Country Financial News

Quadria Capital, the Asia healthcare-focused private equity fund, is in advanced talks to acquire a significant minority stake in India's largest dialysis chain NephroPlus, valuing the latter at ₹2,000 crore ($250 million), said two sources aware of the development. Existing investors — the US-based Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) — will exit fully by selling about 30% stake together, while the largest shareholder Investcorp is likely to sell a small stake in this round, said sources. Investcorp owns about 35-40% stake in NephroPlus.

JN.1 subvariant has become the dominant Covid-19 variant in India, accounting for more than 60% of the coronavirus cases in the country, according to people with knowledge of the matter. «XBB, which was the dominant variant for a long period in the country, has been surpassed by JN.1, which has crossed the 500 mark,» said one of the persons, who did not wish to be identified. As of Thursday, 511 cases of the subvariant JN.1 have been reported across the country. India recorded 760 new Covid-19 cases and two deaths, while the active caseload saw a slight dip to 4,423 from 4,440 on the previous day.

gold jewellery has dropped by up to 25% and is likely to stay low in the upcoming wedding season that starts on January 15 and continues till mid-March as its prices have crossed ₹63,500 per 10 grams, trade insiders said. On the contrary, demand for diamond and coloured gemstone jewellery that requires stronger and more affordable 14 to 18 carat gold — and not 22-carat gold used for pure gold jewellery — has picked up, they said. «Reports from jewellers in different parts of the country show that there has been a drop of 25% in demand since the prices crossed ₹63,500 per 10 gm,» said Surendra Mehta, national secretary of India Bullion & Jewellers Association. «Demand will only pick up if the gold prices fall to ₹61,000 per 10 gm,» he added. The current surge in gold prices has been propelled by the US Federal Reserve's dovish stance on benchmark interest rates.

Traders are looking to import maize from Myanmar after the government last month put curbs on use of sugarcane for ethanol production and said it would switch to maize to meet its fuel blending target. «The country will have to rely on imports if it wants to achieve its blending target, as there is not enough maize in the domestic market,» said a trader who is in talks with Myanmar for its import. If India starts using maize for ethanol production, the requirement will be extremely high and will push prices up in the domestic market.

Trent, which owns Westside, Zudio and Star Bazaar, has built a business model around selling private labels (owned brands), and its chief executive believes there is no reason just yet to deviate from this pronouncedly singular script for the Tata Group retailing business. «We have growing conviction in our model. The Trent playbook works. Many of these choices and disciplines are culturally anchored and that makes a difference,» Trent CEO P Venkatesalu told ET. The company's revenues climbed substantially over the past five years, to ₹8,242 crore in FY23 from ₹2,157 crore in FY18.

The elections in Bangladesh are all about one person: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

For the first time in the United States, turbines are sending electricity to the grid from the sites of two large offshore wind farms

A study shows that carbon dioxide emissions in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, dropped to their lowest level in seven decades

India-made ammunition reaching Ukraine through Europe in the third quarter of last year. ET has learnt that the matter was raised by Moscow recently.

The German government is watering down cost-saving plans that have infuriated farmers

potential to become the world’s largest gems and jewellery exporter, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said at the inaugural event of the five-day India International Jewellery Show on Thursday. The country can be a proficient lab-grown diamond maker, impeccable design centre and technologically advanced machinery manufacturer, he said. “It’s time we embark on the journey to realise our true potential and show our prowess to the world,” said Goyal. The five-day exposition comprises about 1,500 exhibitors and 3,000 stalls. The largest jewellery trade show in the country kicked off against the backdrop of a consistent surge in gold prices in the domestic market and a sluggish exports market. Sharing his outlook on the market, Vipul Shah, chairman, Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council said gold prices are set to skyrocket further due to a combination of factors, the most important being the “de-dollarisation trend” which is prompting people across the world to invest in gold as an asset class. Geopolitical factors will also contribute to the prices going up further, he said. Meanwhile, exports which fell 20-22% year-on-year in the first nine months of this financial year, are likely to end the fiscal with almost a 25% decline year-on-year, said Shah. Goyal said massive investments are being made to create a world-class infrastructure, including the 20-acre India Jewellery Park in Navi Mumbai and a common facility centre in SEEPZ Mumbai with modern machinery and equipment.

