Country Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. From the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raising India’s FY26 GDP growth projection to 7.3%, to weak core-sector output compared with pre-covid levels, India’s new deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), rising US–EU tensions over Greenland, and the push for small-ticket UPI loans amid rising household debt, here's this week’s news in numbers. The IMF has lifted its projection for India’s GDP growth in FY26 to 7.3% from its October estimate of 6.6%.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. State-run Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) will sign a contract with Brazil's Petrobras next week to supply 12 million barrels of crude oil a petroleum ministry statement said, as India continues to diversify its sourcing beyond Russia and West Asia.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. WASHINGTON—In a dizzying three weeks on the world stage, President Trump deposed Venezuela’s leader, threatened its neighbors with military action, raised the specter of new strikes on Iran and ignited—then tamped down—a diplomatic crisis with Europe over his efforts to acquire Greenland. At each fresh turn, Congress has found itself scrambling to keep up, sparking new debates among lawmakers about how to claw back constitutional powers from the presidency over matters of foreign policy in the Trump era.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Better late than never: One year into the second presidency of Donald Trump, the world has reached an inflection point, as Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, made explicit in his speech at an economic summit in Davos. Having tried and failed to appease Trump’s imperialist bullying, middle powers such as his own country must and will instead “act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu." Acting together, Carney said, will take the form of “variable geometries." Countries, whether traditional friends or foes of the United States, may form ad hoc coalitions to pursue specific interests, trade pacts to replace commercial links to the US that Trump has damaged or severed, cooperation in new or existing multilateral forums or even new military alliances.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. DAVOS, Switzerland—The West avoided an open rupture this week. But, instead of celebrating, European leaders are bracing for more serious shocks to the trans-Atlantic relationship in the months ahead.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. CARACAS, Venezuela—The country’s interim government unveiled a bill Thursday to loosen the state’s iron-tight control over its beleaguered oil industry, a move aimed at attracting U.S. energy companies but one that analysts say falls short of what is needed to unlock major new investments and revive output as President Trump has demanded.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Energy Department is ordering U.S. grid operators to make backup electricity generation from facilities such as data centers available in case of power outages caused by the weekend’s winter storm, its latest extraordinary step to address electricity shortages and high prices.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. ON JANUARY 20TH 2025 DeepSeek was an obscure hedge-fund-turned-tech-startup from Hangzhou. Within a week it had become the byword for a new wave of Chinese innovation, after launching an artificial-intelligence model as capable as Silicon Valley’s bleeding edge but much cheaper to build and run.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI : India needs long-term, step-by-step ecosystem-building, alongside sustained investment in research and development (R&D), to achieve semiconductor capabilities, essential for a major global economy given silicon chips’ role in the information age, according to economist and NITI Aayog member Arvind Virmani.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. President Trump touts his Board of Peace as an organization of accomplished leaders that will displace the United Nations, with him as permanent chairman. But so far it is a group of countries more interested in currying favor with him than in solving pressing conflicts.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Ever wonder why Germans seek perfection, Japanese pursue miniaturization and waste reduction, Americans are fussy about services and Indians settle for improvisation and what’s good enough? Is it something to do with where you reside? With pervasive technologies, affordable means of communication, maturing labour and capital markets and instant information dissemination, one may think that geography has become history, that who you are trumps where you are. But is it that simple? Or is geography destiny? “Who we are cannot be separated from where we’re from," notes writer Malcolm Gladwell.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. What’s the most important commodity for modern civilization? There’s a good argument that it’s not the ones we think about—oil, gas, copper, iron ore, gold—but something that’s ubiquitous and rarely grabs the attention of financial markets: concrete. After water, it’s the substance we use most abundantly, with between 25 billion and 30 billion tonnes poured annually.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Those of a religious bent might accuse stereotypical “Davos Man"—immense fortune, private jet, outrageous hypocrisy, spine-tingling pomposity—of the sin of pride. In which case President Trump’s speech Wednesday to the World Economic Forum at Davos felt like a form of divine retribution.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The SCALE of the renewables revolution in China is almost too vast for the human mind to grasp. By the end of last year, the country had installed 887 gigawatts of solar-power capacity—close to double Europe’s and America’s combined total.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Silver is once again the talk of the town. The white metal has rallied again, marking another stunning rise, this time above $90 per ounce in the global market and ₹300,000 per kg in India.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Insurers may not readily offer tax liability insurance for merger and acquisition (M&A) deals and will subject them to stricter scrutiny given the risks of retrospective taxes, consulting and law firms cautioned, days after the Supreme Court ruled that Tiger Global must pay capital gains tax on its Flipkart share sale years ago.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. EUROPEANs EXPECTED a diatribe, but in Davos President Donald Trump was almost conciliatory. He demanded “right, title and ownership" of Greenland, but abandoned tariffs, ruled out force and later hailed new “framework" talks.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. As the world’s third-largest oil consumer and fourth-largest refiner, India is pursuing a twin strategy of boosting domestic hydrocarbon output while accelerating diversification into gas and cleaner fuels—a priority reflected in pre-Budget consultations. For Budget 2026, industry expectations centre on measures to incentivise exploration and faster production, with the aim of raising domestic crude output towards 100 million tonnes (MT) and gas production to 50 billion cubic metres (BCM).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Whether it is champagne fizzing on the tongue, a hoppy beer coating the palate, or a plummy wine staining the lips, alcohol announces itself instantly. First there is a faint burning sensation, a little chemical spark, as the thin mouth membranes absorb a drop.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. FOR SEVEN decades Tokyo was considered the world’s most populous city. That was 15 years too long, according to data released last month by the UN.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. For most of human history, coupling up was not merely a norm; it was a necessity. Before reliable contraception, women could not control their fertility, and most were far too poor to raise children alone.