Country Financial News

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd operating in over 190 countries, has launched its services as an aggregator in the US, offering subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) services of south Asian origin within its app. The ZEE5 Global Add-ons feature positions itself as a single window for US audiences to explore South Asian entertainment platforms, including Simply South (all South Indian languages), Oho Gujarati, Chaupal (Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Haryanvi), Namma Flix (Kannada), istream (Malayalam) and EPIC ON (Hindi). The add-ons come with prices starting from $1.49.

Thomas Cook India and its subsidiary SOTC are seeing at least 20% growth in bookings for October-December 2023, from a year ago for these destinations, with their customers favouring either no-visa destinations or those offering easy terms or those granting visas on arrival. Thailand is already seeing 30% growth for the upcoming holiday season over November 2022 and January 2023. It waived visa requirements for Indians, allowing 30 days stay from 10 November to 10 May.

NEW DELHI : European multinational companies facing hefty tax demands in India have filed a review petition urging the Supreme Court to follow the Vienna Convention in interpreting the most-favoured nation (MFN) clause in tax treaties, two people familiar with the matter said. Ruling on a batch of five petitions, a landmark 19 October Supreme Court verdict had backed the tax department in the matter, effectively doubling the withholding tax outgo of these companies, and potentially opening up more companies to similar tax demands. The aggrieved companies soon filed review petitions; among them, Steria India challenged a tax ruling pertaining to the India-France tax treaty.

Mint. The development assumes significance because retail milk prices have shot up year-on-year, as fodder, a key feed ingredient for livestock, has become more expensive. On Sunday, the all-India average retail milk price stood at ₹57.52 a litre against ₹54.9 during the corresponding period last year. Fodder makes 70% of the cost of livestock management, with the remaining 30% going on breeding and healthcare, this person said.

Mint explains the background and lists the options: Consumers in India use a whole variety of pulses, including tur (pigeon pea), masoor (lentils), chana (gram), urad (black gram), and moong (green gram) as a staple. The most recent data from the consumer affairs department shows that except for lentils, the year-on-year price rise in other varieties ranges from 19% for gram to 41% for tur. In some major cities the price rise is more pronounced.

Long delays to get a new U.S. passport have eased from earlier in 2023 but haven't yet returned to their pre-pandemic baseline.

By Andreas Rinke and Miranda Murray

sextortion has advocates warning the issue is getting worse in Canada.For years, law enforcement and researchers have been warning about the dangers of rising incidents of criminals targeting minors through sextortion, calling the problem an “epidemic” that is leading to mental health issues and suicide. Despite some steps taken by governments and social media companies to increase safety online, the number of reported instances continues to rise.“We have a public health emergency on our hands,” Signy Arnason, the associated executive director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (CCCP), told Global News in an interview.Back in September, the CCCP’s national tip line for reporting online child sexual abuse, Cybertip.ca, reported they were receiving on average 40 reports of sextortion per week.

Nikki Haley as an alternative to Donald Trump ahead of the Iowa caucus that will kickstart the 2024 primary in less than 2 months. In a memo circulated by the anti-Trump organization, its CEO Emily Seidel described the former UN ambassador Haley as someone offering «America the opportunity to turn the page on the current political era.» In an interaction with reporters, Seidel said that «Haley has what it takes to lead a policy agenda that will take on our nation's biggest challenges and help ensure our country's best days are ahead of us. And with the grassroots and data capability that we bring to bear in this race no other organization is better equipped to help her do it.» In a statement, the former governor of South Carolina said she was «honored» to have the group's support.

shortage of skilled labour in the frontline or blue-collar workforce has prompted companies across sectors such as industrial/manufacturing, electrical/electronics, NBFCs, retail, ecommerce and FMCG to hire more hands with class X/XII qualifications, and then train the apprentices in specific skill sets to make them «jobs-ready». This is leading to an all-time high demand for apprentices, as per a study by TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship, shared exclusively with ET. The net apprenticeship outlook — or the willingness among employers to engage apprentices — for H2 (Oct-Mar) has soared to record high with 75% of the organisations planning to onboard apprentices versus 41% in the same period in 2021.

