Country Financial News

India is gearing up to celebrate its Independence Day August 15, 2023 marking a significant milestone in its history. This day serves as a powerful reminder of the nation's liberation from British colonial rule after nearly two centuries. Every year on August 15, people across India celebrate Independence Day to commemorate the country’s independence from British colonial rule.

(Reuters) -The International Monetary Fund said on Friday it has reached a staff-level agreement with Honduras for a 36-month credit facility for about $830 million to support the country's economic reform policies.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The United States and China will approve twice the number of passenger flights currently permitted for air carriers to fly between the two countries, sources and a document reviewed by Reuters show.

WPP, the world's biggest advertising group, is open to acquiring companies in India that allow it to bolster its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, a top company executive said. «We are open for acquisitions everywhere, including India, for talent and capability,» WPP chief AI officer and Satalia CEO Daniel Hulme told ET. «WPP has a history of growing strategically through acquisitions.

By Andrea Shalal and Michael Martina

By Walter Bianchi and Jorge Otaola

Investing.com — Helped by forecasts for record world oil demand this month, coming no less from the closely-followed International Energy Agency, crude prices finished with a seventh straight week of gains — the longest winning streak since June 2022.

RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday pitched for speedy completion of the general review of the International Monetary Fund to help countries in debt distress. Speaking at a seminar on the global economy organized by the finance ministry and RBI, Das said recent experience suggests countries facing financial difficulties go to other bodies beyond the IMF because of “perceived stigma" or lack of access.

Multilateral development banks (MDBs) are facing increasing demands from donor and borrowing countries to expand their lending operations beyond their core development mandates. An independent expert group, steered by finance commission chairman NK Singh and former US treasury secretary Lawrence Summers, formed to examine ways to strengthen MDBs has recommended tackling global challenges alongside core MDB missions of poverty reduction, tripling the sustainable lending level by 2030 and improving capital adequacy for MDBs by infusing funds.

NEW DELHI : After decades of integration, the global economy is seeing increasing fragmentation, making it one of the biggest challenges for multilateralism and addressing shared economic objectives, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. Speaking at a G20 event in Mumbai, Sitharaman said that India’s presidency has so far ensured that geopolitical differences don’t supersede the core mandate of international cooperation.

NEW DELHI : State-level data protection boards will not figure in the rules of the digital personal data protection (DPDP) bill as the difference in jurisdictions will pose a challenge to execution of the law, said Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union minister for railways, telecom and IT. In an interview, the minister added that the government will state and itemize instances that comprise fair and reasonable terms for apps to take consent from users under the law. Edited excerpts: The Constitution has clearly said where the laws will be made and who will make the laws.

Terming the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a public sector initiative, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said that it was not necessary that public goods could only be set up and financed by the public sector. “In this regard, it is worthwhile to build innovative design features which private investors find attractive in financing GPGs,” Das said while delivering closing remarks at a G20 Finance Track National Event organised by the Finance Ministry and the RBI. Keeping in mind very large investment requirements for setting up global public goods (GPGs), trigger financing could come from public investment, which would minimise risk and widen market access, Das said. “Subsequent financing needs can be met by the private sector. This is where international capital flows and movements assume importance,” he said. The central bank head said that multilateral development banks could act as catalysts for private sector investments through risk-sharing methods.

It used three variables: Central bank policy rate. Gap between targeted and actual inflation rate. Output gap, or difference between the actual and potential growth rate.

LK Advani had written to the then PM Manmohan Singh in June 2012, demanding broad-basing of the collegium to select the Chief Election Commissioner by making the Chief Justice of India its chairman and the PM, law minister and leaders of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha as its members. But the Congress move also raised some eyebrows within the party.

Qatar and Etihad have become an unstoppable force in the global aviation industry much because of the location of their home bases in the Gulf. Their geographical positioning allows them to transfer big chunks of passengers between Asia, Africa and Europe. These are also state-owned carriers of energy-producing countries, which makes them ferocious price warriors in transcontinental travel.

disclaimer that comes with any product or service is itself a message, regardless of its content, that tells the customer that some uncertainty, some risk is involved. Whether it be the efficacy of an 'energy drink' or the chances of spotting a tiger in a wildlife park, the disclaimer is read by the customer as a legal 'escape clause' as well as a marker that says not to take things 100% literally. But this imposes a unique conundrum.

Argentina has joined the list of jurisdictions investigating the recently launched AI-meets-crypto project Worldcoin and its privacy practices that stirred endless controversies.

₹6,635 per bbl, having swung between ₹6,814 and ₹6,943 per bbl during the session so far, against a previous close of ₹6,873 per barrel. The IEA on Friday warned that global inventories could fall sharply over the rest of 2023, potentially driving prices even higher, though the Paris-based agency expects demand growth to slow to 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2024, down 150,000 bpd from its previous forecast.

India on Friday reiterated its call for adherence to international law and peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea amid fresh tensions between the Philippines and China following a recent confrontation in the hotly-contested region. The Philippines has accused the Chinese Coast Guard of firing water cannons at its vessels and blocking their movement in the South China Sea.

World Bank is mulling local currency lending in countries like India to help borrowers save on costs, a senior official said on Friday. «How do we do local currency lending for a country like India is also something we are trying to think of at a price which is advantageous to this country,» Anshula Kant, the Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of the World Bank, said.

Electric vehicle sales in the country are expected to hit the 10 lakh annual sales mark by the end of the decade, Tata Motors, which anticipates green vehicles to account for 50 per cent of its total sales by that period, said on Friday. The Mumbai-based auto major, which crossed 1 lakh cumulative EV sales milestone, currently gets 14-15 per cent of its overall sales from electric models on a quarterly basis. «Five years back, electric vehicles used to sell just 90 units a month. Today these sell 8,500 to 9,500 units a month, which is like 100 times more...five years back the industry had sold about 2,000 cars and we are talking about already an annualised run rate this year of more than one lakh units so it's a 50 times growth,» Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Managing Director Shailesh Chandra told reporters. Chandra, who also heads the company's passenger electric mobility vertical, noted that with enhanced charging infrastructure and with other automakers also entering the EV space, the vertical is set for sustained growth.