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climate change. This year, four topics are expected to dominate the negotiations: a report on the worldwide implementation of the landmark Paris accord called the “global stocktake," the future of fossil fuels, climate finance for poorer countries and the setting up of a fund to pay for climate damage. The meeting in Dubai is the 28th conference of the parties—or COP28—to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the global climate treaty signed in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro.

health insurance scheme. “Poor people who could never even dream of entering a good private-sector hospital can now go there and without spending a penny can get treated for all kinds of serious ailments," he said.

Investing.com-- Japan’s Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s KOSPI were the best performers in Asia in November as the prospect of a less hawkish Federal Reserve boosted risk assets across the region. 

Animal vs Sam Bahadur advance booking Day 1: Animal is getting a lot of attention in the Hindi language, where it has made about ₹17.1 crore from advance booking for the first day. More than 5.75 lakh tickets have been sold for over 10,000 shows. Sam Bahadur has made about ₹1.81 crore and about 57,888 tickets have been sold for the first day.

murder-for-hire charges for an attempt to kill Khalistani separatist and leader of banned Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) outfit Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil. The development comes just hours after India announced they have formed a high-level probe committee into security concerns shared by the US during the recently concluded bilateral meet. -- The US Justice Department has filed charges against an Indian national for an alleged plot to assassinate a US-based leader of the Sikh Separatist Movement and a citizen in New York.

₹298 apiece on National Stock Exchange (NSE), a premium of 76.33% to the issue price of ₹169. The stock further jumped to ₹344 levels in minutes after hitting the secondary market, indicating a stellar premium of 103% over the issue price. The ₹500.69 crore IPO was open for subscription between November 22 and November 24, at a price band in the range of ₹160–169 per share.

China and India will be granted visa-free entry to Malaysia for a duration of up to 30 days from December 1, as announced by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim during a speech at the People's Justice Party congress on Sunday. The visa exemptions, confirmed by Malaysia's Home Affairs Ministry in a statement on Monday, will be in effect until December 31, 2024. As reported by PTI, China and India represent Malaysia's fourth and fifth-largest tourist markets.

OECD warned. Moreover, the OECD said the risks to the forecast are tilted downwards amid heightened geopolitical tensions, an uncertain outlook for trade, and the risk that tight monetary policy could hurt firms, consumer spending and employment more than expected. “Inflation is easing, but growth is slowing,” OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli said in a statement. “We are projecting a soft landing for advanced economies, but this is far from guaranteed.” The gloomy perspective points to a long hangover from the global inflation crisis that followed the Covid pandemic and a surge in energy prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Asia and Russian leadership and erstwhile Soviet leadership have long sought to play a greater role in the Asia-Pacific (or what India terms as the Indo-Pacific region). This role is gaining further momentum following rupture in ties with the West in the aftermath of the Ukraine conflict.

Gen Z users across the country including a special focus on non-metro cities, a social media app with a focus on safety and community building, and an action game truly customised for India – these are just some of the winners for Google Play’s Best of 2023 in India — the search giant's yearly awards to recognise the best apps and games on Google Play and the developers who bring them to life. It said that this year too there were many new and exciting apps that helped people through a range of critical needs, with self care, personal growth, and ecommerce apps dominating app innovations this year. Gaming continued to see strong momentum in India, with more gamers from diverse pockets of the country joining the fold and immersing themselves in a wide array of titles across genres, including casual, sports, role-playing, and action. Many of these titles come from Indian developers.

Mumbai: Subscribers to the National Pension Scheme (NPS) can now choose separate pension managers for three asset classes—equity, government security, and corporate bonds, as per an update provided by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority. The option, however, has not been extended to alternative assets.

Investing.com-- Most Asian stocks kept to a tight range on Thursday after data from China pointed to sustained weakness in the region’s biggest economy, although most indexes were nursing strong gains for November. 

“India, with its relatively superior economic and corporate earnings growth, could attract higher global flows than what we have seen historically," Rupen Rajguru, Head Equity Investments and Strategy, Julius Baer India. In an interview with ETMarkets, Rajguru who has over has over 19 years of experience in the Indian Capital Markets said: “While India remains an expensive market vs the EM peers, we believe that stronger earnings growth, macro stability and better visibility will help the country to enjoy the premium valuations,” Edited excerpts: We are approaching the last month of the year 2023. Where are markets headed? The Indian markets seem to be on a good wicket at the current juncture, albeit some near-term intermittent volatility which again could be driven more by global factors.

Gautam Trivedi, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Napean Capital, says “the market is now starting to accept that there is a certain different valuation metric we should be applying to the new age tech companies. These companies are changing the way we live and behave, whether it is Zomato, whether it is insurance online or Paytm. Going forward, these are companies you want to keep owning from a longer term perspective.” Let us look at something which is in the public domain, something which we have discussed in the past, your top holdings, Varun Beverages, Landmark, Inox Wind, Sampada. Have your top five holdings changed or are they still intact? These are the top five holdings on a mark to market basis. So these are actually companies that we are a bit more of a special sits (situations) fund. We look for steady compounders as well. Varun Beverages, interestingly, was a special sits which became a steady compounder. Landmark Cars, is the other sector which is compounding – the auto space. Inox Wind, is a special sits investment because the government policy has changed favourably towards wind power because there was too much focus on solar given the fact that solar energy is only available from eight o'clock in the morning to about 4.30 or 5.00 p.m. in the afternoon.

Investing.com-- Chinese manufacturing activity declined further in November, as the sector saw increased headwinds from slowing overseas demand, while growth in the non-manufacturing sector also deteriorated. 

Investing.com-- Oil prices fell in Asian trade on Thursday tracking weak economic signals from top importer China, with traders now holding out for an upcoming OPEC+ meeting where the cartel is widely expected to announce more supply reductions. 

Loco, a gaming-focused streaming platform, has laid off around 40, or 36%, of its 110 employees. The company announced the layoffs during a town hall meeting with employees on Wednesday, even as it plans to expand operations overseas. Anirudh Pandita and Ashwin Suresh, the founders, told employees that the layoffs are part of the firm’s restructuring strategy, said people aware of the matter.

(This story originally appeared in on Nov 29, 2023)

Oil prices fell in early Asian trade on Thursday on weaker-than-expected Chinese manufacturing data, but investors maintained caution ahead of an OPEC+ meeting where production cuts are expected. Brent crude futures fell 28 cents, or 0.3%, to $82.90 a barrel by 0024 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 24 cents, or 0.3%, to $77.68 a barrel. China's manufacturing activity contracted for a second straight month in November and at a quicker pace than expected, an official factory survey showed on Thursday, suggesting more policy support measures are needed to help shore up economic growth in the world's largest oil importer.

A South African company will make vaginal rings that protect against HIV, which AIDS experts say should eventually make them cheaper and more readily available

climate change at COP28 in Dubai, which would be the biggest UN climate meet yet. Host, the UAE, said the goal is to restrict temperature rise to 1.5°C from pre-industrial levels by closing the gap between ambition and action.