India Financial News

G20 task force on digital public infrastructure (DPI) has suggested that countries use plug-and-play models to deploy certain DPI while ensuring their sovereignty and data ownership, exhorting them to make their existing infrastructure universally applicable for common good. Releasing the task force's report on Monday, India's G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant said the country's fast-growing DPI has enabled it to achieve in nine years what would have taken it 50 years to realise without the DPI. India's push for interoperable DPI during its G20 presidency last year had faced resistance from developed countries, who feared it could undermine the growth of global private payments entities. The plug-and-play method mooted by the task force appears to be aimed at addressing this fear.

high efficacy" malaria vaccine co-developed by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and the University of Oxford was officially rolled out on Monday when Cote d'Ivoire in West Africa became the first country to begin administering R21/Matrix-M. The vaccine, which was granted World Health Organisation (WHO) approval last year, is said to have undergone a rigorous regulatory process and clinical assessment and was found to be highly effective and affordable. As a low-dose vaccine, it can be manufactured at speed and scale which is seen as critical to stemming the spread of the mosquito-borne disease. «Reducing the malaria burden is finally within sight. Today's start of the R21/Matrix-M vaccine roll-out marks a monumental milestone after years of incredible work with our partners at Oxford and Novavax,» said SII CEO Adar Poonawalla. «At Serum, we believe that it is every person's right to have access to affordable and essential disease prevention. That's why we have committed to producing 100 million doses of R21, which will protect millions of lives and alleviate the burden of this deadly disease for future generations,» he said.

Trump is poised to reveal his vice-presidential pick at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Ohio Senator JD Vance is currently the frontrunner, with political analysts closely watching his potential selection. Other names on the shortlist include Florida Senator Marco Rubio and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.

Niti Aayog has said. Niti Aayog, in a report titled 'Domestic Manufacturing Capacity & Potential Cyber Security Challenges in the Wind Sector and Way Forward', said wind turbines' capability to exchange information through power plant controllers (PPC) poses a significant cybersecurity threat. «The PPC software is of critical importance and associated with risks — used in the device which connects the wind farm directly to the national/state grid. »PPC OEMs of foreign origin, especially neighbouring countries, need to be examined, and a call needs to be taken for their suspension while not adhering to the protocol," it said.

₹76 lakh in the erstwhile Amrapali Group’s ‘HeartBeat City’ township in Noida. Parashar was supposed to get possession of his home in 2014 but the project stalled in 2013. In 2019, just before the pandemic, state-owned construction corporation NBCC (India) Ltd was appointed by the Supreme Court to take over the task of completing 24 projects of the group and eventually commenced the job.

MUMBAI: Nielsen Media, a global major in audience measurement and analytics, has picked up an office space spread over four floors in a commercial complex in Mumbai’s western suburb Goregaon through a long-term lease of over 10 years. The total rental outgo for the company for the over 152,000 sq-ft office space in commercial tower Oberoi Commerz III, part of larger layout Oberoi Garden City, will be more than Rs 465 crore over 10 years without factoring in any rental escalation. The agreement includes a clause to escalate lease rentals by 15% every three years and a five-year lock-in period.

Indian rupee weakened against the dollar as the greenback strengthened globally due to investors’ risk aversion after an assassination attempt on former US president Donand Trump and as weakness in the Chinese yuan weighed on Asian currencies, dealers said. The rupee closed at 83.59 against the US dollar on Monday, versus the previous close of 83.53, LSEG data showed. The dollar index touched a high of 104.32

CropLife India, which describes itself as an association of 17 R&D driven crop science companies, has claimed in a media release that a proposal towards enhancement of customs duty on agrochemical formulations to 20%; would hurt the interests of the farmers of the country, in terms of higher costs of farming and non-availability of the newer products. «The idea of doubling customs duty was being proposed based on ‘misinformation’; in the last couple of months, about the “huge” formulation imports in the country. However, the actual data of import proves otherwise,» said Croplife in the release. Durgesh Chandra, Secretary General, CropLife Indiasaid,“Imported Formulations hardly constitute 20% of total imports of agrochemicals in India. Theproposal to increase custom duty on formulations will set the wrong precedent, signal uncertainty in ease of doing business, will question the stability of Indian policies and send out wrong signals for both foreign and Indian investment in this sector; apart from not achieving any significant financial benefit for the exchequer”.

Air India Express on Monday said it has launched common platform 'Xpress Holidays' in collaboration with online travel firm MakeMytrip for travellers to book flights, accommodation and transport. The partnership with MakeMyTrip enables a variety of attractive packages to cater to different travel preferences, Air India Express said in a statement. The service offers exclusive deals, through the airline's website, the airline said, adding that the extended offerings of the platform include access to end-to-end holiday packages, including cab pick-ups, sightseeing tours and experiences. «We are extending the services on our website and mobile app to be a one-stop solution for all travel needs. With the launch of the all-encompassing 'Xpress Holidays', powered by MakeMyTrip, we are also enabling exclusive curated offers on flights and accommodations across India and our key international destinations, including airport transfers and guided tours,» said Ankur Garg, Chief Commercial Officer at Air India Express.

