Country Financial News

Days after striking a $53 billion purchase of Hess, Chevron Chief Executive Mike Wirth called his counterpart at Exxon Mobil to discuss their future partnership in a mega-oil project Chevron would inherit through the deal. Darren Woods told Wirth he looked forward to collaboration in Guyana, where Exxon and Hess own portions of a buried treasure of 11 billion barrels of oil and gas. Chevron and Exxon have a long-established partnership in projects around the world, one they could expand off the coast of the rainforest-covered South American country, Woods indicated in the October phone call.

Goldman Sachs raised its global oil demand forecast for 2030 on Monday and expects consumption to peak by 2034 on a potential slowdown in electric vehicle (EV) adoption, keeping refineries running at higher-than-average rates till the end of this decade. The research division of the bank raised its 2030 crude oil demand forecast to 108.5 million barrels per day (bpd) from 106 million bpd, and expects demand to peak at 110 million bpd in 2034, followed by a long plateau till 2040, analysts led by Nikhil Bhandari said in a report.

The poor placement record of India’s top engineering schools this year has received much attention. What went unnoticed are dismal placements at top economics schools. One reason is the growing caution among employers that face multiple global uncertainties.

economy likely grew at its slowest pace in a year in the January-March quarter due to weak demand, according to a Reuters poll of economists who said the possibility of growth significantly surpassing their forecasts was low.The country's gross domestic product (GDP) unexpectedly grew by 8.4% in October-December compared to a year earlier, thanks to a sharp drop in subsidies which provided an artificial boost to net indirect taxes. But economic activity, as measured by gross value added (GVA), showed a more modest 6.5% expansion.Economists in the poll said that situation was unlikely to have been repeated in the last quarter.Growth in Asia's third-largest economy likely slowed to an annual 6.7% in January-March, more in line with the long-term GDP growth rate, according to a Reuters poll of 54 economists.

United Nations resident coordinator dated Sunday, the acting director of the South Pacific island nation’s National Disaster Center said the landslide “buried more than 2000 people alive" and caused “major destruction."Estimates of the casualties have varied widely since the disaster occurred, and it was not immediately clear how officials arrived the number of people affected.Australia prepared on Monday to send aircraft and other equipment to help at the site of a deadly landslide in Papua New Guinea as overnight rains in the South Pacific nation’s mountainous interior raised fears that the tons of rubble that buried hundreds of villagers could become dangerously unstable.Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said his officials have been talking with their Papua New Guinea counterparts since Friday, when a mountainside collapsed on Yambali village in Enga province, which the United Nations estimates killed 670 people. The remains of only six people had been recovered so far.“The exact nature of the support that we do provide will play out over the coming days," Marles told Australian Broadcasting Corp.“We’ve got obviously airlift capacity to get people there.

Climate change continues to ravage Africa, which is enduring extreme weather and natural disasters on an unprecedented scale. My own country, Kenya, has just emerged from its longest drought on record, only to suffer devastating floods, which have killed 289 people and affected more than 800,000. Meanwhile, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe recently experienced a severe drought that exposed millions of people to hunger, and the Sahel region was hit by a debilitating heatwave, resulting in more than 100 deaths in Mali.

When the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to cut down repo rate towards the end of the year, investors are recommended to lock their investments in fixed deposits (FDs) in order to make the most of the prevailing high interest rates.

China’s engagement in the global system of commerce was roundly criticized by Group of Seven finance chiefs in a show of unity accompanied by a threat of further escalation. The club of rich-world ministers and central bankers concluded its gathering in the Italian lakeside town of Stresa on Saturday with a communique that cited the world’s second-biggest economy by name and accused the country of hurting the economies of its trade partners. “While reaffirming our interest in a balanced and reciprocal collaboration, we express concerns about China’s comprehensive use of non-market policies and practices that undermines our workers, industries, and economic resilience,” they said. “We will continue to monitor the potential negative impacts of overcapacity and will consider taking steps to ensure a level playing field.”

NTPC: The company reported a 33% YoY surge in Q4 net profit to ₹6,490 crore and a 7.6% increase in revenue to ₹47,622 crore. The company’s gross power generation rose by 4.15% to 93.387 billion units (BU) in Q4, compared to the same period last year, amid rising power demand due to high temperatures across the country.

