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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. US President Donald Trump has been relentless in his pursuit of a tariff overhaul ever since assuming office in January. After making Mexico, China, and Canada his first victims (even though he paused some of the moves for a limited time), and threatening 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports, he then announced his intention to introduce reciprocal tariffs on US’s imports from other countries, including India.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. President Trump on Thursday suspended for one month the 25% tariffs he placed on Mexican and Canadian products earlier this week. But there’s a catch: The deal only applies to goods that had been traded duty-free under a 2020 North American trade agreement.

BNP Paribas has secured a prime office space in Mumbai’s business district Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), leasing a ground-floor unit in a commercial complex at a monthly rental of Rs 811 per sq ft, making it one of the most expensive commercial property deals in the country. ET has reported earlier this week that Elon Musk-owned electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla Inc leased space in BKC at monthly rentals of Rs 881 per sq ft setting a new national record surpassing the earlier benchmark set by Apple Inc at Rs 738 per sq ft in January. The BNP Paribas’ lease agreement was finalized on February 18, with the five-year lease tenure set to commence later this year on August 16. The bank will occupy a 3,497 sq ft chargeable area in Maker Maxity’s 1 North Avenue, paying a total rent of Rs 28.36 lakh per month to the landlord, Neelammegha Investments and Trading Company.

Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) numbers, the Election Commission of India announced on Friday that it will resolve the issue in the next three months. After detailed discussions within its technical teams and consultations with Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) across the country, the ECI said that it has committed to ensuring that each elector has a unique national EPIC number. «The Commission has now decided to resolve this long pending issue after detailed discussions within the technical teams and concerned CEOs in the next three months by ensuring a unique national EPIC number to the existing electors having a duplicate EPIC number and for future electors as well,» it said in the statement.

Narendra Modi on Friday sounded alarm over the increasing cases of obesity in India and urged citizens to cut down on their cooking oil consumption to tackle the crisis. Quoting a report by the Lancet journal, Modi said that 44 crore Indians were at the risk of getting obese and called it a 'dangerous' prediction. «A report says by 2050, 44 crore Indians will be obese, which is dangerous,» said PM Modi.

Donald Trump's push to boost American production and exports, ToI reported. However, across-the-board duty reductions may not necessarily translate into higher US shipments to India, as companies are likely to source goods from more competitive markets like China or Southeast Asia. Despite the tariff debates, American brands such as Harley-Davidson and Tesla do not currently manufacture vehicles in the US for export to India. Harley-Davidson, a brand often associated with US presidents, imports its motorcycles from Thailand, while Tesla—on the verge of entering the Indian market—plans to ship its electric vehicles from Germany after Indian authorities discouraged imports from China. Locational advantages, lower freight costs, and economies of scale make it more profitable for companies to manufacture in other countries rather than the US. Many firms also take advantage of India's free trade agreements to ship goods at zero duty.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. As international conflicts go, none did so little to disrupt the global order as the “whisky wars" that pitted Canada against Denmark for four decades. Flaring up in 1984, the unlikely spat involved a one-square-kilometre island in the middle of an icy Arctic channel marking the border between Greenland (now a self-ruling part of Denmark) and the Canadian territory of Nunavut.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The union government proposes to expand the network of digital banking units (DBU) across the country by nearly doubling their number to around 200 in just over a year.

Donald Trump has once again criticised India’s trade policies, calling it a «very high tariff nation» and warning that reciprocal tariffs will come into effect on April 2. Speaking at an Oval Office event on Thursday, Trump described the upcoming levies as «the big one» among the many duties his administration has planned. India is expected to be hit particularly hard by these measures due to its high tariffs compared to the US. The comments come as Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal is in Washington for discussions with Trump administration officials on trade policy between the two nations. Trump, known for his strong stance on trade, has repeatedly accused India of imposing unfair trade barriers that hurt American businesses. He has previously called India the «biggest tariff abuser» and the «tariff king.»

announced a slew of new initiatives under the IndiaAI Mission on Thursday, celebrating the programme's first year of promoting artificial intelligence (AI) access and innovation. Key launches included the IndiaAI compute portal and the AIKosha dataset platform. Here's a deeper look at the initiatives announced by the minister.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Days after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv’s allies united to deploy a weapon against the Kremlin: freezing Russia’s overseas assets. The question of what to do with the $300 billion in frozen funds has divided European countries ever since.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. This week, the new US president addressed the US Congress in what turned out to be the longest speech in history. Apart from talking about immigration, geopolitical conflicts and making America great again, Donald Trump reiterated his strong stance on tariffs.

