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Jai serves as the Asia Desk Editor for Cryptonews.com, where he leads a diverse team of international reporters. Jai has over five years of experience covering the web3 industry.

New Zealand government has increased visa fees across all categories, effective from October 1. As a result, Indians will face higher charges while applying for work, visit or study visas in the country. The New Zealand government had made the announcement in August. Immigration Minister Erica Stanford had said were made to create a more sustainable immigration system by shifting the financial burden from taxpayers to visa applicants. “We’re ensuring the system is self-funding and more efficient,” Stanford said. “The changes we’re making are shifting the cost to those benefiting from the system.” She added that this move is expected to reduce the need for public funding by over $563 million over the next four years.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India last month extended countervailing duties of 12-30% on certain steel imports from China and Vietnam, following requests from local producers to safeguard against cheaper imports. While this stance against Chinese goods is notable, data indicates that overall imports from China are still on the rise, while exports to the country are faltering.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. In the sleepy village of Dawra in Solan district, often overlooked as the poorer cousin of Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, a new resort for the uber-rich opened earlier this year. This property, Amaya, spread over 20 acres, has just 15 villa rooms or chalets.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. When Russia’s leaders stopped most of the country’s gas deliveries to the EU in 2022, they thought themselves smart. Prices instantly shot up, enabling Russia to earn more despite lower export volumes.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Saudi oil minister has said that prices could drop to as low as $50 per barrel if so-called cheaters within OPEC+ don’t stick to agreed-upon production limits, according to delegates in the cartel.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. A pioneer of India’s software industry asked me some time ago if this was the ‘Y2K moment’ for Indian electronics hardware. My answer was an emphatic ‘yes.’ It is all the more evident today.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. It’s an important global event when the world’s third-largest economy and a significant ally of the United States gets a new leader—even when that country is Japan. Tokyo has a history of producing a parade of bland, largely anonymous Prime Ministers with the occasional star.

maritime industry expert said on Wednesday. Modernisation and upgradation of Indian shipyards is in progress, while older dockyards are being assessed for reopening and adding more capacities for green shipbuilding given a strong pickup in global demand, said Cristina Saenz de Santa Maria, Regional Manager South East Asia, Pacific & India, Maritime at DNV, a Norway-based testing, certification and technical advisory services provider. «We see great potential in India emerging as a hub for green shipbuilding, driven by its government's strong focus on alternative fuels and renewable energy like biofuels and wind power,» said the industry veteran. The Indian government is encouraging investments and technology transfer from Japanese and Korean shipyards to establish shipbuilding and ship repair clusters in the country. This comes at a time when most traditional shipbuilding yards in Asia are fully booked while demand for green-maritime assets is surging ahead of the phase-based elimination of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, as set by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

Oracle plans to invest more than $6.5 billion to set up its first public cloud region in Malaysia, the company said on Wednesday, the latest major investment by a global tech firm into the Southeast Asian country. Technology giants including Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet unit Google and China's ByteDance have announced billions of dollars worth of digital investments into Malaysia since last year, mostly in cloud services and data centres, powering an infrastructure boom driven by growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI). A cloud region is the physical, geographic location where a company's public cloud facilities are located. Oracle's venture is set to be one of the largest single tech investments so far, outpacing the $6.2 billion planned spending by Amazon's cloud unit AWS announced last year.

A growing number of governments, international trade organizations and businesses are urging the European Union to reconsider a deforestation regulation set to take effect in December

Ajay Banga, the 14th President of the World Bank, recently held court in Stanford’s Hoover Institution. The former MasterCard CEO, who in 2021 became an advisor to General Atlantic's climate-focused fund, painted a picture of a world at a crossroads—grappling with climate change, refugee crises, and the promise (and perils) of AI. Banga took the reins at the World Bank last year. He said. «We are a Knowledge Bank,» repositioning the Bank from being just a “money bank” to a venerable institution focused on solving many problems. On climate, Banga was cautiously upbeat. He pointed to the Paris Agreement as a turning point, not just for governments but also for public awareness. «This wasn't even a topic five-eight years ago,» he noted. The rapid progress in renewable energy particularly caught his eye. «It now takes a day to install a gigawatt of solar. It used to take 100 days a few years ago,» Banga said.

Officials say that France’s TotalEnergies and U.S. hydrocarbon company APA Corp. plan to invest $10 billion to extract oil off the coast of Suriname in a historic investment for the South American country

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Helios—The Watch Store, a multi-brand retailer of premium watches owned by Titan Co. Ltd, plans to launch exclusive outlets for luxury timepieces to cater to demand in the world’s fastest-growing market.

Since graduating with a degree in economics from the University of Birmingham in 2018, Joel has worked as a financial market/cryptocurrency analyst. He firmly believes that emerging crypto technology...

California will soon help end the everyday household debate over whether the food in the fridge is still good to eat

Nariman Point, the original central business district of the country's financial capital, is set to get a major boost with the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRCL) planning to put a prime 4.2-acre land parcel in South Mumbai on the block through a global tender. This is for the first time a land parcel in Nariman Point is being auctioned ever since its emergence as a prime downtown planned commercial zone in the early 1970s. The authority has already held initial talks with leading global and domestic entities including the Blackstone Group, Hines, Mapletree Investments, Sumitomo Corp, the Tata Group, Lodha, K Raheja Corp, Oberoi Realty, and RMZ Group, and has received a positive response from potential bidders.

natural gas trading hub to help develop a competitive domestic gas market. The oil ministry officials recently held a meeting with gas industry executives to discuss the need for a hub, where prices reflect the domestic supply and demand fundamentals, according to people familiar with the matter. The government may soon set up a committee to suggest a roadmap to build a hub, they said. Henry Hub in the US offers the most referenced gas pricing in the world due to its large trading volume, liquidity and transparent pricing. Henry Hub is a gas pipeline in Louisiana connected to several gas markets in the US. It serves as the delivery point for futures contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). Britain's National Balancing Point (NBP) is a virtual hub, which reflects the gas price in the entire country without factoring in the transport costs, which are levied separately.

The suggestions came in response to a proposal from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) regarding setting up telecom manufacturing zones in the country. «The sheds should be constructed keeping in mind the requirements of manufacturers, so that they can just bring their machinery and start manufacturing,» said an industry executive, who did not wish to be identified.

BJP leader Amit Shah and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday exhorted party cadres to begin work for the upcoming Assembly polls and expressed optimism that the ruling Mahayuti-BJP alliance in the state would retain power. «Bury your pessimism and start work again. Maharashtra elections will change the country's direction...,» Shah told party leaders and workers in Mumbai at a closed door event. «I am giving you my word that the BJP-Mahayuti government is coming back to power.» Shah gave the example of how at one time the BJP had just two parliamentarians, but now they are in power. The BJP was the only party in the last 60 years to come to power thrice, he said.

Digi Yatra Foundation CEO Suresh Khadakbhavi said on Tuesday. “We are planning an international pilot project in June 2025 between two countries. We don't want to overcommit. However, we are working in this direction.” Digi Yatra Foundation CEO Suresh Khadakbhavi said on the side lines of the CAPA Digital Aviation Summit. Currently, the Digi Yatra facility is available for domestic passengers at 24 airports across the country. “We will also work with the Bureau of Immigration and visa-issuing agencies for enabling this service for international visitors flying in and out of India,” he said.