The landfall occurred between Sagar Island in Bengal and Khepupara, near the southwest of Mongla in the neighbouring country. The vast coastline was blurred by thick sheets of rain as the cyclone made landfall, with surging waters sweeping fishing boats inland and inundating mud-and-thatch houses and farmlands in low-lying areas.The MeT office said, “Severe cyclonic storm Remal made landfall between Sagar Island in West Bengal and Khepupara in Bangladesh on Sunday night with wind speeds reaching up to 135 kmph."Cyclone Remal flattened fragile dwellings, uprooted trees and knocked down electric poles North and South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government will return to power in Lok Sabha Elections 2024.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), has already crossed the numbers required for forming the government in the first five phases of the general elections, Shah said. “We are somewhere between 300 and 310…this is minus the last phase…We are in a comfortable position. This time, we went to the people with 10 years of track record and 25 years of a powerfully positive agenda," Shah told Indian Express in an interview.

Mukesh Ambani is set to enter Africa with a telecoms venture, seeking to win mobile broadband customers in a high-growth market.Radisys Corp., a unit of Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd., will provide key network infrastructure, applications and smartphones for Ghana-based Next-Gen InfraCo., according to Harkirit Singh, the executive director of NGIC. He described the plans ahead of NGIC’s launch announcement on Monday in Mumbai, India’s financial hub.

Oil prices were in a holding pattern in early Asian trading on Monday as markets awaited an OPEC+ meeting on June 2 where producers are expected to discuss maintaining voluntary output cuts for the rest of the year. The Brent crude July contract inched up 11 cents to $82.23 a barrel by 0036 GMT. The more-active August contract LCOc2 rose 13 cents to $81.97.

cyclonic storm 'Remal' made landfall between the coasts of Bangladesh and adjoining West Bengal, bringing heavy rains that flooded homes and farmland, and leaving a trail of destruction. The landfall process began at 8:30 pm on Sunday over the adjacent coasts of West Bengal and Bangladesh between Sagar Island and Khepupara, near the southwest of Mongla in the neighbouring country. 'Remal' flattened fragile dwellings, uprooted trees and knocked down electric poles. One person was injured after being hit by debris in the Gosaba area of the Sundarbans. More than one lakh people were evacuated from vulnerable areas in West Bengal before the cyclone struck.

Prudential Authority of the South African Reserve Bank has imposed a financial penalty of 10 million rand (₹4.5 crore) on the State Bank of India's South Africa branch, the bank said in a notice to the exchange. The bank informed the stock exchange that the financial penalty consists of an immediately payable portion of 5.50 million rand, which the SBI branch in South Africa has already paid. The remaining 4.50 million rand is suspended for 36 months, contingent on compliance within this period.

By R Gopalan and MC Singhi,

Payal Kapadia etched her name into the history of Indian cinema when she won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. Her Malayalam-Marathi-Hindi language film, ‘All We Imagine As Light’, beat stiff competition from such legendary directors as Francis Ford Coppola, Andrea Arnold, Mohammad Rasoulof, David Cronenberg and Jia Zhang-ke to land the coveted prize.

India sweated through a deadly heat wave that tested power grids and disaster preparedness of states on Sunday while Maharashtra's Akola imposed Section 144 until May 31, prohibiting public gatherings. A 'red' warning has been issued for Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, west Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat, indicating a «very high likelihood» of heat illness and heat stroke for all age groups. Rajasthan's Phalodi was the hottest place in the country for the second consecutive day, recording a maximum temperature of 49.8 degrees Celsius. A day ago, the city hit 50 degrees Celsius — the highest temperature recorded in the country since June 1, 2019. The state has reported multiple heat-related deaths in the last three days.

Real estate developer Sameera Group has earmarked ₹500 crore as investments over the next five years to set up 1,000 senior living homes across South India, the company said. For developing the senior living homes, city-based Sameera Group has signed a memorandum of understanding with Vedaanta Senior Living that aims to create high-quality senior living communities, a company release said on Sunday. «This strategic partnership brings together Sameera Group's extensive experience in land development and Vedaanta's deep understanding of the senior care industry,» the release said.

India has the potential to generate around 750 GW of power from solar sources, according to government data. While the country has doubled its solar power installed capacity rapidly to 81.8GW from 40.1GW in FY21, it has only utilised 11% of its potential. However, new schemes targeted at rooftop solar can help ramp up faster. ET takes a look 1)India has a solar power potential of nearly 750 GW

Radisson Hotel Group, the second biggest international chain in India by hotel network and room inventory, plans to open a new hotel every 20 days in the country this year, Nikhil Sharma, the chain’s new managing director, and area senior VP for South Asia told ET. Sharma said the chain, that aims to have a hotel at every two hours of driving distance in India, is also building its presence in religious destinations and will launch the first globally branded hotels in markets such as Vrindavan, Ujjain and Guruvayur. «People are visiting religious destinations far more than pre Covid times. We were the first to launch a branded hotel in Ayodhya before the Ram temple inauguration. The hotel clocked an average daily rate of Rs 1.15 lakh in the first month. It is still sold out on most days and the average daily rate is Rs 30,000 now,” said Sharma.