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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: American trade negotiators are pushing for a level playing field for US-based e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart with Indian firms such as Reliance, two people aware of the matter said.

Ne-Yo has openly shared details about his polyamorous lifestyle. He introduced his four partners on social media, highlighting a relationship structure based on honesty and mutual consent.

social care providers will have to prioritise hiring foreign care workers already in the country before recruiting from overseas, the government said on Wednesday, as it cracks down on worker abuse in a sector heavily reliant on immigration. The move follows the introduction in November of stronger sanctions for rogue employers who recruit foreign workers but failed to provide them with work, leaving some unemployed and close to destitution. ALSO READ:What is UK’s Skilled Worker visa?

Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Amendment Bill, 2024, aimed at boosting the country's exploration sector by ensuring policy stability, scope for international arbitration and longer lease for oil and gas companies. The bill, which has already been passed by Rajya Sabha, «will further strengthen and propel India's energy sector,» said oil minister Hardeep Puri. «By virtue of the fact that we are going to rely on conventional energy for some time, we need to step up our exploration and production activities.» The Centre hopes the proposed law will perk up India's exploration sector, which has been dull for more than a decade despite various policy reforms.

trade with Pakistan means expanding their export base and extending economic influence in the region. For Pakistan, reopening structured trade with India could be a lifeline. Institutional frameworks built during the Indo-Pak trade discussions of 2011-12 still exist. Rather than settling for a hesitant revival of pre-2019 trade, both nations have the chance to build a structured, high-impact trade corridor that turns decades of rivalry into economic interdependence, stretching beyond Afghanistan to CIS countries. Despite ad-hoc bans and restrictions, trade has not vanished. But it has been driven underground, morphing into an informal, fragmented and inefficient shadow of its true potential. In 2023-24, India officially imported only $3 mn worth of goods from Pakistan, while its exports to Pakistan reached $1.2 bn.

With Mexico and Canada as two of America's biggest suppliers of food items and beverages, the tariffs will soon drive prices up and may cause supply chain disruptions while demand stays high, New York Post reported.

Mitsubishi Chemical Group of Japan has evinced interest in entering the supply chain link in the semiconductor and electric vehicles sectors in India. There are plans to set up a project catering to the supply chain link in the semiconductor and EV sectors in the country, president and CEO of Mitsubishi Chemical Group Manabu Chikumoto, said at an interactive session of Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Wednesday. «We are trying to find out some occasions to come to this market to expand our existence, together with some partners. It will be in the supply chain link to the semiconductor and EV sectors», he said. Chikumoto said the group has not identified any place for the proposed project.

Ashwini Vaishnaw welcomed Elon Musk's Starlink on Wednesday, highlighting its potential to benefit railway projects in remote areas. «Starlink, welcome to India! Will be useful for remote area railway projects,» said Vaishnaw in a statement on X. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Jio Platforms has struck a deal with SpaceX, the aerospace company led by Musk, to bring Starlink's broadband internet services to India, a surprise move that follows months of bickering over how Musk's venture should be granted spectrum rights. The deal with Musk — considered the right-hand-man of US President Donald Trump — came a day after telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal's Bharti Airtel signed a similar partnership deal with SpaceX.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: The government may make it mandatory for packages containing narcotics to carry a barcode while it mulls building a portal to identify, track and monitor the illegal sale of narcotics. In view to recent cases of abuse of narcotics meant for medicinal use, the government is devising a mechanism to ensure the tracking and traceability of these drugs.

central universities, with over half of them reserved for OBC, ST, and SC categories, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday. Union Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar said that more than 7,825 teaching positions have been filled in these varsities through special recruitment drives.

Donald Trump’s administration are watching Canada to get a preview of what happens when you hit back. Canadian officials have gone hostile in their responses to Trump’s trade war. Ontario Premier Doug Ford slapped a 25% charge on electricity exports to make power more expensive for people in New York and two other states — earning the president’s ire. Mark Carney, the incoming prime minister, called the US “a country we can no longer trust,” and said his new government will keep its retaliatory tariffs in place “until the Americans show us respect.” On Tuesday, the brinkmanship seemed to pay off: Trump started the day threatening to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to 50%, but by day’s end both sides had pulled back. Ford suspended the electricity tax, prompting Trump to say “I respect that” and drop the metals levy back to 25%. Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum — which came into force on US imports on Wednesday — drew a swift response from Canada and the European Union. The government in Ottawa announced new 25% counter-tariffs on about C$30 billion ($20.8 billion) of US-made items, while Brussels laid out countermeasures against US goods worth as much as €26 billion ($28.3 billion). But other metals-exporting countries including Japan and South Korea held off on any immediate retaliation. Even before that widening of the trade war, Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign minister, had issued a warning to other nations. Watch what Trump is doing to Canada, she said. “You’re next.”

