City New Delhi Financial News

New Delhi: August has been the driest and warmest month in the entire country since 1901. Monsoon precipitation in August across the central India and the south Peninsular region has also been the lowest in 122 years since 1901, making it one of the worst and deficient monsoon months in history, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday. Rainfall across the country was 162.7 mm this August compared to 254.9 mm actual.

Hindustantimes.com on Thursday. Chinese Premier Li Qiang will be flying directly to New Delhi after attending the 43rd ASEAN summit in Jakarta on September 5-7.

NEW DELHI : The government’s fiscal deficit has crossed ₹6 trillion or a third of the ₹17.9 trillion estimated in the union budget for FY24, data from the Comptroller General of Accounts (CGA) showed on Thursday. Fiscal deficit—the gap between spending and receipts, met through borrowings—stood at 33.9% of the full- year target in July, aided by strong tax and non-tax revenue receipts. Fiscal deficit in the first four months of FY23 was at 20.5% of the full-year target.

The G20 should focus on development, not politics. If this refrain about next week’s summit in New Delhi evokes Mahatma Gandhi’s visual metaphor of three monkeys that “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" (by keeping away from wicked influences), it might be because of related news that the city’s preparatory drill has special plans for the rhesus species of primates.

NEW DELHI : Highway construction continues to sputter in the slow lane even as the government pushes for a record target showcase progress ahead of the 2024 general elections. According to the ministry of road transport and highways, work has been completed on just 2,670 km of highways in the first four months of the fiscal or just about 20% of a target of building 13,800 km of highways this financial year. The award of road projects has also fallen steeply to 1,125 km from 1,975 km in the same period a year ago, indicating a thinning of the pipeline for projects that would impact construction over a longer period.

NEW DELHI : Politicians, pundits and commentators went into a tizzy on Thursday after the government announced a special session of Parliament from 18-22 September. Speculation ranged from a Uniform Civil Code legislation and a bill synchronising national and state elections, to legislation reserving seats for women in legislatures and a celebration of moon-landing and G20 presidency in the new Parliament building. The government is yet to disclose the agenda for the session, but parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi said there will be five sittings.

Hindustantimes.com quoting Ashwan Singh, who works at Liquor Library 1 in Gurugram Sector 56, “There has been a 20% increase in walk-in customers since August 22." “People are thinking ‘Khatam na ho jaye’. Ya phir unhe lag raha hai ki sab jagah theke band ho jayenge is time period mein. This is not true yet customers have been flocking the store, and there has been a non-stop rush for an assortment of hard liquor bottles," Singh said in the report.

India’s economy has clocked up impressive growth of 7.8% in the first quarter of the current financial year, mainly due to good performance by the agricultural and financial sectors

Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 9th August, the nationwide campaign is conceived as a culminating event of the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ to pay tribute to those great leaders who have made the supreme sacrifice for the motherland. The State government successfully collected Maati or soils from all its 16 districts, including the hotbed of the recent violence — Churachandpur, Tengnoupal, Kangpokpi and Pherzawl- and symbolically displayed the territorial integrity of Manipur, represented by the soils and each district adorning the tricolor flag to depict the core concept of One Nation. The focus of the programme, held on Thursday at the Manipur State Film Development Society in Imphal was the display of the 388 different batches of soils collected from the 16 districts and homage offering to the soils by the dignitaries attending the national wide campaign, comprising cabinet ministers, MLAs and top bureaucrats of the State. As part of the campaign, soils from the State would be taken to Kartavya Path in New Delhi where a unique Amrit Vatika would be developed by planting different indigenous trees in the mixture of the different soils brought of every part of the country. Addressing the gathering, chief minister N Biren Singh emphasized the importance of collective efforts towards the nation building and development.

G20 Summit are “factually not correct" As a number of heads of States are coming and international organisations are joining, the Delhi Police have made a “Controlled zone" in the New Delhi district, said Delhi Police PRO Suman Nalwa. The police have also advised people to travel by Delhi Metro. “Regarding the G20 summit, rumours are spreading that Delhi will be under lockdown at that time.

