Department Financial News

Summer is yet to fully set in, but taps in India’s tech capital Bengaluru are running dry. Coming on the back of Karnataka’s worst drought in over four decades, the current crisis shows us what could be in store for the rest of the country—in the immediate future for some parts, and in the foreseeable future for others—as water remains a precious and scarce commodity. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned of a hotter and drier summer this year due to the El Niño effect.

Sidhu Moosewala's parents were blessed with their second son, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has sought a report from the Government of Punjab regarding the IVF treatment of Sidhu Moosewala’s mother, Charan Kaur, asking the state government to submit a report to the department. The development comes after Balkaur Singh, the father of late Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala accused the Punjab government of harassing him over the birth of his second son. The two had opted for In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) technique. Health Ministry's order:

JSW Group and Chinese car manufacturer SAIC Motor-owned MG Motor India today unveiled the Cyberster, an all-electric convertible roadster, in India. This vehicle, touted as the world’s first fully-electric super gaming car, is powered by dual motor. The company said that the Cyberster can accelerate from 0-100 km/h in just 3.2 seconds. Commenting on the launch, Sajjan Jindal, Chairman of JSW Group said that they want to launch one electric vehicle every 3-4 months. «The idea is to create a Maruti moment,» Jindal said. MG Motor, a British brand owned by SAIC Motor, entered into a joint venture with the JSW Group. Jindal’s JSW Group hold 35 per cent of the company’s India operations. MG Motor today displayed three new EVs — MG 4 EV Hatchback, alongside MG 5 and MG Cyberster.

ISLAMABAD: An earthquake of 5.5 magnitude struck Pakistan on the wee hours of Wednesday, the National Centre for Seismology reported. The earthquake occurred at 2:57 am (IST) and its depth was measured at 105 km.

Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict with Russia, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin warned that if Vladimir Putin is successful here, he will not stop there. Convening the 20th meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, Austin said that Ukraine will not back down in the face of the Russian invasion of the country, and neither will the United States, the statement from the US Department of Defence (DOD) stated. The meeting took place at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, praising the «countries of conscience» that are working together to aid Ukraine in its fight.

Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Tuesday brushed aside President Joe Biden's opposition to a planned ground invasion of Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip, saying that his government would press ahead despite pleas for restraint from the United States and key allies. Netanyahu made the remarks to Israeli lawmakers a day after speaking by phone with Biden, who reiterated his stance against an offensive into Rafah, arguing that it could be disastrous for the people there and that Israel had other ways of achieving its objective of defeating Hamas.

Home invasions are a growing concern in Canada, with increasing reports of break-ins for auto thefts and residential burglaries in some big Canadian cities.

By Katherine Masters and Abigail Summerville

By Richard Cowan and David Morgan

India with AI skills and knowledge may see salary hikes of more than 54 per cent with those in IT and research and development enjoying the highest pay increases, according to a report by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Around 99 per cent of employers envision their companies becoming AI-driven organisations by 2028, the report commissioned by Amazon subsidiary AWS stated. «While most employers (97 per cent) believe their finance department will be the biggest beneficiary, they also foresee IT (96 per cent), research and development (96 per cent), sales and marketing (96per cent), business operations (95 per cent), human resources (94 per cent), and legal (92 per cent) departments driving significant value from AI too,» it said.

Narendra Modi will be speaking at the Startup Mahakumbh event in New Delhi tomorrow. “At 10:30 AM tomorrow, I will be speaking at the Startup Mahakumbh, a forum which brings together stakeholders from the world of startups, innovators and upcoming entrepreneurs. India’s strides in the world of Startups has been phenomenal in the last few years,” Modi said on microblogging platform X.

CBDT has permitted income tax authorities to file appeals irrespective of monetary threshold in cases relating to TDS/TCS, undisclosed foreign income, or information received from investigating agencies like ED and GST Intelligence. Currently, tax authorities can file appeals before the ITAT, High Court and Supreme Court, if the disputed tax demand exceeds Rs 50 lakh, Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore respectively — a threshold fixed in 2019. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in a circular dated March 15 said that the said monetary limits will not be applicable for filing appeals in cases where prosecution has been filed by the department in the relevant case, and trial is pending and conviction order has been passed and the same has not been compounded. Cases where the assessment is based on information with regard to an offence alleged to have been committed under any other law and information received from law enforcement or intelligence agencies like CBI, ED, DRI, SFIO, NIA, NCB, Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), and state law enforcement agencies, in such cases the appeals would be filed irrespective of the tax demand on the assessee.

By David Shepardson

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. appointed Hadley Peer Marshall as its chief financial officer, making her one of the most senior women in the executive suite at the Canadian investment firm.

Opposition was fighting against a “Shakti". However, Rahul Gandhi, in his comments made on Sunday in Maharashtra, raised concerns about the operation of EVMs to emphasise the Opposition's struggle against the might of the state. “There is a word 'Shakti' (might) in Hinduism.

The latest U.S. agricultural census data, out last month with the latest five-year update of data from 2022, shows an increase in the proportion of farms utilizing contract labor compared to those hiring labor overall

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — U.S. single-family homebuilding rebounded sharply in February amid mild temperatures and a persistent shortage of previously owned houses on the market.

State Bank of India is likely to shift its centralised global back office and some other foreign exchange related departments from Kolkata to Mumbai, the country's financial capital, in yet another move to centralize operations. The back office was set up in 2015 in the City of Joy when Anundhati Bhattacharya was the chairperson of the bank. The back office works 22x7 to cater to customers in Sydney, Bahrain, Hong Kong, London and New York. The bank has not formally announced the move but started preparing grounds for it, three people aware of the development said.

By Chris Prentice

Election Commission's released of data on the electoral bond scheme inroduced in 2018 turned quite a few heads, with multiple conglomerates donating incredible amounts of money to India's political parties. Right at the top of the list was Future Gaming Private Limited, a lottery company founded by one Santiago Martin, that donated ₹1,368 crore. Who is Martin, described as a smooth-talking 'lottery king'? Born in 1961, Martin spent some of his youth working in Myanmar as a daily wager, returning to India in the 1980s just as the craze for lottery tickets picked up. The future founder of Future Gaming settled in Coimbatore, working in a tea shop in Tatabad. Eventually, Martin would decide to set up shop selling lottery tickets.

graphite. Graphjet Technology said it can turn palm kernels into graphite — an essential component in EV battery anodes — from its facility in Malaysia, one of the world’s top producers of palm oil. The company, which started trading on Nasdaq Friday, expects to begin producing the ingredient in the second quarter, targeting an annual capacity of 3,000 tons, according to Chief Executive Officer Aiden Lee. Synthetic graphite, which accounts for most of global production, is typically made from petroleum coke, in an expensive and carbon-intensive process. Graphjet says its process cuts the carbon footprint by 83% while reducing costs by 80%.