Awards Financial News

Himanta Biswa Sarma visited Golaghat and distributed No Due Certificates to beneficiaries under the Assam Microfinance Incentive and Relief Scheme (Phase III, Category II). He announced that under the third phase of the Assam Microfinance Incentive and Relief Scheme, 5,119 women borrowers in Golaghat are provided waiver. As part of the ongoing «12 Days of Development» initiative launched on December 11th to accelerate Assam's developmental progress and prioritize the well-being of its people, Sarma visited Golaghat and distributed several key benefits to the community. These included No Due Certificates to beneficiaries under the Assam Microfinance Incentive and Relief Scheme (Phase III, Category II), Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) to those affected by the 2024 floods, and seed capital to self-help groups as part of the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) scheme. Sarma highlighted that, under the third phase of the Assam Microfinance Incentive and Relief Scheme, 5,119 women borrowers in Golaghat have been freed from their microfinance loans. Additionally, financial assistance has been provided to 2,011 families affected by floods in the district, with Bokakhat being the worst-hit area, where 1,970 families suffered losses. He stated how 189 self-help groups in Golaghat had received seed capital through the PMFME scheme, marking an important step toward promoting entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency in the region.

Neerav Parekh, owner of professional football club Barnsley Football Club in South Yorkshire, England, and his mother Kalpana Parekh have purchased two sea-facing luxury apartments including a duplex on Mumbai’s Worli sea face for a total of Rs 170 crore. Both Kalpana Parekh and Neerav Parekh are part of promoter group of Pidilite Industries. The chairman of Barnsley Football Club, which was founded in 1887 and competes in EFL League One, has acquired the duplex on the 23rd and 24th floor of the under-construction super-premium tower Naman Xana himself, while his mother has acquired another apartment on the 22nd floor.

Maxivision Super Specialty Eye Hospital which entered Gujarat in 2023 has about six hospitals. With the expansion plan, the city-headquartered eye care provider would set up 25 hospitals in Gujarat that would generate over 300 new jobs in the region. A state-of-the-art super speciality centre has also been planned to be established in Ahmedabad under the expansion plan, Maxivision Super Specialty Eye Hospital said in a statement here on Saturday. Maxivision Super Speciality Eye Hospital has also partnered with V V Sapovadia to set up new eye care facilities in Bhuj, Suredranagar, Porbandar, Upleta, Bhavnagar and Junagadh.

natural gas will eat into its growth, according to a joint study by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) and Deloitte. Household consumption makes up about 90% of the total LPG consumption in the country. About 99% of households have access to clean fuel—domestic LPG connections have doubled in a decade to 32 crore —but many poor families consume an abysmally low amount of fuel. Their consumption is expected to expand in the future and can fuel demand for LPG. However, this growth will likely be more than offset by a rapid expansion of piped natural gas (PNG). “As city gas distribution sector grows, it will be the key factor that will erode LPG demand,” the study said. “Demand erosion will be prominent in the domestic segment as PNG—domestic and commercial—is cheaper than LPG.”

scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) witnessed a significant reduction to 2.67 percent in June 2024 from 11.18 percent in March 2018, the Finance Ministry stated on Saturday. The ministry further added in a social media post on X that the asset quality has improved significantly while the provisional coverage ratio (PCR) has also increased from 49.31 percent in March 2015 to a healthy 92.52 percent in June, showing an increased resilience.

Jeff Bezos and his partner Lauren Sanchez recently visited renowned chef Vikas Khanna’s New York restaurant, Bungalow. The couple, along with other guests, posed happily for a group photograph shared by Khanna on his X profile.

Jeff Bezos and his partner Lauren Sanchez recently dined at chef Vikas Khanna’s Bungalow in New York City. The restaurant, known for its authentic Indian cuisine, has quickly become a celebrated destination since its opening in March 2024. Khanna shared a photograph of the couple on X (formerly Twitter), expressing his joy in hosting them. “When @JeffBezos said the visit to Bungalow was like a pilgrimage, it filled my heart with pure joy & pride,” wrote Khanna. He included hashtags such as #PowerOfAuthenticity and #SoftPowerOfIndia to emphasise the cultural significance of the moment.

auto components industry has experienced robust growth in the first half of FY25, with a notable 11.3 per cent increase in its market size, according to Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA) report. The industry, which was valued at USD 36.1 billion in H1 FY24, surged to USD 39.6 billion in H1 FY25. Several trends have emerged in the market, with consumers shifting towards larger and more powerful vehicles across all segments. The demand for Utility Vehicles (UVs) in the Passenger Vehicle (PV) segment grew by 13 per cent, with UV1 models (ranging from 4000 to 4400 mm in length and priced under Rs 20 lakh) seeing a 25 per cent increase in sales.

