities and the top 10% of the pyramid of the Indian middle-class market.

UPSC) to perform Aadhaar-based authentication to verify candidates' identity on a voluntary basis, both at the time of registration and during various stages of examinations and recruitment. The move assumes significance as the commission last month cancelled the provisional candidature of probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar and debarred her from all future examinations for fraudulently availing attempts in the civil services examination beyond eligibility. Khedkar has also been accused of misusing disability and Other Backward Classes or OBC (non-creamy layer) quotas, among others. In a notification, the personnel ministry said the UPSC «is allowed to perform Aadhaar authentication, on voluntary basis, for verification of identity of candidates at the time of registration on 'One Time Registration' portal and various stages of examination/recruitment test, using Yes/No or/and e-KYC authentication facility».

engineers at Boeing. Fast forward to the present day, and here is a new spectacle in space provided by Boeing. It's not awesome. Two astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, arrived at the International Space Station on June 6, expecting to stay for just over a week. Now they won't be heading back to earth until February. Their ride was on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, now deemed by NASA to be too risky for the return trip thanks to a host of troublesome technical glitches.

telecom regulator is considering if differential punitive tariffs for spam callers from personal numbers could help check spam calling and messaging. According to an analysis, there were nearly 14 lakh SIMs making between 50-1000 calls per day during the January-March 2024 period, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in a consultation paper released Wednesday. Four SIMs were making more than 1000 calls per day. These are likely to be spam callers who disregard Trai’s norms defined for commercial calling. Similarly, there were 4 lakh SIMs found to be sending more than 50 SMSs per day. Though telecom companies have blocked 59,000 such numbers in calendar years 2022-23 cumulatively, spammers continue to purchase new SIM cards, Trai data showed. As bundled mobile packs allow unlimited voice calling and 100 per day, unregistered telemarketers (UTMs) may be pushing “large numbers of promotional voice calls to consumers using multiple connections,” TRAI said.

Arslan Butt is a professional live webinar speaker and derivatives (cryptocurrency, forex, commodities, and indices) analyst. He brings a broad range of skills to help beginners evaluate financial...