India Financial News

India and Iran signed a 10-year contract on Monday for the management of Chabahar port, putting the seal on what’s envisaged as a gamechanger in regional connectivity, rivalling China’s Belt and Road Initiative and being an alternative to Gwadar port in Pakistan. Shipping minister Sarbananda Sonowal travelled to Tehran for the signing of the new 10-year contract between India Ports Global Ltd (IPGL) and Ports & Maritime Organisation of Iran (PMO). ET was the first to report on the new Chabahar contract in its May 13 edition. Under the contract, IPGL will equip and operate the port for the duration of the contract. At the end of the 10-year period, both sides will extend their cooperation in Chabahar. IPGL will invest about $120 million in equipping the port, officials said. India has also offered a rupee credit window equivalent to $250 million for mutually identified projects aimed at improving Chabahar-related infrastructure, they said.

Markets are caught in electoral turbulence with volatility spiking ahead of the results. Sensex and Nifty had run up in anticipation, and are now in choppy trades. Comparisons with previous poll years is fraught because markets tend to deliver outcomes with weak correlation to poll results.

employment was generated between 2014 and 2024 out of which 197.9 million was as a result of governance-led interventions and 316.1 million due to credit-led interventions, said a SKOCH report on Job Generative Impact of Modinomics, released on Monday. A man-year or person-year is a unit of measurement for the amount of work done by an individual throughout the entire year expressed in hours. The report is based on 80 case studies covering borrowers who took multiple loans and data of various government schemes.

India's diesel exports to Europe fell by a fifth sequentially in April as rising competition from US and Gulf suppliers amid softening demand in the continent weakened margins on the fuel. Diesel exports to Europe declined to 210,000 barrels per day (bpd) in April from 262,000 bpd in March, according to energy cargo tracker Vortexa. Europe consumes more than 40% of India's diesel exports. India's overall diesel exports fell 9% to 517,000 bpd in April from 567,000 bpd in March. Exports to Asia, however, rose 33% to 69,000 bpd in April from 52,000 bpd in March.

DELHI: With the conclusion of the fourth phase of polling on Monday, the Lok Sabha elections now move towards the Gangetic plains, having concluded in south and central India barring 13 seats in Maharashtra. Accordingly, political parties are shifting their campaign focus. In Uttar Pradesh, 41 seats will vote in the remaining three phases including hot seats like Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Ballia, and Ghazipur. BJP did extremely well in the last two elections, winning most these seats. In West Bengal, polling will take place for 24 seats out of total 42 seats in the remaining phases. BJP and Trinamool Congress are locked in a high-stake battle in the state where the former has deployed several union ministers to oversee election campaigning. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is leading the campaign for Trinamool.

potato prices will likely continue to pinch Indian households until the new crop comes to the market in December. Tomato prices have fallen by 40% in the past two days at Delhi's Azadpur Mandi, the largest fruit and vegetable wholesale market in Asia, due to increased arrivals from Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab, traders said. On the contrary, potato traders said prices will firm up further by another 5-10% as untimely rains have affected the tuber crop and because of cold storage owners releasing potatoes in a way so that the stock can meet domestic consumption till the arrival of the new crop. Trade sources from Uttar Pradesh, the largest producer of potatoes, said the government has already launched a drive to see whether the cold storage facilities in Agra, the centre of the state's potato trade, were hoarding the tuber to jack up prices. «Once the election is over, there will be state-wide monitoring of the movement of potatoes,» one of them said.

INOX India Q4 results: Net profit jumps 44% YoY to ₹44 crore; revenue up 17% Additionally, the company is exploring various avenues to raise funds, including American Depository Receipts (ADRs), Global Depository Receipts (GDRs), and Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs), among others. In the previous month, the metals-to-oil conglomerate announced its intention to raise funds amounting to ₹2,500 crore ($299.6 million) through debt securities. This fundraising initiative will involve issuing non-convertible debentures on a private placement basis.

Cognizant workers refusing to return to office, the axe may be about to fall. The Nasdaq-listed company has warned defiant employees that they may be fired for not turning up, becoming the first large IT firm to invoke termination to repopulate office spaces. In a letter to employees in mid-April, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp.

