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Palestinian state and its institutions, and prepare for a future after the war in Gaza and escalating conflict in Lebanon, Norway’s foreign minister said Friday. Espen Barth Eide told The Associated Press that “there is a growing consensus in the international community from Western countries, from Arab countries, from the Global South, that we need to establish a Palestinian Authority, a Palestinian government, a Palestinian state — and the Palestinian state has to be recognized.” Eide said many issues need to be addressed, including the security interests of Israel and the Palestinians, recognition and normalization of relations after decades of conflict and the demobilization of Hamas as a military group.

Congress will restore Jammu and Kashmir's statehood, party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said on Saturday while she slammed the BJP for using the Union territory as a pawn to «stir emotions» elsewhere in the country. Gandhi, the Congress's national general secretary, also criticised Lt Governor Manoj Sinha saying the current administration was a «puppet» government being run with a remote control. «The Congress party has a vision for you and for Jammu and Kashmir. We want to restore your state's status. If our government comes to power, we will immediately restore your statehood. We will also revive the tradition of the Darbar Move,» Vadra told a public rally here. Darbar Move refers to the bi-annual shift of government offices, including the secretariat, between Jammu and Srinagar in view of the harsh winter in J-K.

Pushkar Singh Dhami on Saturday launched a website of the “Pravasi Uttarakhand Cell”, which is tasked to link the state government with the migrant Uttarakhandis living abroad or in different states of the country. The government is keen to motivate the migrant Uttarakhandis to make their contribution in their own ways in the development of the hill state. With the help of the website, the cell will also make migrant Uttarakhandis aware about the state government’s policies, programme, and its activities. The state government has decided to invite migrant Uttarakhandis on the proposed “Pravasi Uttarakhand Diwas” on November 7 at a function to be organized by it in Dehradun. While launching the website, CM Dhami said everyone has his or her own connection with the motherland. He further added his government’s effort is to seek cooperation from migrant Uttarakhandis and extend all help to them to get connected with their native place.

Nandivardhan Group has raised debt worth over Rs 100 crore from the country's largest lender the State Bank of India to finance one of its residential projects in central Mumbai’s Dadar locality, said persons with direct knowledge of the development. This funding will primarily be utilized for the construction of a sale tower, which forms part of the group’s redevelopment project. The developer is looking to provide possession of apartments to nearly 100 residents in the redevelopment project over the next 2 to 3 years. The repayment of the loan is planned through the revenue generated from the sale tower of the project, which is scheduled to be launched next month. The redevelopment project has a total saleable area of 1.65 lakh sq ft and is estimated to have a revenue potential of Rs 650 crore.

smart city development in Uttar Pradesh is almost sold out and talks are on for the next phase, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said Saturday. Last month, the Union Cabinet approved setting up 12 industrial smart cities including in Agra and Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, with an overall investment of Rs 28,602 crore, employment potential of 1 million direct jobs and up to 3 million indirect jobs and investment potential of Rs 1.5 lakh crore. At the UP International Trade Show, Goyal also said that India’s intellectual property rights (IPR) regime has improved so much so that in 2014, only 6,000 patents were issued in 2014 but in 2024, one lakh patents were issued.

minimum export price (MEP) of $490 per tonne. The exports of non-basmati white rice were prohibited since July 20, 2023. “The export policy for non-basmati white rice (semi-milled or wholly milled rice, whether or not polished or gazed) …is amended from prohibited to free, subject to MEP of $490 per tonne with immediate effect and until further orders,” the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) said in a notification.

Hilsa have reached West Bengal from Bangladesh, after the interim government in the neighbouring country allowed export of the fish to till mid-October during the Durga puja festival, importers said on Saturday. Another consignment of the same amount of 'Padmar Ilish' (hilsa caught from Padma river), a favourite delicacy of Bengalis, is expected very soon. The Fish Importers' Association recently wrote to Bangladesh's interim government urging it to allow export of Hilsa as it has been doing during the festival as a goodwill gesture for the last five years. «The first consignment of over 50 metric tonnes arrived two days back via Petrapole border. It was sent to several wholesale markets in Kolkata and districts. Another consignment of around 50 MT is expected to arrive in a day,» Association secretary Syed Anwar Maqsood told PTI.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday claimed there is no bigger issue in the country than unemployment and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi must remember that every youth, whose employment has been «snatched away» by his government, will ensure the BJP's defeat in every election. Citing Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data, he said that despite all efforts, this government data is not able to hide the helplessness of the youth. «There is no bigger issue in the country than unemployment. Modi ji has the biggest contribution in ruining the future of the youth. If we take a closer look at the latest data of PLFS, despite all efforts, this government data is not able to hide the helplessness of the youth,» Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X. «Narendra Modi ji must answer — Isn't youth unemployment at a frightening 10.2% in 2023-24? Instead of giving colourful slogans and doing photo ops, what did Modiji do to provide jobs to the youth?» he asked.

Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal, Himachal Pradesh minister Vikramaditya Singh said that they would be forming an all-party committee to issue designated vending zones in the state. Speaking to on Saturday, Singh said that the vending zones would be done following the instructions of the High Court as well as the Supreme Court. This came in the wake of a row over the mandatory display of the identity of street vendors in the state of Himachal Pradesh as announced by Singh on Wednesday, following which a meeting was called by Congress high command in the national capital on Friday.