Daredevil: Born Again continues its run with Episode 3 set to release on March 11, 2025. The series follows Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer with enhanced abilities, as he fights for justice while Wilson Fisk aims for political power.

Specialty chemicals manufacturing startup Scimplify has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Accel and existing investor Bertelsmann India Investments. The round also witnessed participation from UMI, 3one4 Capital and Omnivore. This brings the company’s total funding to around $54 million. The fresh capital will drive the Bengaluru-based company’s global expansion, enabling it to scale exports beyond the 16 countries it currently serves while strengthening its presence in life sciences, crop sciences, and industrial chemicals.

Ladhani Group, which is the largest bottler of Coca-Cola in India and has also a play in the hospitality and chemicals segments, plans to invest around Rs 11,000 crore in the next five years across its verticals, a top company official said on Wednesday. It plans to spend around Rs 8,000 crore on SLMG Beverages, its flagship firm and the largest bottling franchisee for Coca-Cola in India, for opening new units to expand its presence in Uttar Pradesh and newly acquired markets of Bihar. SLMG Beverages is among the top 15 bottlers globally for Coca-Cola and aims to be among the top ten in the coming years. It is ready for more franchising opportunities in India and foreign countries, its Joint Managing Director Paritosh Ladhani told PTI. The Lucknow-based group also plans to invest around Rs 3,000 crore in its hospitality business in the next five years and double the number of hotel rooms.

Ukrainian soldiers holding the front line in the war-battered east of the country, the prospect of a 30-day ceasefire with Russia brought little relief — only distrust and suspicion. Senior Ukrainian and US officials walked away from high-stakes talks in Saudi Arabia late Tuesday agreeing to present Russia with a proposal to halt more than three years of fighting for several weeks. But in eastern Ukraine, there was little hope that even if Moscow agreed to a pause, the Kremlin would make good on promises to stop fighting. A 44-year-old serviceman with the call sign «Malchik» («Boy») said Russia would claim to adhere to a ceasefire and then find ways to keep attacking. «They'll say in public that there's no fighting and no shelling. But this scum has always harassed us and it will continue to,» he told AFP in the frontline city of Kramatorsk.

Thomas Kierans was stopped by a reporter in St. John’s, Nfld., on the occasion of his 100th birthday. Regarded around town as somewhat of a local treasure, he was dressed in a tan winter coat, a colourful knit scarf and a newsboy-style cap, and he was asked about some of his equally colourful and yet never realized ideas for mega-scale infrastructure projects.

United States President Donald Trump’s back-and-forth tariff threats are galvanizing an “invest in Canada” movement that’s prodding pensions to keep more of their cash at home.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. KAMPALA, Uganda—The property manager of a shabby office building in this congested East African capital has achieved what the U.S., U.N. and other well-meaning global powers have not: He has established peace between warring Sudanese factions.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India recently announced a budgetary allocation of ₹3,200 crore to set up 200 Day Care Cancer Centres in all district hospitals over the next three years. This is welcome.

Later, while interacting with reporters, she said, «My plea was that the time of 'jumma namaaz' cannot be deferred. So, let there be a two-hour break, from noon to 2 pm, during which Hindus shall avoid places in the vicinity of mosques.» «This would enable people from both faiths to carry out their respective practices without any hassles. We understand that Holi comes only once in a year. But we also need to keep in mind that for Muslims, it is the holy month of Ramzan,» the mayor added. Her remarks drew an angry response from Hari Bhushan Thakur Bachaul, a BJP MLA from the adjoining district of Madhubani, who was recently in news for asking Muslims to «stay indoors» if they had a problem with Holi. Talking to reporters on the state assembly premises, he said, «Where are the self-proclaimed secularists who were attacking me? The mayor of Darbhanga has virtually called for 'Ghazwa-e-Hind', to convert India into an Islamic caliphate.»