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alliance of opposition parties. Bhagwat on Friday said Bharat should be used instead of India and urged the people to inculcate the habit and added the name Bharat has been continuing since ancient times and it must be taken forward.

Shaktikanta Das announced the launch of the products by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) at the ongoing Global Fintech Festival here. One of the products is Hello! UPI that will enable users to make voice-enabled UPI payments via apps, telecom calls, and IoT devices in Hindi and English. It will soon be available in several other regional languages also.

airport is seeing a delay in security as UK Police continues a manhunt for an escaped soldier who is facing terrorism charges. According to media reports, a manhunt has been launched after a terror suspect escaped on Wednesday morning. The escaped soldier has been identified as Daniel Abed Khalife.

An invitation from the President’s office to G20 leaders for a dinner that describes Droupadi Murmu as the “President of Bharat"—rather than of “India"—has sparked off a war of words between the ruling party and the opposition, with the latter spying in it a trial balloon to rename the country. To be sure, “Bharat" has been used in other official missives as well, even from the Prime Minister.

Energy investment in Africa needs to more than double by the end of the decade if the continent is to meet its energy and climate goals. However, high costs are putting off much-needed investment in the region’s plentiful clean-energy resources and huge reserves of critical minerals, the International Energy Agency said. “African countries have huge energy potential, including a spectacular range and quality of renewable-energy resources," said Fatih Birol, executive director of the Paris-based agency in a report published jointly with the African Development Bank on Wednesday.

Siddaramaiah stepped into the India vs Bharat row on Monday, accusing the BJP of digging into emotional issues ahead of elections. “The country has been known as India ever since we adopted the Constitution in 1950.

Pakistani authorities closed a key border crossing with landlocked Afghanistan on Wednesday shortly after border guards from the two sides exchanged fire, officials and residents said, in a sign of increasing tensions between the two neighbors. Reasons why the two sides exchanged fire were not immediately made clear, said Nasrullah Khan, an official in Torkham, a town in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. He said Pakistani government and military officials were in contact with their Afghan counterparts to defuse tensions. Abdul Mateen Qani, the Afghan Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Interior Ministry, confirmed the clash between Afghan and Pakistani forces. He said officials from both sides were attempting to find out what caused the clash and ways to prevent such incidents in the future. Pakistani authorities said dozens of trucks carrying perishable items, including vegetables and fruits, were waiting on both sides of the border for the reopening of the Torkham crossing, which is a vital commercial artery and trade route to Central Asian countries for Pakistan. The border closure comes two days after caretaker Pakistani Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said U.S.

India as Bharat, after G20 Summit invites to international leaders from President Droupadi Murmu, termed the latter as President of Bharat, instead of the usual President of India, reports have emerged recalling that the same BJP that is embracing the BHARAT term in 2023, has walked out of the Uttar Pradesh state Assembly in 2004 over a resolution passed by Mulayam Singh Yadav to rename India as Bharat. In 2004, the Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav led Uttar Pradesh cabinet had passed a resolution that the Constitution must be amended to say ‘Bharat, that is India’, instead of ‘India, that is Bharat’.

Fintech to showcase what India has actually strived on and achieved from a growth standpoint, said Transaction Sales Chief at Standard Chartered Bank said on Wednesday. «We have 100-plus countries participating. This allows India to showcase not only the talent it has but also the technology and platform that it has been able to achieve at scale to solve the problems,» Sanjeev Mehta,MD, Head of Transaction Banking (TB) sales-Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking-South Asia at Standard Chartered Bank told in an exclusive interview. Further, he said, «Other countries can just take it and follow, for example, digital payment, India took the lead.

World Health Organization on Wednesday warned of «concerning trends» for Covid-19 ahead of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, calling for increased vaccinations and surveillance. While data is limited because many countries have stopped reporting Covid data, the UN health agency estimated that hundreds of thousands of people around the world were currently hospitalised with the virus. «We continue to see concerning trends for Covid-19 ahead of the winter season in the Northern Hemisphere,» WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online press conference. «Deaths are increasing in some parts of the Middle East and Asia, intensive care unit admissions are increasing in Europe and hospitalisations are increasing in several regions,» he said. But only 43 countries — less than a quarter of the 194 WHO member states — are reporting Covid deaths to the agency, and only 20 provide information about hospitalisations, he added. «We estimate that there are hundreds of thousands of people in hospital now for Covid,» said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on Covid-19. «That is a worry given that when we get to colder months, in some countries, people tend to spend more time indoors together, and viruses that transmit through the air like Covid will take advantage of that,» she added. With influenza and RSV also circulating, Van Kerkhove emphasised the importance of testing, as well as vaccination. Tedros said while there is not currently a single dominant Covid variant worldwide, the EG.5 Omicron subvariant is on the rise. Small numbers of the highly mutated BA.2.86 subvariant have also now been detected in 11 countries, Tedros said.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday expressed concern that at a time when India created history by reaching the unexplored side of the moon, meaningless discussions were being held across the country. «A mockery of the nation is being made at the international level. There seems to be no end to the debates being held in media and on TV Channels.

G20 Summit has provided India with an opportunity to showcase its diversity, legacy and digital public infrastructure, Chief Coordinator of India's G20 Presidency, Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Wednesday. «G20 Summit is an opportunity to showcase our diversity, legacy and development, and we will fully utilize this opportunity. At the G20 venue, there will be 'Mother of Democracy' exhibition, cultural corridors, where we will present our cutting-edge technologies, especially our digital public infrastructure.