IndiGo flight en route to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was on Saturday forced to make an emergency landing at the Jinnah International Airport in Pakistan's Karachi city following a medical emergency onboard. The aircraft, which departed from New Delhi, was in Pakistani airspace when a male passenger fell seriously ill, according to sources from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). According to Geo News, the passenger was a 55-year-old Indian man.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has enhanced the collateral-free loan limit for farmers from Rs 1.6 lakh to Rs 2 lakh, effective January 1, 2025, a move aimed at supporting small and marginal farmers amid rising input costs. The new directive instructs banks nationwide to waive collateral and margin requirements for agricultural and allied activity loans up to Rs 2 lakh per borrower. According to the agriculture ministry, the decision comes in response to the rising input costs and the need to improve credit accessibility for farmers. «This measure will significantly benefit over 86 per cent of farmers who are small and marginal landholders,» the statement said. Banks have been instructed to implement the guidelines swiftly and ensure widespread awareness about the new loan provisions.

simultaneous elections for various reasons as polls have become expensive and time-consuming, according to the proposed bill being brought to implement the ambitious 'one nation, one election' plan. According to the constitution amendment bill listed for introduction in the Lok Sabha on Monday, the imposition of a Model Code of Conduct in several parts of the country which are poll-bound puts on hold the entire development programmes and causes disruption of normal public life. Frequent poll code imposition also impacts the functioning of services and curtails the involvement of manpower from their core activities for deployment for prolonged periods for election duties, the 'Constitution (129th) Amendment Bill, 2024' underlined. The bill proposes to insert a new article 82A — simultaneous elections to the House of the People (Lok Sabha) and all legislative assemblies and to amend Article 83 (Duration of Houses of Parliament), Article 172 (Duration of State Legislatures) and Article 327 (power of Parliament to make provision with respect to elections to Legislatures).

JSW, which was a Successful Resolution Applicant to the assets of erstwhile Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) corporate resolution process (CIRP), the agency said on Saturday. The assets were initially provisionally attached by the ED under Section 5 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The attachment was made after investigations revealed that the former promoters of Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd had defrauded banks and diverted funds for private investments. The restitution was made under the second proviso to Section 8(8) of PMLA (restitution pending trial) read with Rule 3A of PMLA Restoration of Property Rules, with the approval of the Supreme Court on December 11 this year.

imported coal to use cheaper domestic supplies to help reduce electricity costs while lowering the dependence on overseas sources, said people aware of the matter. India has 15 power plants that use imported coal, including Tata Power’s Coastal Power Gujarat, Adani Power Mundra Ltd, Essar Power Gujarat, and JSW Ratnagiri. A reduction in coal imports will enhance energy security as well. The matter was discussed at a meeting between senior officials of the coal and power ministries this week, said the people cited above.

Double Tax Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with India effective January 1, 2025, in a move that may raise the tax outgo on dividend income for Indian entities operating in the European country. The decision follows India’s Supreme Court ruling in October 2023 in a case involving Swiss multinational Nestle SA. The court had held that the MFN clause under the DTAA does not get automatically triggered until notified under the Income Tax Act, 1961. “On the basis of the Indian Supreme Court ruling, the Swiss competent authority acknowledges that its interpretation of para 5 of the Protocol to the IN-CH DTA is not shared by the Indian side,” said a recent statement issued by the Swiss authorities. “In the absence of reciprocity, it therefore waives its unilateral application with effect from 1 January 2025.”

“My Driver and I” was supposed to be made in 2016, but was scuttled amid Saudi Arabia’s decades-long cinema ban

Passenger vehicle wholesales rose 4% year-on-year in November while retail sales fell 14%, reflecting rising dealer stocks. While carmakers say inventory in the sales channel is healthy at about a month, dealers claim it is much higher at 65-68 days. Carmakers report wholesales or factory dispatches to dealerships every month, collated and reported by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) separately issues monthly vehicle registration data compiled from the Vahan portal of the ministry of road, transport & highways (MoRTH), which shows final sales to customers. As many as 347,552 cars, sedans and utility vehicles were sold in the local market last month, a 4.1% increase from 333,833 units sold in the same period last year, showed data issued by Siam. Retail sales of passenger vehicles had, however, fallen by 14% on-year in November.

Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA). «My understanding is that with Switzerland, because of EFTA, the double taxation treaty that we have; it's going to be renegotiated. That is one aspect of it,» MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. He was responding to a question on the issue at his weekly media briefing.

India and the United Arab Emirates(UAE) on Friday discussed implementation of the ambitious India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC) and resolved to shore up ties in areas of energy including long-term supplies and collaboration in upstream and downstream projects. Ways to further deepen bilateral relations in areas of energy, connectivity and trade figured prominently at the 15th India-UAE Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) that was co-chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his UAE counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The meeting was held in New Delhi. The two foreign ministers also deliberated on expanding strategic partnership between the two countries in areas of defence, emerging technologies, nuclear energy, polar research, critical minerals and renewable energy at a meeting of the India- UAE Strategic Dialogue held last night.

Ambuja Cements, part of Adani Group firm, on Friday announced the commissioning of a 200 MW solar power project in Khavda, Gujarat, to supply green power to 20 cement plants. The Khavda project is part of Adani Cements' plan to have 1 GW of renewable power from solar and wind projects, along with 376 MW from WHRS (Waste Heat Recovery Systems). «The balance 806 MW capacity from this project is at various stages of commissioning and expected to start transmitting in phases between March 2025 and June 2025,» said a statement.

Up to $60,000 in reward money from the FBI and the New York Police Department's Crime Stoppers program was offered for tips leading to a break in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson

State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, is seeking a ¥30 billion ($197 million) facility, according to people familiar with the matter, adding to a record volume of yen loans raised by borrowers in Asia excluding Japan this year. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. is the lead bank of the deal, which will be raised in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, India's newest financial hub, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a private matter.