Bank of Maharashtra is planning to raise Rs 5,000 crore in equity this year as part of a two-year strategy to pare the government stake to 75% to conform to the market regulation. The bank said it needs to raise a total of Rs 6,700 crore at current price to bring down the promoter holding below the threshold level.

inclusion in a JP Morgan bond index, but a senior Citi executive feels that number may be topped as the Fed is likely to start cutting rates soon, turning Indian debt into a favourite within the emerging markets pack. “The last US inflation reading was softer than what the market expected, so we actually think that the Fed might commence with the rate cut cycle from September and could maybe do three rate cuts this year itself,” Aditya Bagree, head, markets, Citi — India & Indian subcontinent, told ET in an interview.

anti-terrorism court here on Monday charged top Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in a case involving the burning down of a police station during the May 9 violence last year. Qureshi, 68, who was brought to Kot Lakhpat jail here from Adiala jail in Rawalpindi under tight security, has several cases related to May 9 violence, including arson, filed against him at the Shadman police station. The court had summoned Qureshi to initiate indictment proceedings against him and ordered the prosecution to present witnesses in the next hearing scheduled for July 22. Qureshi, who was produced before ATC Judge Khalid Arshad, however, denied the charges.

Odisha is bracing for prolonged rainfall in the next four days due to a low pressure area over the Bay of Bengal, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Monday. While one low pressure area was formed, another is likely to follow on July 19, the IMD said. According to the weather agency, heavy to very heavy rainfall (7 to 20cm) may take place at one or two places in Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur and Rayagada on July 15 due to a low-pressure zone northwest of the west-central Bay of Bengal, off the South Odisha coast. Additionally, areas like Nuapada, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Ganjam, Gajapati, and Balangir may experience heavy rainfall (7 to 11cm), accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning in some places across north interior Odisha, Sonepur, Boudh, and coastal regions.

MUMBAI : India has emerged as Temasek Holdings’ best-performing market over the previous 10 years, a key factor in the Singapore state investor’s total exposure to the country soaring to $37 billion. “In the last 10 years across all geographies, India has been the best in terms of returns," said Vishesh Shrivastav, managing director (India), Temasek, in an interview with Mint on Monday. Earlier in the day, Temasek said its exposure to India stood at $37 billion (equivalent to S$49 billion), including the financial interest from its portfolio firm SingTel’s investment in Bharti Airtel Ltd.

paddy area under climate-resilient seeds, a senior agriculture ministry official said on Monday. The move comes as erratic rainfall patterns have become increasingly common in recent years, threatening rice production in the country. India, the world's second-largest rice producer after China, cultivates paddy on over 410 lakh hectares during the kharif season. Speaking on the sidelines of ICAR's 96th Foundation and Technology Day celebrations, ICAR Director General Himanshu Pathak said, «While we have achieved 75 per cent coverage of climate-resilient seeds in wheat cultivation, the adoption in paddy is still limited.»

MUMBAI : Medikabazaar’s founders Vivek Tiwari and Ketan Malkan may not be awarded the stock options due to them this year as a fallout of financial discrepancies that have surfaced in yet another instance of corporate misgovernance among Indian startups. The company’s board is contemplating cancelling the management stock options that were due to the founders at the end of June, expecting Medikabazaar to not meet its revenue and operational earnings targets for 2023-24, according to three people familiar with the deliberations.

Over the years I have started reading the inside pages of newspapers more carefully, given that the news that’s published on a front page is typically available on digital media much before it is published the next morning.

Russia, including by encouraging rupee-rouble trade and pushing Moscow to lift non-tariff barriers, New Delhi said on Monday, in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Moscow. Old partners India and Russia have stepped up trade since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, but the increase has been overwhelmingly one-way, dominated by India buying Russian oil shunned by traditional customers in Europe. Surging Russian exports to India accounted for $61.43 billion of the $65.7 billion in trade between the two countries in the last fiscal year that ended in March.

Budget 2024, the spotlight is firmly on the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, which have been instrumental in revitalizing the manufacturing sector and strengthening supply chains. The government's proactive steps in enhancing these schemes signal a commitment to bolstering India's economic growth, increasing employment, and positioning Indian industries on the global stage. In a significant move, the Indian government has hiked the allocation for the PLI scheme to ₹6,200 crore during the interim budget for FY25, marking a 33% increase from the previous year’s estimate of ₹4,645 crore. This substantial boost underscores the government's dedication to supporting manufacturing and supply chains across the 14 sectors currently covered, which include mobile phones, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, and electronic products.

EU) are expected to hold the next round of talks for the proposed free trade agreement, which aims at boosting commerce and investments, in September, an official said. Joint Secretary in the Department of Commerce Darpan Jain said that the eighth round of talks was concluded on June 28. He said that discussions were held on all 21 chapters in the meeting and progress was made in number of areas such as government procurement, digital trade, technical barriers to trade, goods, and market access. «We plan to hold more inter-sessional meetings in July and August and we intend to have another round (of talks) in the last week of September,» Jain told reporters here.

Indian Army successfully eliminated three hardcore foreign terrorists attempting to infiltrate across the Line of Control (LoC) in the Keran Sector of the Kupwara District of Jammu and Kashmir. As per the officials, on the intervening night of July 13-14, acting on credible inputs, multiple ambushes were laid along the appreciated route of infiltration. Elaborating on the encounter with the terrorists, Commander of the 268th Infantry Brigade, Keran Sector, Brigadier NR Kulkarni, said that they had intelligence inputs of terrorists trying to disturb normalcy in the area.