Country Financial News

Minor Hotels, a global hotel owner and operator with more than 540 properties in 56 countries said on Thursday that it plans to expand its presence in the Indian hospitality market and is targeting 50 new openings within the next decade. The group said it will focus its strategy on the upper-upscale and luxury hotel segments, where it expects strong interest from owners for its Anantara, Avani, and NH Collection brands. Minor said for Anantara Hotels & Resorts, the group is building on 'core brand differentiators' by targeting opportunities in Ayurvedic wellness retreats, wilderness lodges, and historical palaces. It also believes Avani Hotels & Resorts is well positioned to fill a significant gap in the lifestyle hotel space across India, while NH Collection Hotels & Resorts will prove attractive for upper- upscale conversion opportunities.

lawyer and the BJP's Lok Sabha candidate from Mumbai North Central seat Ujjwal Nikam on Thursday said politics is a new challenge and asserted he accepted all kinds of challenges while helming criminal cases. In an interview to PTI, Nikam (71) said he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party because the stellar work of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had enhanced the country's standing in the world.

The deal will expand Janus Henderson's ETF business in the US into Europe and is expected to complete in the second quarter of 2024.  Tabula IM was set up in 2018, specialising in fixed income and sustainable ETFs. The firm manages $500 in assets and has funds listed across ten European exchanges, serving clients across 15 countries.  Janus Henderson said it expects the acquisition to enhance its partnership with its UK and European client base, which it said is increasingly looking at active ETFs, and to reach markets in Latin America, the Middle East and APAC. Two Janus Henderson...

Alun Cairns, a Conservative UK Member of Parliament, called on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to reconsider its ban on crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) for retail investors. In a Politics.co.uk op-ed published Thursday, he raised concerns that the country is falling behind.

Shashi Tharoor has said the alleged sex scandal involving JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna will echo in the remaining phases of the Lok Sabha polls not just in Karnataka but elsewhere as the BJP will have a tough job explaining its position after having campaigned for the accused in the elections. Prajwal and his father H D Revanna, former Karnataka minister, were booked by police on Sunday on charges of sexual harassment and criminal intimidation based on a complaint from a woman, who worked in their household. Prajwal is the grandson of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and nephew of Karnataka former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy. Faced with unrelenting attack from the Congress and other political parties, the JD(S), an ally of the BJP, suspended Prajwal.

Airtel Payments Bank CEO Anubrata Biswas is optimistic that the payments bank momentum in India will yield strong growth horizons and opportunities in the coming years, supported by financial inclusion imperatives and rapid pace of economic and digital growth. In an interview to PTI, Biswas said FY24 has been a «remarkable year» for Airtel Payments Bank, which has been growing in double digits across all key metrics such as users, revenue, and profits. «We are still closing the books (for the fiscal) but as we stand today, we are going to see high double-digit growth rates on revenue, profit and users continue,» he said. Airtel Payments Bank has nearly 500,000 banking points spread across the country, today.

Mint takes a closer look at these revelations and their effect on India. Earlier this week the Washington Post published a report providing new details on the Pannun assassination attempt in 2023. Citing unnamed security officials, the report said Vikram Yadav, a RAW official, was responsible for handling the operation to assassinate the Sikh separatist leader on US soil.

UPI) transactions fell to ₹19.64 lakh crore in the month of April against ₹19.78 lakh crore in the preceding month. In terms of transaction count, the number fell to 13.30 billion from 13.44 billion in March. When compared with April last year, the number of transactions saw a growth of 50 percent, while the total amount of transactions saw 40 percent growth.

ghats, where prayer and pilgrimage are the mainstay—and yet there is something surreal and exotic about it. Perhaps it has something to do with the all-pervasive sense of calm and spirituality—extending beyond religion— that one feels there. It extends to almost everything in Rishikesh, even to the food.