«Broadly speaking, across the world, the monetary policies are synchronised with some lag or some sort of advanced framework, so that is where if inflation in a particular country is under control, they would try to synchronise with the rest of the world going forward,» says Ashishkumar Chauhan, MD & CEO, NSE. We have seen a stimulation in the Chinese economy. What kind of an impact do you think it will have here in India? Ashishkumar Chauhan: Broadly speaking world is connected, at the same time China is going through its own issues on their economic front, especially with real estate and it seems to be a grave situation there on many counts and that is where the government there has taken these steps first time to even distribute money for their national holiday and that is showing you that that particular economy is going through the stress.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Scattered across the ocean floor are trillions of lumps of nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese. Companies have long wanted to mine them: these “critical minerals" are needed in vast quantities to electrify the global economy and cut dependence on fossil fuels.

landslides caused by heavy downpours in Nepal killed at least 10 people across the Himalayan country, with rescue teams searching for 18 missing, a disaster official said Saturday. Parts of Nepal have been inundated with rainfall since Friday, prompting disaster authorities to warn of flash floods in multiple rivers. «Police are working with other agencies and locals to rescue and find the missing people,» Basanta Adhikari, a spokesman for Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, told AFP.

Foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) in India from January to June stood at nearly 4.78 million, with Bangladesh and the US being the top two source countries, according to official data issued by the Ministry of Tourism. The data sheet was shared on Friday on the occasion of the World Tourism Day and figures showed that inbound tourism in the country is trailing the pandemic levels. The ministry shared the figures for the month of June as well as for the January-June period. The FTAs in June 2024 were 7,06,045 as compared to 6,48,008 in June 2023 and 7,26,446 in June 2019 registering a growth of nine per cent and a fall of 2.8 per cent with respect to 2023 and 2019 respectively, according to the data.

Kurt Campbell travelled to the Solomon Islands to counter Beijing's influence in the South Pacific country, he quickly saw just how far China would go to spread its message. The Biden administration's Asia czar woke up one morning in 2022 to a long article in the local press about the US running chemical and biological labs in Ukraine, a claim that Washington calls an outright lie. Started by Russia, the false and incendiary claim was vigorously amplified by China's vast overseas propaganda apparatus. It was another example of «clearly effective Russian and Chinese disinformation,» Campbell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in July. Two years later, the claim still reverberates online, demonstrating China's sprawling effort to reshape global perceptions.

Global South deserves a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, Bhutan's Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay has said. He also expressed «deepest» gratitude to India for its «support and friendship» for his country's journey of graduating from the Least Developed Countries (LDC) category. «The United Nations must evolve to meet the realities of today's world. The Security Council, as it stands, is a relic of the past. We need a Council that reflects the current geopolitical, economic landscape and social realities,» Tobgay said in his address to the General Debate of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly on Friday.

Uttarakhand is set to introduce “«stringent land purchase law» in the next budget session of assembly to keep a check on large-scale land purchase in hilly areas from other parts of the country. The upcoming move was disclosed by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Friday, reported TOI. Further, the government is planning to identify non-residents who have violated existing norms, which allow only 250 sqm of land to be bought for personal use in non-municipal areas. By doing this, it will reclaim land that is illegally acquired. There have been seveal allegations where buyers have flouted norms by acquiring land in the names of relatives or failed to meet the commitments they made when purchasing land for commercial use, and instead «increased their personal land bank.»

India has slammed Pakistan in the UN General Assembly, saying its «fingerprints» are on terrorist incidents across the world and the country should realise that cross-border terrorism against India will «inevitably invite consequences». India exercised its Right of Reply in the UN General Assembly on Friday in response to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif raising the issue of Jammu and Kashmir in his address at the General Debate of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly. «This Assembly regrettably witnessed a travesty this morning. A country run by the military, with a global reputation for terrorism, narcotics trade and transnational crime has had the audacity to attack the world's largest democracy,» First Secretary in India's Permanent Mission to the UN Bhavika Mangalanandan said, delivering India's Right of Reply.

Robert Jenrick, one of the four remaining candidates to replace Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative Party, has vowed to «severely restrict visas» to countries that refuse to accept the return of illegal migrants, particularly targeting India and Vietnam. He claimed that while 250,000 visas were granted to Indian nationals in 2023 for work, visits, and study, an estimated 100,000 Indians currently reside illegally in the UK, and “returns remain stuck in the hundreds.”

Elon Musk on Friday said he would reinstate the social network in Brazil if a fine of around $1.8 million was paid. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes last month ordered X to be shut down in Brazil, after Musk refused to remove dozens of right-wing accounts and then failed to name a new legal representative in the country as ordered. Moraes said that for X to be reactivated it must pay a fine of 10 million reais ($1.84 million), after denying a request to lift the suspension.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Mumbai: A surge of more than 50% in steel imports in FY25 has sent the alloy's prices crashing in India, setting off alarm bells for domestic manufacturers, even as they battle slowing local demand and march ahead with planned capacity expansion. According to data from market intelligence firm BigMint, prices of benchmark hot-rolled coils (HRC) of steel averaged ₹48,350 per tonne in September (from ₹57,900 in September 2023), falling below the ₹50,000-mark for the first time since November 2020, when sales hit rock bottom in the thick of the pandemic.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. I was in my early teens in the early 1990s when I began pestering my mother for a treat that everyone in America, from President Clinton to Spider-Man, seemed to eat pretty much daily. Living in Bombay (now Mumbai), my understanding of American mores came almost entirely from comic books and news reports, but I could be persuasive.