Country Financial News

Day passes to resorts and hotels really took off during the pandemic and have remained popular

Rents are up nationally, but there is some good news for renters — the rate of growth is the slowest it’s been in 31 months.

Narendra Modi urged the private sector to step up its efforts in job creation and investment. Earlier this year, Nirmala Sitharaman had admonished the private sector for not scaling up investment, despite a generous corporate tax cut in 2019. A similar warning was sounded in FM's latest budget speech to states when she informed them that exclusive dependence on the Centre for large infrastructure projects was untenable because of the impact on the cost of borrowing on borrowers down the line. The appeal, admonishment and warning stem from a similar concern. GoI can't be expected to run the economy single-handedly without participation by all stakeholders. It should be an 'enabler' by making contributions on the supply side through improved physical infra, investing in human capital and through better governance to improve the ease of doing business. Addition of permanent assets in a country is commonly measured as gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), typically stated as a percentage of GDP. GFCF normally rises during periods of sustained economic growth and is lower when the economy slows. In the Indian context, GFCF as a share of GDP rose between FY04 and FY08, peaking at 37.5% of GDP in FY08.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has started holding informal meetings with broadcasting industry stakeholders to discuss issues that would be part of a consultation paper that it plans to issue soon, said people familiar with the matter. The telecom and broadcast sector regulator, under its new chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti, is planning to come out with a consultation paper to take a comprehensive look at the broadcast tariff issue. On Wednesday, the regulator held a meeting with the CEOs of TV broadcasting companies. Prior to that, it held a meeting with the heads of TV distribution companies, the people.

Bangladesh, currently in India, will stay here for some more time and has no plans to leave India yet, according to Sheikh Hasina's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy. There is no decision for Hasina to move from India to another destination yet, he said. «Hasina is well and my sister is with her but the former PM is very upset,» Joy said. She is upset that Bangabandhu (her father) gave his life for the country, and the country achieved so much progress but she was hounded out, Joy said. Joy warned if the security establishment cannot restore law and order, Bangladesh would face the same fate as Pakistan's. He said he is waiting to see how Nobel laureate Md Yunus would run the country.

Following a proposal from the student movement's coordinators, Yunus' name was finalised late on Tuesday as the head of the interim government. The government will be formed once decisions regarding the other members are made. The interim government will be sworn in on Thursday, the Bangladesh Army chief announced on Wednesday.

Canadians who “work from home” may not actually be working from their homes — and many of them are not exactly forthcoming about it, a recent survey suggests.

Around the world, endgames are looming in four high-stakes political, environmental and military disputes. The results will resonate well beyond the immediate protagonists.

A key measure of home-purchase applications surged last week as mortgage rates dropped to the lowest level in more than a year.

Mint explores the potential impact of regional instability on not just India’s trade but also internal security. Let’s begin with the political crisis and civil unrest in Bangladesh, with which India shares a 4,096 km border, its longest with any of its neighbours. Although Bangladesh has announced an interim government headed by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, the riots haven’t abated.

₹2,500 a day ferrying students in Kota, a city in Rajasthan that has earned fame as the nerve centre of India’s entrance exam-preparation industry. And, if he managed to get a student placed in a hostel, the owner paid him a commission of ₹500. But today all that has changed and his daily take has plunged.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday while replying to the discussion on the Finance Bill in Lok Sabha said, «Without drastically increasing taxes, we have brought in a simplified taxation regime, eased compliance.» Effective tax on annual income of Rs 15 lakh was reduced to 10 per cent in 2023 and further reduced this year as well under new I-T regime, said FM. «The vision of PM Modi has been to establish a simple, efficient and fair technology-driven taxation regime in this country. So, simplification and ease of compliance for the taxpayer has been the primary objective with which in the last 10 years, and this year, in the third term of PM Modi, the approach to taxation has been to simplify it, reduce the burden on taxpayer and make sure it is transparent and Equitas,» said Sitharaman.

military drills near a territory in the South China Sea near Philippines. The Southern Theatre Command of China's Peoples Army said on Wednesday that it had carried out air and sea combat patrols near Scarborough Shoal to test «strike capabilities», Al Jazeera reported. The exercises came on the same day that the United States, Australia, Canada and the Philippines conducted military manoeuvres within Manila's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which includes the West Philippine Sea.

Paris Olympics double medallist pistol shooter Manu Bhaker on Wednesday said that she has already set her sights on the 2028 Los Angeles Games and she will keep working hard to produce consistent results in the future. The 22-year-old Bhaker won a bronze each in the women's 10m air pistol and 10m air pistol mixed team event, in which she had paired with Sarabjot Singh, to script Olympic history for the country. «After the end of one Olympics I already have the next one on my mind for which the journey has already started, so after Paris, the journey of it (LA Olympics) has already begun, so after a little break I will get back to preparing for it,» Bhaker told PTI Videos.

India has been significantly increasing its renewable energy capacity in recent years, but when demand for electricity surges, it still goes back to its most trusted source of power

New analyses of trade data show that shipments of Russian liquified natural gas to France more than doubled the first half of this year

China has reported its exports rose 7% in July from a year earlier, below economists' forecasts for growth closer to 10%

Dubai International Airport has seen a record 44.9 million travelers pass through its terminals in the first half of this year

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus has been chosen to head Bangladesh’s interim government after student protests sparked an uprising that toppled the former leader

The British government has called on Elon Musk to act responsibly after the tech billionaire used his social media platform X to unleash a barrage of posts that risk inflaming the violent unrest gripping the country

Bolivia’s socialist President Luis Arce says national referenda will be held soon on the removal of politically combustible fuel subsidies and on the constitutionality of presidential reelections