Country Financial News

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board is considering making a US$100 million investment in Indian e-commerce logistics startup Xpressbees, according to people familiar with the matter.

Canada’s new immigration minister said he is open to “having a conversation” on concerns raised by some economists and groups on rising immigration targets amid a housing shortage, but said he still has no plans to lower them in the near future. 

report about that meeting. And for perspective on why India stands to gain from better relations with Sri Lanka, here's a sharp Snapview. The little else that I have to report back is that the food and tea continue to be sublime.

By Simon Lewis and David Brunnstrom

Alexei Navalny on charges of extremism and sentenced him to 19 years in prison Friday. Navalny is already serving a nine-year term on a variety of charges that he says were politically motivated. The new charges related to the activities of Navalny's anti-corruption foundation and statements by his top associates. It was his fifth criminal conviction and the third and longest prison term handed to him, all of which his supporters see as a deliberate Kremlin strategy to silence its most ardent opponent. It wasn't immediately clear whether he would serve this new term concurrently with his current sentence on charges of fraud and contempt of court. The prosecution had demanded a 20-year prison sentence, and the politician himself said beforehand that he expected to receive a lengthy term. Navalny was also sentenced in 2021 to two and a half years in prison for a parole violation. The extremism trial took place behind closed doors in the penal colony east of Moscow where he is imprisoned. Navalny appeared in the courtroom Friday afternoon, wearing prison garb and looking gaunt, but with a defiant smile on his face. As the judge read out the verdict, the politician stood alongside his lawyers and his co-defendant with his arms crossed, listening with a serious expression on his face.

Agriculture Ministry data released on Friday. The area under paddy, which is a main kharif crop, was lagging in four states of Odisha, Karnataka, Assam and Andhra Pradesh. The crop was sown in 273.73 lakh hectares in the year-ago period.

Investing.com — Crude oil prices rose Friday, on course for their sixth consecutive week of gains, after top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia extended their voluntary output cuts through September, further tightening global supplies.

By Daniel Wiessner

Nirmala Sitharaman announced an excise duty cut on petrol and diesel. The prices have remained stagnant despite a decline in international crude price over the past one year. The decision of state-run OMCs not to cut oil prices, however, has drawn criticism for the government from the opposition as inflation has been on the rise.

Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has collaborated with the World Bank to prepare a roadmap for hydrogen blending in natural gas and their transmission through gas pipelines in the country, the regulator said in a statement. “The (PNGRB-World Bank) study comprises of mapping demand and supply of hydrogen, technical assessment of the existing pipeline network for its compatibility, commercial assessment of pipeline sector, identifying bottlenecks in policy and regulatory framework, and framing of roadmap till 2040 for expeditious implementation of hydrogen blending in India,” the regulator said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday will lay the foundation stone for redevelopment of 508 railway stations across the country on Sunday. An official statement said these stations will be redeveloped under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme for over Rs 24,470 crores.

Pakistan cricket lost one of its most controversial, colourful and strong administrators when the indomitable Ijaz Butt passed away in his hometown, Lahore, due to health issues. The history of Pakistan cricket will remain incomplete without discussing the tenure of Butt, who passed away on Wednesday, aged 85. He played eight Tests for Pakistan and held several key administrative positions.

Covid pandemic. Nationwide, just 52,000 people arrived to mainland China from overseas on trips organized by travel agencies during the first quarter, the latest period for which national data is available, compared with 3.7 million in the first quarter of 2019. As in past years, nearly half of the visitors came from the self-ruled island of Taiwan and the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau, rather than farther-away places like the U.S.

parliamentary committee on Friday batted for reducing the minimum age to contest Lok Sabha and assembly elections, saying it would give the youth equal opportunities to engage in democracy. According to the present legal framework, a person should be at least 25 years old to contest Lok Sabha and assembly polls. The minimum age to become a member of Rajya Sabha and state legislative council is 30 years. At present, the age at which a person can register as a voter is 18 years. For 'national elections' or Lok Sabha polls, it specifically recommended reducing the minimum age to contest from the present 25 years to 18. «After examining various countries' practices, such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, the Committee observes that the minimum age for candidacy in national elections needs to be 18 years. These nations' examples demonstrate that young individuals can be reliable and responsible political participants,» the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Personnel said.

India’s overall pharma imports, bulk drugs continue to contribute 55-66 per cent and dependency on China for the same is expected to remain high in the coming years, report from CareEdge showed on Friday. The report revealed that India's 43 per cent of total pharma imports are from China, indicating a heavy dependency and raising concerns due to the on-going geopolitical tensions between the two Asian countries. «The contribution of bulk drug imports from China has exhibited significant growth in both value and volume terms, increasing from 64% and 62% during FY14 to 71% and 75% during FY23, respectively,» the report said.

Urbanisation could be the main cause behind the prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in India. The disease has increased to more than 5 per cent compared to 0.1 per cent in 2006, according to a study published in The Lancet.

The attack on Novorossiysk is the first time a commercial Russian port has been targeted in the 18-month war. The city is a major port on the Black Sea and hosts a naval base, shipbuilding yards and an oil terminal. It is a key port for Russian exports.

India maintained «affordability» of petroleum products notwithstanding disruptions in the global energy markets and the hike in prices of petrol and diesel in the last two years has been marginal compared to several large economies and neighbouring nations, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday. In an interaction with a group of reporters, he also slammed the opposition for attacking the government on oil prices saying the states ruled by it are selling petrol and diesel at higher rates compared to those governed by the BJP which significantly cut the VAT on petroleum products to bring down the rates.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has told the coalition partners that he would recommend the dissolution of the National Assembly on August 9, three days before the end of its term and setting the stage for general elections in the cash-strapped country. Sharif at a dinner reception hosted in honour of the ruling allies at the Prime Minister's House on Thursday said the National Assembly or the lower house of Parliament would stand dissolved as soon as the President signs the notification he plans to send to him, the Pakistani media reported on Friday.

Ahead of the IPO, the company has raised Rs 465 crore in the anchor round, which saw participation from marquee foreign and domestic institutional investors, including The government of Singapore, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Government Pension Fund Global, UTI Mutual Fund, DSP Mutual Fund, SBI Life among others. Concord, which is backed by Quadria Capital Fund and Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's Rare Enterprises, is one of the leading global manufacturers of select fermentation-based APIs (F-APIs) across immunosuppressants and oncology with a market share of over 20% by volume in 2022. The IPO is completely an offer for sale of 2.09 crore equity shares up, aggregating up to Rs 1,551 crore.

Union Health Ministry has undertaken various measures in collaboration with the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) to ensure data security and protect the privacy of patients from cyber threats, the Lok Sabha was told on Friday. Advisories issued by the CERT-In are disseminated to all authorised medical care entities and service providers in the country for compliance, Minister of State for Health S P Singh Baghel said in a written reply in the Lower House.