By Krishn Kaushik, Aditya Kalra and Scott Murdoch

NEW DELHI : India's steel-to-energy JSW Group is in early talks with Chinese automaker Leapmotor to license technology to build electric vehicles in India, according to people familiar with the discussions. Under the technology licensing agreement, JSW would use Leapmotor's platform - the structural underpinnings of a car on which it is built - to manufacture EVs in India under its own brand name, the sources said, in the company's second attempt to enter the growing business. JSW is likely to use a single platform on which it can build at least three mid-sized sport-utility vehicles (SUVs), one of the sources said, adding that Leapmotor will also engineer the cars for the Indian company.

Two people closely linked to India’s Adani Group, one of the country’s largest conglomerates, secretly purchased of millions of dollars of stocks in the group’s companies, possibly violating Indian law, according to a report by a network of investigati...

Sea Ltd. is bringing back one of its top mobile games in India a year and a half after it was banned, a boon for the internet company’s effort to revive its growth. Now called Free Fire India, the game will be available Sept.

Indo-US task force for electronics has been set up to elevate trade in the segment between the two nations to $100 billion over the next decade, the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) said Thursday. The task force will work towards boosting trade, fostering innovation, creating jobs, and achieving seamless integration with the global tech ecosystem, it added. “Having a vibrant ecosystem that is part of a global supply chain is imperative. I envision a business relationship between India and the US that is built on a foundation of trust and partnership,” RS Sharma, chief mentor of ICEA, and chair of the Indo-US Task Force for Electronics, said after the task force’s inaugural meeting in New Delhi. The task force will also look to further the strategic partnership between India and U.S.

fiscal deficit for the first four months of this fiscal year through July stood at 6.06 lakh crore rupees, or 33.9% of annual estimates, government data showed today. The fiscal deficit widened from 20.5% reported in the comparable year-earlier period. The wider fiscal deficit comes amid mushrooming speculations that the Narendra Modi-led government, which is seeking to return to power for the third term after Lok Sabha elections next year, will soon have to unleash various fiscal measures and particularly so as to rein in galloping inflation rate. While the fiscal impact after the Indian government this week slashed LPG cylinder prices by Rs 200 per unit is seen to be limited as the move for now seems to only trim oil refiners’ profit margins, the rising clamor for the need to cut petrol and diesel prices may have an impact on budget gap.

Reuters citing two Indian officials, including a diplomat stationed in China and another official from a different G20 nation, have indicated that Premier Li Qiang is projected to attend the New Delhi meeting on September 9-10 as a representative of Beijing. The G20 summit scheduled in India was seen as a potential opportunity for Chinese President Xi Jinping to engage with US President Joe Biden, who has already confirmed his participation.

New Delhi: IVM Podcasts has announced a new audio fiction show, in collaboration with SBI Life Insurance, titled Chitthiyaan voiced by actor Gajraj Rao. Conceived and directed by Safura Ubaid, Chitthiyaan marks IVM Podcasts’ first ever audio fiction anthology. “As audience preferences continue to evolve, we aim to captivate and fulfill their information and entertainment needs through storytelling with a difference.

Xi Jinping is likely to skip a summit of G20 leaders in India next week, sources familiar with the matter in India and China told Reuters. Two Indian officials, one diplomat based in China and one official working for the government of another G20 country said Premier Li Qiang is expected to represent Beijing at the Sept. 9-10 meeting in New Delhi. Spokespersons for the Indian and Chinese foreign ministries did not respond to requests for comment. The summit in India had been viewed as a venue at which Xi may meet with U.S.

NEW DELHI : The National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF) released by the ministry of education (MoE) is intended to guide school education. Since education is not only relevant to its immediate participants but is critical to the well-being of society at large, it is useful to understand what the NCF is about. In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a member of the group the ministry constituted to develop it.

New Delhi: A day after the union cabinet approved a Rs-200 cut on domestic LPG cylinders, union minister for petroleum and natural gas Hardeep Singh Puri has asked states with non-BJP governments to cut the value added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, he said that the Centre lowered the excise duty on the transport fuels in November 2021 and May 2022, which was followed by reduction in VAT by BJP-ruled states. "The BJP central government and states reduced their excise on two occassions, November 2021 and May 2022.