Country Financial News

The U.S. and Europe would love to cut their dependence on China for rare earths. Standing in the way of that ambition are low prices and Beijing’s willingness to throw its weight around to keep the market down.

One of the busiest railway lines in Germany, the 70-kilometer stretch between Frankfurt and Mannheim, is closing for five months starting as the country launches an effort to get its notoriously disruption-prone network into shape

anti-terrorism court here on Monday charged top Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in a case involving the burning down of a police station during the May 9 violence last year. Qureshi, 68, who was brought to Kot Lakhpat jail here from Adiala jail in Rawalpindi under tight security, has several cases related to May 9 violence, including arson, filed against him at the Shadman police station. The court had summoned Qureshi to initiate indictment proceedings against him and ordered the prosecution to present witnesses in the next hearing scheduled for July 22. Qureshi, who was produced before ATC Judge Khalid Arshad, however, denied the charges.

MUMBAI : India has emerged as Temasek Holdings’ best-performing market over the previous 10 years, a key factor in the Singapore state investor’s total exposure to the country soaring to $37 billion. “In the last 10 years across all geographies, India has been the best in terms of returns," said Vishesh Shrivastav, managing director (India), Temasek, in an interview with Mint on Monday. Earlier in the day, Temasek said its exposure to India stood at $37 billion (equivalent to S$49 billion), including the financial interest from its portfolio firm SingTel’s investment in Bharti Airtel Ltd.

paddy area under climate-resilient seeds, a senior agriculture ministry official said on Monday. The move comes as erratic rainfall patterns have become increasingly common in recent years, threatening rice production in the country. India, the world's second-largest rice producer after China, cultivates paddy on over 410 lakh hectares during the kharif season. Speaking on the sidelines of ICAR's 96th Foundation and Technology Day celebrations, ICAR Director General Himanshu Pathak said, «While we have achieved 75 per cent coverage of climate-resilient seeds in wheat cultivation, the adoption in paddy is still limited.»

Russia, including by encouraging rupee-rouble trade and pushing Moscow to lift non-tariff barriers, New Delhi said on Monday, in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Moscow. Old partners India and Russia have stepped up trade since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, but the increase has been overwhelmingly one-way, dominated by India buying Russian oil shunned by traditional customers in Europe. Surging Russian exports to India accounted for $61.43 billion of the $65.7 billion in trade between the two countries in the last fiscal year that ended in March.

EU) are expected to hold the next round of talks for the proposed free trade agreement, which aims at boosting commerce and investments, in September, an official said. Joint Secretary in the Department of Commerce Darpan Jain said that the eighth round of talks was concluded on June 28. He said that discussions were held on all 21 chapters in the meeting and progress was made in number of areas such as government procurement, digital trade, technical barriers to trade, goods, and market access. «We plan to hold more inter-sessional meetings in July and August and we intend to have another round (of talks) in the last week of September,» Jain told reporters here.

India looks forward to being a prominent player in the global supply chain, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman who will be presenting the Budget for record-seventh time, may have to look at introducing a host of measures to strengthen the manufacturing sector and an improvement in the delivery routes. “With the help of policies, India must increase its share in global manufacturing chains,” Finance Minister Sitharaman said recently, adding that India needs to have greater sophistication in product manufacturing, and the government needs to see how best this can be given policy support. «I also want to underline, much against the advice given by some economists who say India should no longer be looking at manufacturing or ramping up manufacturing, that the country must also increase, with the help of policies, its (manufacturing) share in the global value chains,» she said.

Ashok Leyland, the Hinduja group flagship has bagged an order for 2104 Viking passenger buses worth Rs981.45 crore from the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), the company said in a statement. The company will execute the order—the single largest one from the state corporation for supply of BSVI OBD II (on board diagnostic) compliant fully built passenger buses from August 2024 to August 2025. This will further contribute to strengthening Ashok Leyland's dominant position in the bus segment, it said. MSRTC is one of the largest state transport undertakings in the country with over 15,000 buses. With this order, Ashok Leyland buses will dominate its fleet.

