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dire need of food, a fifth of them on the edge of famine. It is to ignore a looming migration crisis as Afghans try to leave for anywhere offering hope of a job. It is to ignore the ravages of climate change, which is worsening the country’s periodic droughts.

Ukraine is ready to directly engage with India by purchasing Made-in-India products and allowing Indian companies to open in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday. He also said that Ukraine is also willing to establish companies in India. Zelenskyy held a press conference following a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kyiv, where he was asked if Ukraine is ready to directly engage with India and buy Made-in-India products.

Europe's allure seems intact for Indian travellers. Visa applications for European destinations have jumped year-on-year after the summer vacations as Indians unleash their wanderlust to explore Europe in autumn and winter as well. Travel and tourism industry executives said this has stretched visa appointment timelines for many European countries, with some offering no slots at all.

India's cooling appetite for hatchbacks and sedans is proving to be a double-edged sword for Hyundai Motor India Ltd, as the country's second-largest passenger vehicles maker draws closer to an initial public offering (IPO). After two years of blazing growth, passenger vehicle wholesales in July fell 2.5% from a year earlier, and manufacturers have been offering discounts since May to clear stocks. While falling demand has reduced pressure on Hyundai's stretched production capacity, it has also depressed its expected valuation to $16-20 billion from $25-30 billion earlier, two people aware of the IPO discussions said.

₹800 crore as salary advances, or loans against salaries, in the latest April-June quarter. Such fintech startups typically partner with non-banking financial companies for capital to disburse as advance salaries. A majority of their clients tend to be companies with a large number of contract employees or gig workers.

shipping ministry has proposed to launch a non-banking finance company (NBFC) under its Sagarmala initiative to meet the financing needs of the shipping and shipyard sectors, two senior officials familiar with the matter said. The finance ministry is currently evaluating the proposal, the officials from the shipping ministry told ET. The non-bank lender will also need Reserve Bank of India clearance to carry out lending. The officials expect the shipping ministry to get all the necessary approvals and launch the new NBFC by December. It will act as a specialist lender to shipping companies and shipyards that often find it difficult to get bank loans, they said, asking not to be named.

As questions swirl around how long Canadian rail lines might stay dormant, some economists argue that the Bank of Canada ought to look past any disruptions as it looks to tame inflation and ease pressure on the stagnant economy.

the world's largest hotel franchising company, will launch its first luxury hotel in India with the opening of the Wyndham Grand in Udaipur next year, and the chain is also considering 'strategic alliances' with white label operators to boost its presence in the country and bring in more brands, said Dimitris Manikis, president for Europe, the Middle East, Eurasia, and Africa (EMEA), Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, in an interview. The chain has also appointed Shailender Singh as the market managing director for Eurasia. Wyndham has 60 operational hotels in India, with 45 hotels in the pipeline. Wyndham's upcoming hotel openings for this year include new properties in Srinagar, Nainital, Ayodhya, Vrindavan and Wayanad. «This is India's decade and Wyndham has to be one of the key players in India's hospitality sector. There is no better time to be in India than now,» said Manikis.

India and the US have signed a new agreement that will prioritise supply of defence equipment and components to each other to meet urgent national security requirements, even as defence minister Rajnath Singh described the partnership as a «formidable force» for global peace and security. Singh held a meeting with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in Pentagon, Washington DC, and the two had wide-ranging discussions on bilateral defence cooperation, industrial collaboration, regional security and other international issues.

Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI) has dropped a tax demand of about ₹3,000 crore for 2017-18 against 18 foreign shipping companies operating in the country, people familiar with the matter said. The move brings cheer to foreign shipping lines, such as Maersk, Orient Overseas Container Line Ltd and Hapag Lloyd Mediterranean Shipping, who were facing notices for non-payment of goods and services tax (GST) on import of services from July 2017 onwards. The tax demand was dropped after the shipping companies gave a joint undertaking that there was no import of services in 2017-18, the people said.

Narendra Modi's BJP came to power. As then-secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (Dipp), Kant was presiding over a stakeholder discussion on whether multi-brand retail should be allowed in India. Over a decade since, Piyush Goyal has, yet again, highlighted his government's concerns over the growth of ecommerce in India — that there will be social disruption, there is predatory pricing in ecommerce, and the number of mobile stores in the country has declined over the past 10 years. He is concerned — and rightly so — about the fate of millions of small retailers and kirana stores in the country. The point that I made to Kant in 2014 still stands: ecommerce offers consumers a much wider variety of products, whether coloured socks, numbered swimming goggles or air-purifiers. It benefits both sellers and buyers. Customers in Tier-2 and -3 towns access a wider variety of products online, without relying on someone to go to a metro to purchase it. Sellers find buyers across the country.

United States has emerged as India's top trading partner in January-June this year, while the country has recorded its highest trade deficit of $41.6 billion with China during the period, think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said Friday. India exports goods to 239 countries of which 126 countries showed positive growth in exports. Imports from Russia grew to $34.4 billion from $30.8 billion, a 11.65% increase. It also said the country's merchandise exports rose 5.41% to $230.51 billion during the first half of 2024, led by sectors like iron ore, pharmaceuticals, precious stones, basmati rice, chemicals, and smartphones.