Lalduhoma met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to apprise them of the concerns of the Mizos and the issue of Myanmarese refugees, especially with the present proposal by India to fence the border with Myanmar. He also pushed for a Greater Mizoram as part of Akhand Bharat. During his first official visit after taking over as chief minister after winning the assembly polls on December last year, the Mizoram CM apprised the PM that the current border with Myanmar was forced upon the two ethnic groups without their prior consent.

India on Thursday once again said that its relationship with China is «not normal» and that both sides are engaged in diplomatic and military talks to resolve the pending issues in eastern Ladakh. The Indian and Chinese troops are locked in an over three-and-half-year confrontation in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh even as the two sides completed disengagement from several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks. «Our position on China is very well known.

Piyush Goyal said Thursday. The planned ‘Bharat Park’ will facilitate other countries of the world to buy Indian goods, he said during and event organised by the Synthetic and Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC). Expressing concern on Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Japan, Australia, UAE, and South Korea, he said that utilisation of benefits are very poor in India.

Bitcoin becoming a reserve currency is an interesting topic of discussion. While it is currently not widely used in everyday transactions to the same extent as traditional currencies, there are potential scenarios in which Bitcoin could become a reserve currency in the future.

(Reuters) — Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) fell further on Thursday, losing about $176 billion since the start of the year, after Piper Sandler became the second brokerage this week to downgrade the stock on worries of tepid demand for its products, including the iPhone.

Committee on Tribal Unity, or the CoTU, Sadar Hills apprised the Union Home Minister of the prevailing situation of Manipur urging him to intervene to halt the issuance of additional arms and ammunition to the Meitei police personnel. CoTU's seeking the Union Home Minister's intervention came after an MPS officer, in-charge of a Special Commando Unit wrote to the Additional Director General of Police (Law & Order) requesting the requisition of additional ammunition given the prevailing law and order. Manipur police officer, Krishnatombi Singh, MPS, who is also in-charge of a Special Commando Unit, in his letter to the ADGP (L/O), Manipur on December 30 listed the following ammunition for requisition, 10,000 number of 7.62 LMG live rounds, 20,000 of INSAS live rounds, 17,000 of AK-47 live rounds, 150 of 51 Mortar live rounds (H.E. bomb), and 3000 of 303 live rounds. The Committee on Tribal Unity, Sadar Hills appealed to the ADGP (L/O) not to issue the requested ammunition since it posed a serious threat to the existence of the minority Kuki-Zo community. CoTU also pointed out that it is an open secret that the Meitei police commandos have been at the forefront of attacks on Kuki-Zo villages and areas from the beginning of the current state-sponsored ethnic cleansing pogrom.

telecom equipment maker Nokia said on Thursday it had signed a 5G patent agreement with one of China's leading smartphone makers Honor, but its legal battles with other Chinese companies over patents continue. Nokia, once the world's number one mobile phone maker, holds a significant patent portfolio of some key technologies needed in phone manufacturing and the resulting licensing revenue represented 39% of operating profit in 2022.

toy manufacturing in the country through import duties and quality control orders. Addressing journalists in New Delhi, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Rajesh Kumar Singh said the proposal of having a PLI scheme on toys has been put on hold and a third-party audit of the white goods PLI will be conducted. Responding to a query on the decision to put the toy PLI proposal on hold, he said, “Currently we are focused on getting these 14 PLI schemes up and running in a good way.

Such discriminatory demands may be illegal in many countries, but in India, the above-mentioned bank-backed fund house is one among many employers subjecting female jobseekers to increased scrutiny based on perceived biases against women in a tightening job market, company officials and recruiters told ET.

Britain will likely go to the polls in the last six months of this year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak indicated Thursday, as speculation mounts about the date of the vote. Sunak, whose Conservative party has been in power since 2010, has until the end of January 2025 to call a much-anticipated general election.