Erratic rains have disrupted rice and potato cultivation, causing an increase of up to 12% in prices of these two essential staples of Indian households over the past month. Even though the government has banned exports of non-basmati rice, prices have shot up by 15% amid increased demand from south India where patchy rains in Karnataka have reduced kharif rice production. On the other hand, unpredictable rainfall in October has impacted sowing of the new potato crop, which will delay the arrival of the new crop, pushing up prices of the old stock of potatoes. Southern states are increasingly buying rice from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal, inflating prices across the country. The Centre had banned exports of non-basmati rice from July 20 to ensure adequate supply in the domestic market and to control prices. Basmati rice prices have also shot up by 10% due to robust export demand from the Middle East. Suraj Agarwal, CEO of RiceVilla, a rice marketing and exporting company said, «Non-basmati rice prices have gone up as there was scarcity of rains in southern India leading to a shortage in supply.» He added that prices may remain firm over the next three to four months due to the expected impact of El Nino till the next summer crop in April 2024. According to the first advance estimates of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare, India's rice production has been pegged at 1,06.31 million metric tonnes, a 3.7% dip from the same season of last year. Interestingly, the decline is despite an increase in the area under kharif paddy production.

Former West Virginia coal miner Bo Copley says Biden will try to pander to China on 'The Bottom Line.'

Tokyo Gas has joined the race to acquire a minority stake in Think Gas Distribution, Indian natural gas supplier owned by private equity fund I Squared Capital, said two people aware of the development. Founded in 1885, Tokyo Gas is the city gas provider in the Tokyo metropolitan area and surrounding Kanto region. Tokyo Gas is doing due diligence at present, said sources.

gender pay gap across sectors in India is well known. But what is liable to raise eyebrows is that even a 'modern' sector like technology, with its sturdy linkages with the global economy and young cohort of workers, suffers from the same malaise. A new Aon PLC report shows that the unadjusted gender pay gap in the tech sector in 2023 is 28-30%, while in junior management, it is 18-20%.

anger is mostly considered a bad quality in an individual. Well, of course, the word anger is one letter short of danger.

UNEP) released its Emissions Gap Report 2023. The big headline is that this will be the hottest year ever. UNEP confirmed the worst fears about rapidly advancing climate change, manifesting in the recent instances of extreme weather that led to devastation in several countries, including Pakistan and India.

Phil Collins's ex-wife Orianne Ceveyn will auction his piano and jukebox along with several pieces of Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry. Miami-based auction house Kodner will auction the Phil and Orianne Collins Collection on December 6. It will include more than $4 million worth of the former couple’s personal belongings. A Yamaha baby grand piano on which he taught his son to play is the singer’s most prized possession. A Wurlitzer jukebox that was a wedding gift from Collins' manager is equally valuable. Designer handbags (mainly Chanel) and jewels by Van Cleef & Arpels and other luxury brands will also come under the hammer. Swiss jewelry designer Cevey married the former Genesis drummer and frontman, whose solo career includes such hits as 'In the Air Tonight' and 'Against All Odds in 1999.

JSW Steel on Tuesday said it has paid about Rs 2.79 lakh that was levied as penalty by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on JSW Ispat Special Products Ltd (JISPL). JISPL was amalgamated with effect from July 31, 2023 after an order of the National Company Law Tribunal dated June 22, 2023, JSW Steel said in a filing on Tuesday.

Assembly polls in five states have declared criminal cases against them, while 29 per cent are «crorepatis», according to a report released on Tuesday. Think-tank Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) examined the self-sworn affidavits of 8,051 of the 8,054 candidates in the poll fray in Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana.

RBI). They suggest newer supervised and advanced machine learning (ML) techniques. In the paper titled ‘Inflation Forecasting in India: Are ML techniques useful’, authors argue that ML techniques outperformed traditional mathematical models for both the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods.

pharmaceutical business may exceed USD 130 billion by 2030, supported by expanding market opportunities and heightened demand in the overseas markets, industry experts said on Tuesday. The business stood at over USD 50 billion for the 2022-23 fiscal, they noted. Chairman of PharmExcil (Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India) Veeramani S V said the Indian pharmaceutical industry is on a compelling growth trajectory, evidenced by an 8 per cent year-to-date increase in exports and a remarkable 29 per cent surge in October alone. «This growth is propelled by expanding market opportunities, heightened demand in the USA, and critical shortages of medicines in the US and Europe. Despite challenges in CIS countries, the global reception of Indian pharmaceuticals remains positive,» he said. Veeramani noted that the domestic market has exhibited impressive growth, exceeding 10 per cent.