G20 Summit scheduled to be held in the national capital on September 9 and 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday convened a meeting of the Council of Ministers and instructed his ministers that «no minister other than the authorized person should speak on the G-20 meeting.» According to the sources, «In the Council of Ministers meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave advice to his ministers, saying that no minister other than the authorized person should speak at the G-20 meeting.» The sources further added that «The ministers attending the dinner organized on September 9 should reach the Parliament House complex in their own vehicles and to reach the venue they should board the buses.» The Chief Ministers invited for the dinner will also reach the Parliament House complex in their vehicles and will go from there by bus to the venue, they added. Meanwhile, the Ministers and the Chief Minister will reach the Parliament House complex for dinner by 5:50 pm and reach the venue by 6:30 pm. In the Council of Ministers meeting, PM Modi also instructed the ministers not to speak on India and India dispute, sources said. «PM Modi also gave permission to speak on Sanatan Dharma controversy with conditions,» they added. India is all set to host the G20 Summit in New Delhi from September 9-10. World leaders will arrive in New Delhi to attend the G20 Summit.

Parliament session on September 18 is likely to begin in the old building and shift to the new structure the next day, officials said on Wednesday. According to officials, the shift to the new Parliament building will coincide with Ganesh Chaturthi, considered auspicious to make new beginnings. The 10-day long Ganesh festival begins on September 19. They said the agenda for the week-long session of Parliament is expected to be finalised after the G20 Leaders' Summit from September 9-10. The clarification comes amid opposition protest over 'no clarity' on the agenda for the upcoming Parliament session.

Tabreed will invest $200 million to develop 1,25,000 refrigeration tons (RT) of cooling infrastructure for the Hyderabad Pharma City, the company said today. Tabreed (National Central Cooling Company) entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Telangana government on Tuesday to facilitate the establishment of the facility. The project is being taken up on a public-private partnership basis and seeks to provide sustainable long-term cooling services through the cooling-as-a-service model for process cooling and storage requirements of industrial units. “Through this MoU, we aim to showcase the benefits of district cooling to drive sustainable infrastructure development in the region and contribute to Telangana's vision of becoming a model for eco-friendly urbanization.”,” Sudheer Perla, Country Head, Tabreed India, said. The Government of Telangana also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Tabreed to explore district cooling infrastructure in existing and upcoming commercial districts of Cyberabad and other mixed-use development areas which offer the potential to reduce over 200 MW of peak electricity demand resulting in CO2 reduction of 18 million tons over a 30-year period while mitigating heat island effect that will further bolster Hyderabad’s position as one of the best cities to live and work in Asia. K.T Rama Rao, Minister for Urban Development, Industries & Commerce and Information Technology for the State of Telangana said, “By prioritizing cooling as a key action area through cool roof policies and energy-efficient district cooling, we are shaping a greener and healthier environment for our communities by contributing significantly to our ambitious vision of making Telangana net-zero by 2047”.

India’s external debt declined to 18.9 per cent of GDP at the end of March 2023 from 20 per cent last year, revealed the Finance Ministry's annual status report that was published on Wednesday. However, the external debt of India rose marginally by 0.9 per cent as the external debt stood at $624.7 billion at the end of March 2023 as compared to $619.1 billon last year. The last status report by the ministry published in 2022 showed that India’s external debt grew by 8.2 per cent in March 2022 when compared to March 2021. Finance Ministry in its report has attributed the 'rise in loans from short-term trade creditors (5.6 per cent), and bilateral (6.3 per cent) and multilateral (2.7 per cent) loans' as major factors for the marginal increase in external debt during the period under review. «As of end-March 2023, all the macroeconomic indicators of external debt remained sustainable. Commercial borrowings remained the largest component of external debt,» said the ministry's report on external debt. Commercial borrowings, Non-Resident Indian (NRI) deposits, short-term trade credits and multilateral loans together accounted for 89.6 per cent of the total external debt of India. Commercial borrowings and NRI deposits declined by 1.7 per cent and 0.1 per cent, respectively. Long-term debt which forms the major chunk of India's external debt reduced by 0.2 per cent at the end of March 2023 while short-term debt, constituting 20.6 per cent of the total debt, rose by 5.5 per cent mainly due to 5.6 per cent increase in the short term trade credit. The valuation effect of US dollar and other major currencies also plays an important role on the external debt of the country.

Uniqlo, Asia's biggest clothing brand, has posted a 69% increase in sales while net profit nearly tripled for its Indian unit during the year ended March 2023. The Japanese brand posted a net profit of Rs 68.38 crore with net revenues of Rs624.6 crore, according to its latest filing with the Registrar of Companies. A year ago, it had a profit of 21.4 crore with sales of Rs391.7 crore. «Indians like affordable pricing but high quality clothing.

industry representatives from the steel sector on Wednesday held discussions on implementation issues regarding the European Union's move to impose carbon tax, sources said. The meeting was called by the commerce ministry and was chaired by Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal.

LONDON (Reuters) — Britain's statistics office requested earlier access to key economic data on Wednesday, a few days after it sharply revised its estimate of the size of the economy at the end of 2021 which caught many analysts by surprise.

Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) for around 1 per cent stake in Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL), the retail arm of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led group.

DUBAI (Reuters) -The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects Saudi Arabia to swing to a fiscal deficit of 1.2% of GDP in 2023, from a surplus of 2.5% in 2022, it said in its latest assessment report on Wednesday.