S Jaishankar during a discussion at Chatham House in London. The shift, largely driven by US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy, is helping reshape global alliances. “If I were to look at the big priorities of this president, many of them work for us,” Jaishankar stated. “He seems to be committed to keeping energy prices reasonably affordable and stable—we welcome that. He is putting a lot of emphasis on tech and on the use of tech as a game changer in global politics. That offers a lot of possibilities for us.” Jaishankar noted that the US administration under Trump is actively moving towards multipolarity, a shift that aligns with India’s vision for the future. “We see a president and an administration moving towards multipolarity, and that is something which suits India.”

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Let’s not call this a crisis of confidence in the S&P 500 index—at most, it’s a hiccup amid hallelujahs. The index was recently down slightly year to date but has still more than tripled investor money over the past decade.

Wang Yi stated, «China has always believed that being mutually supportive partners and achieving the 'Dragon and Elephant Dance' is the only correct choice for both sides.» Over the past year, relations between the two countries have seen positive developments. A key moment was the October 2024 meeting in Kazan, Russia, where Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks that provided strategic direction for improving ties. «China-India relations have made positive strides over the past year,» Wang said. Both sides have since actively followed through on their commitments, strengthening diplomatic engagement and practical cooperation at multiple levels.

«What we have seen in the past is whenever there is a tariff or anything like that, the metal prices usually go up in the near term and that is actually positive for companies like Hindalco,» says Parthiv Jhonsa, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities. I want to first really talk about what is happening in the world. We have been speaking with the managements of Hindalco, Nalco, etc. The managements firmly believe that these tariffs will not really impact them. Do you think that is the same? Parthiv Jhonsa: We need to understand that over especially last two months, the entire metal has seen a lot of to-and-fros internationally. Yes, companies like Hindalco where Novelis has a huge presence in USA, something like these tariffs would actually not make a huge difference or a huge dent to them because they have a good presence in USA.

Trump’s recent declaration of English as the official language of the US may seem relatively benign. Most residents already speak English and most immigrants are eager to learn it. Under most presidents, such a directive might have been largely symbolic. After all, 32 states already have English as their official language. But Trump isn’t most presidents. He has demonized immigrants for more than a decade, making them the scapegoats for nearly every societal ill. In his first term he complained that too many of them came from “[expletive] countries.” At a campaign event last March, he decried those who speak languages “that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a very horrible thing.” In his address to Congress this week, he touted his new executive order and accused legal immigration of resulting in “beautiful towns destroyed.”

By Sunil C, Country Manager, Adecco India

Amit Shah said that under the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, youth will now be able to write their Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) examination in all languages in the eighth schedule, including Tamil. He inaugurated various infrastructure and development projects at the 56th Raising Day of CISF in Arakkonam, Ranipet, on Friday. He released the CISF journal 'Sentinel' on the occasion. He reviewed the parade being held at the 56th Raising Day of CISF in Arakkonam.

Tech Mahindra in China, addressed a diverse audience representing over 15+ countries. The talk explored India’s rich technological heritage, tracing its roots from Sanskrit texts to the development of large language models tailored to India's diverse dialects. Emphasizing India's commitment to responsible AI, Sharma highlighted Prime Minister Modi’s co-chairing of the Paris Summit as a testament to the country’s leadership in fostering AI for good and for all. The discussion also shed light on India’s thriving startup ecosystem, ranking 19th globally, with Bengaluru securing a spot among the top 10 startup hubs worldwide. India’s substantial new investment of $3 billion in AI infrastructure, the National Quantum Mission, and advancements in AI-driven applications across agriculture, cleantech, spacetech, and healthcare were underscored as key milestones.

BEIJING — China's Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi struck a more conciliatory tone on U.S. relations during a high-profile press conference on Friday, in contrast to the ministry's more aggressive language earlier in the week.