₹10 lakh bracket, but the product has to be right." Banerjee said Maruti has "made significant investments" in the entry-segment too, like upgrading the K10B engine to K10C, which powers the Alto K10 and Celerio models. “If many of our competitors feel SUVs is the bigger segment, we feel there is an opportunity in hatchbacks also as India's economy grows", he said. Hatchbacks fetched 45% to Maruti's overall sales in FY24, and nearly 50% in April this year.

Knight Frank released its report, 'Think India Think Retail 2024'. It has an ominous warning for shopping malls across the country. 'Ghost shopping malls with vacancy rates of 40% or more rose from 57 in 2022 to 64 in 2023 across eight major cities, with larger shopping centres preferred for an outing, and online shopping taking away some old retail charms,' states the report. There was a 238% y-o-y increase, it added, in the gross leasable area (GLA) of all shopping centres in prime Indian markets in 2023, even as ghost malls rose in number. Big retail in India needs reinvention. The mall as a massive real estate complex is an American idea that goes back to a combination of consumer boom, timescape, landscape and culture that suited the West rather than India. Mall culture is changing in the West itself. If an American works five days a week, with kids to raise and without help at home in sparsely populated cities, the mall may still be the place to catch a movie or for shopping. However, land costs and rentals were not real issues in the US, compared to disposable incomes that generated suitable demand.

Splendid works of art are inspired not only by positive aspects of life and nature; they are also born of the dark side of life. For example, the recent splash of colour, of aurora borealis, the Northern Lights, has resulted in rainbow brushstrokes across a vast sky canvas, worldwide. Northern Lights are normally visible only in the upper reaches of the northern hemisphere at certain times of the year, a popular tourist attraction in Scandinavia. Suddenly, these multi-hued lights have broken free, becoming visible in many countries of Europe and in America, in the UK and in Ladakh, India. The cause is solar flare-ups gone rogue, creating violent solar storms. To protect us, the earth's magnetic field deflects the flare particles back to the sun; the ensuing reaction brings on the spectacular celestial show. Wartime poetry is known to tug at the heartstrings, and evoke deep reflection on why we are such a violent species. Bloggers' outpourings on their search for inner peace while suffocated by negative events are lyrical essays and poems that give expression to deep self-doubt and for some, later, self-discovery and illumination.

Kingdom of the Planet of Apes' has become the lifesaver of the box office in North America after reporting a record grossing during its opening weekend here, which was a needed surge to an otherwise uncertain season that has seen a fair share of ups and downs this year.

₹44 crore in Q4FY24 from ₹30.6 crore during the year-ago quarter. The company's revenue increased 17% year on year from ₹235 crore to ₹276 crore during the period under review. “With numerous historic milestones crossed, FY24 continues to delight us and our stakeholders.

voter turnout of more than 36 per cent took place in the redrawn Srinagar Lok Sabha seat without any untoward incident on Monday, the highest since 1996 when the constituency in Jammu and Kashmir recorded nearly 41 per cent polling. The Srinagar constituency recorded 36.58 per cent voting till 8 pm, the Election Commission of India said.

Their importance lies not only in their capacity to generate clean electricity but also in their versatility, offering solutions for a myriad of applications, from residential rooftops to vast commercial installations. As the demand for renewable energy grows, selecting the best solar panels ensures reliable performance and long-term savings on energy costs. More than just a technology, solar panels represent a tangible step towards the commitment to a cleaner, more sustainable world.

Tier-2 cities or non-metros are giving tough competition to top metro cities in the country in terms of infrastructure development, as a result attracting NRIs and resident Indians to invest.

Cairn Oil & Gas, one of the top private oil and gas exploration and production firms and an arm of Vedanta, aims to drill 20 exploration wells by 2025 targeting approximately 500 millions of barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe) gross unrisked prospective resources, the company said on Monday.

Air India is on track to finalize its merger with Vistara by the end of this year, with plans to commence the integration of over 7,000 employees starting in June, as reported by The Indian Express.

By Ruchir Sharma

Suzuki Motor Corp expects car sales in India to grow 2% in the ongoing financial year and its local subsidiary, Maruti Suzuki, to perform better than the market, helping it recover lost market share in the country.