Punit Lalbhai, VC & Executive Director, Arvind, says, «We are rapidly decarbonizing our energy footprint. So, a lot of renewables, we are replacing fossil fuels for thermal energy using agro waste, so sustainability is a very, very strong theme. So, I think these are the couple of big themes right now — consolidation, more verticality, and a huge focus on sustainability.» «In the 80s, I think when my father started getting very active in the business, he realised that traditional textiles were under a lot of pressure from the unorganised segment. So, he had this vision called Renovision, where he reinvented the company and pivoted it to an export-oriented model and that has what made Arvind the largest denim company in the world,» says Kulin Lalbhai, Executive Director, Arvind Ltd. How would reflect on the journey of the Arvind Group? Kulin Lalbhai: If we just go back to the journey of this group, I think one definition or one pattern has been that we have had a constant reinvention. I think for any business to survive for 100 years, you have to constantly change and as you said when we started out, when the whole Swadeshi movement was there, we were producing a lot of traditional textile clothing. In the 80s, I think when my father started getting very active in the business, he realised that traditional textiles were under a lot of pressure from the unorganised segment.

Neelkanth Mishra, Chief Economist, Axis Bank & Head of Global Research, Axis Capital, says “in the next three to five years in this same style, we could see very aggressive capex and industrial policy coming in from China and the return on assets, on capital intensive assets in China is already back to 2002 levels. It is quite possible it keeps falling. Imagine then what other countries have to do. Do we have policies to counter that? We need not get overly protectionist, but we need to be very agile in responding to this. Is it ready for this type of global economy which is very different from what we saw from the early 90s to say around 2015-16? There are several new challenges that we need to cope with.” India of yesterday, India of today and India of tomorrow. Where should we start? Neelkanth Mishra: Even to understand where we are headed, we need to have some handle on where we have come from and what we have done and where the platform has been set for the growth in the next three to five years. And then of course, the work that we do in the next three to five years will set the stage for what happens in the five years after that.

The regulation will allow funds based in the European Economic Area (EEA) to apply to become recognised in the UK and be marketed to British investors. Both Treasury and FCA said given the majority of funds available to UK retail investors are based in EEA, and OFR will ensure consumers can «benefit from the choice these funds provide», with the assurance the come from a country with «equivalent consumer protections», they said. Europe-domiciled funds exempt from Consumer Duty requirements under Overseas Funds Regime The regime will replace the current post-Brexit transitional agre...

Mint in an interview. “Our trains, the prototype, will be ready by June 2025. After the approval of the first prototype, say in two months time, we will supply 16 sleeper Vande Bharat trains over the next 12 months with deliveries starting from the first month onwards.

Deccan Herald, quoting sources. On Tuesday, the SIT formed by the Karnataka government, had issued summons to Prajwal and his father to appear before them for questioning. Also Read: Prajwal Revanna sex video case: Hassan MP himself sought gag order on assault videos in 2023, says report Reacting to the summons, Prajwal took to X, formerly Twitter, and said that he was not in Bengaluru, and truth will prevail.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday labelled the Congress party as a “disciple” of Pakistan, alleging that the neighbouring country is eager to see the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, referred to as ‘shehzada’ (prince), become the next Prime Minister of India.

Recently, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) declared that they won’t be changing the rules about surrender value for life insurance policies in the country. This decision came after some uncertainty when IRDA was thinking about increasing surrender values back in March.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has reportedly fixed the pricing of ‘Bima Vistaar’ – a single insurance product that covers life, health, accidental damage and property. This all-in-one insurance product, designed for people living in rural areas of the country, is priced at Rs 1,500 per policy, various media reports suggest. These reports have cited industry officials who attended a two-day programme called ‘Bima Manthan’ held on April 25-26 in Hyderabad.

In Britain, online pharmacies and slimming clinics are reducing prices for Wegovy and Mounjaro. This development comes months after the weight-loss drugs were launched in the country as initial supply shortages ease.

When Invesco decided to sell 60% stake to the Hinduja group earlier this month, it didn’t surprise anyone. That’s because only a handful of foreign fund houses have been able to grow in the country even though the Indian mutual fund industry has already topped Rs 50 trillion (Rs 54 trillion in FY24).

After weeks of nonstop coverage of destruction and death across the Gaza Strip, media across the wider Middle East has latched onto the demonstrations roiling American university campuses over the Israel-Hamas war

Aadhaar, UPI, and Fastag. A Nasscom report in February 2024 had stated that DPI could help India become an $8-trillion economy by 2030. The economic value added by DPI could increase to between 2.9% and 4.2% of GDP by 2030, from 0.9% in 2022, it said.