India has become the flavour of the US presidential elections. For the first time, two Americans of Indian origin, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, figured as possible candidates for the presidential elections. When JD Vance became former President Donald Trump's running mate, spotlight fell on his wife Usha Vance, an Indian American and practicing Hindu. With the nomination of Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s candidate for the presidency, once again India has come to foreground. In her speech on Thursday night in which she formally accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency, Harris spoke at length about her childhood days when she was raised by her mother Shymala Gopalan alone, who had divorced from her Jamaican American husband. What Harris said about her mother Harris started her speech by remembering her mother. «But I’m no stranger to unlikely journeys. So, my mother, our mother, Shyamala Harris, had one of her own. And I miss her every day, and especially right now. And I know she’s looking down smiling. I know that,» she said.

Narendra Modi met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy here on Friday, he first shook hands and immediately gave him a warm hug. The hug to the top leader of the war-torn country came barely six weeks after Modi had similarly hugged the leader of Ukraine's arch enemy Russia, President Vladimir Putin. During a media briefing after the Modi-Zelenskyy talks, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was asked about the 'embrace' in a question meant to seek comments on apparent linkages with Modi's meetings with Putin earlier and Zelenskyy now. «In our part of the world, when people meet people, they are given to embracing each other, it may not be part of your culture but I can assure you it is part of our's. In fact, today, I think, I saw, Prime Minister (Modi) also embrace President Zelenskyy,» Jaishankar replied to a specific question by a Western reporter which mentioned in as many words about Modi's embrace of Putin a few weeks ago.

Zelenskyy on Friday said India supported his country's national sovereignty and territorial integrity, underlining that New Delhi's support was «critical» because everyone in the world must equally respect the UN Charter. «Today, history was made. The Prime Minister of India @narendramodi made his first visit to Ukraine since our country's independence, on the eve of our Independence Day,» Zelenskyy posted on X after holding talks with Modi. Modi arrived in Kyiv this morning on a special train on the first-ever visit to Ukraine by an Indian prime minister after it became independent in 1991. Zelenskyy noted that four documents between Ukraine and India, covering the medical field, agricultural cooperation, humanitarian relations, and culture, were signed.

Amazon India plans to set up rest points for its delivery associates across cities over the next couple of years under Project Ashray, a senior company official said on Friday. The Ashray centres will provide clean drinking water, phone charging stations, washrooms, and rest areas for delivery associates. As a pilot, five rest points will be set up in collaboration with Udyasa Foundation in Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, and Mumbai. «Our plan is to be able to go to every city we operate in. We have 1,800 delivery stations across the length and breadth of the country. In the next couple of years, you will find this in pretty much every city in India,» Amazon India, Vice President — Operations, Abhinav Singh said.

Veronika Rinecker is based in Germany, studied international journalism and media management. She specializes in politics and regulation, energy, blockchain, and fintech. Since 2017, she has been...

Mortgage lender Loan Kuber has raised $3.5 million in a funding round led by Singapore-based venture capital firm TRTL Ventures and existing investor Inflection Point Ventures. The round, a mix of equity and debt, also saw contributions from Auxano, LetsVenture, Mavuca Capital, and prominent angel investors including Ruchi Deepak of Acko, Prashant Tandon of 1mg, and Pankaj Vermani of Clovia. With this fresh infusion, LoanKuber's post-investment valuation now stands at $27 million.

JSW Sports and Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) founder Parth Jindal has led a fresh round of funding in PadelPark India, a comprehensive ecosystem and market leader dedicated to the sport of Padel in India. PadelPark India will deploy the fresh funding in scaling up its infrastructure and enhancing the offerings of its academy and events. It plans to establish more than 100 Padel clubs across the country over the next few years through a combination of owned and franchise-run centres. The company is on track to deliver 40 Padel Courts in the next three months, open 15 Padel Centres/clubs in the next 60 days, and train 250 people from next month.

Also read: Perfect outdoor escapes: In search of wild greens Trail running has shown gradual growth over the last few years in pockets of the country with plenty of races in the Himalaya and the Western Ghats, while a few runners like Kieren D’Souza and Sannat Sachdev have shifted base to the mountains to train and race internationally— Kieren moved from Bengaluru to Manali; Sannat from Jaipur to Bir. “The standards are very high globally and we are just about catching up. In other countries, there are loads of local races and trail running clubs.

ISRO on Friday threw open its scientific data gathered from the Chandrayaan-3 mission for researchers across the world for analyses to mark the first anniversary of India landing a spacecraft on the Moon. The space agency has granted access to over 55 gigabytes of data from the five payloads — three on the Vikram lander and two on the Pragyan rover — that created history on August 23 last year by making a soft landing near the unexplored south pole region of the Moon. «This data is not going to be confined with those scientists who have created those instruments, but it will be made available to all the researchers of the country and the world for furthering the outcome of this,» ISRO Chairman S Somanath said at the National Space Day celebrations here. The Chandrayaan-3 data sets are available on Policy-based data Retieval, Analytics, Dissemination and Notification System (PRADAN) portal of the Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC) — www.pradan.issdc.gov.in.