A newly elected government affords India an opportunity to re-examine and update a fundamental building block for its fast-developing economy: its data and statistical system. A transparent, robust and credible data system is important for any country because it provides critical inputs to policymakers, investors, political parties, researchers and the media to conduct and critically evaluate progress. The more dependable and credible the system is, the greater the efficacy of policy and trust in potential outcomes.

Neeraj Chopra's top finish in the Tokyo edition three years ago. According to official data from the Sports Authority of India's (SAI) Mission Olympic Cell (MOC), which is available with PTI, the government has spent a whopping Rs 96.08 crore for athletics. It's the biggest chunk in the close to Rs 470 crore which has been spent on India's preparation for the Games this time across 16 disciplines. In the previous Olympic cycle, athletics received Rs 5.38 crore from TOPS funds.

Anupam Mittal, the founder of Shaadi.com and a well-known figure from Shark Tank India, quipped that the Ambani family could have televised their grand wedding on JioCinema, their own streaming platform. In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Mittal wrote, «Dulha bhi khud ka, JioCinema bhi khud ka (Groom belongs to them, JioCinema also belongs to them). Should have broadcast 'The Shaadi', would have rivaled IPL ratings.» This tongue-in-cheek remark suggested that broadcasting the wedding might have garnered viewership comparable to the Indian Premier League (IPL), one of the most-watched cricket tournaments in the country. The Ambani wedding, which took place on July 12, was indeed a spectacle. Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Mukesh and Nita Ambani, tied the knot with Radhika Merchant in a lavish ceremony that drew a constellation of celebrities, cricketers, business moguls, and dignitaries. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi graced the event, blessing the newlyweds with his presence.

Phillip Capital has maintained a sell view on IREDA, raising the target price to Rs 130 from Rs 110, noting that the recent stock rally, driven mainly by passive flows rather than fundamental reasons, has already priced in the best value. The domestic brokerage firm stated that they believe in continuing growth of the company as IREDA is likely to see strong loan growth at a CAGR of 25% over FY24-26 on rising demand for renewable energy in the country. However, the earnings growth is not expected to match the loan growth due to pressure on margins.

Indian Navy's frontline warships carried out a mega military exercise with the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group of the US in the Indian Ocean, demonstrating the growing strategic congruence between the two sides in the key maritime domain. The USS Theodore Roosevelt is a Nimitz-class, nuclear-powered, aircraft carrier of the US Navy. A carrier battle group or carrier strike group is a mega naval fleet comprising an aircraft carrier, accompanied by a large number of destroyers, frigates and other ships. The Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group operated alongside forces from the Indian Navy in the Indian Ocean on July 12, the US embassy said in a readout.

The IPO is a combination of a fresh issue of 4.18 crore shares and an Offer For Sale (OFS) of 1.19 crore shares by selling shareholders.

Mint. “Besides the domestic market, we are also looking at exports to the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe and the U.S. These exports contributed to 14% of our revenues in FY24 from 4% a year earlier," Sany’s managing director Deepak Garg said.

When the shots rang out in the clear blue sky and tore America’s fragile civic peace asunder, the former president was gesturing at a chart on a screen. “The worst president in the history of our country took over, and look what happened to our country," Donald Trump said as the sweaty crowd pulsed with its usual feverish approval. On the massive video monitors flanking the stage, a graph showed an increase in illegal border crossings in recent years.

Ukraine hopes to find a strategic edge against Russia in drones built in abandoned warehouses or factory basements

BEIJING — China's National Bureau of Statistics on Monday said the country's second-quarter GDP rose by 4.7% year on year, missing expectations of a 5.1% growth, according to a Reuters poll.

China’s ruling Communist Party is starting a four-day meeting that is expected to lay out a strategy for self-sufficient economic growth in an era of heightened national security concerns and restrictions on access to American technology

President Joe Biden warned Sunday of the risks of political violence in the U.S. after Saturday's attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, saying, «It's time to cool it down.» In a prime-time national address from the Oval Office, Biden said political passions can run high but «we must never descend into violence.» The president acknowledged the passions of an election year, and that he and Republicans offer different policy visions, but implored Americans to «recommit» to resolving their differences peacefully. «There is no place in America for this kind of violence — for any violence. Ever. Period. No exception. We can't allow this violence to be normalized,» Biden said.