Department Financial News

Investing.com — U.S. futures edged higher Friday, with positive sentiment in the tech sector boosting the main indices as the earnings season continues.

President Joe Biden is forgiving nearly $5 billion in additional student debt as the administration seeks to deliver on one of his signature initiatives with high stakes for his 2024 re-election campaign.

Hiren S Thakkar & Associates Chartered Accountants. In an interview with MintGenie, Thakkar said that in GST, there could be some rationalisation of rates because many basic necessity items are taxed at a higher band of 18 percent like health insurance premiums, ice-creams, biscuits, etc. Edited Excerpts: Budgets before elections are generally populist, and no drastic changes are expected.

Investing.com -- U.S. stock futures tick higher, pointing to an extension in gains posted in the prior session. Elsewhere, the U.S. Congress passes a bill providing short-term funding to the federal government, while department store chain Macy's (NYSE:M) reportedly plans to axe thousands of jobs and close some locations.

The entire nation will be joining in the celebration of the Ram temple consecration ceremony on January 22. To allow the people of Madhya Pradesh to actively participate in the festivities, all state government offices and institutes will remain closed until 2.30 pm on January 22, as mentioned in the notification.

US, on Thursday (local time), avoided answering a question regarding whether Pakistan had engaged in prior consultations with Washington before carrying out retaliatory air strikes on Iran. In response to media reports suggesting that Pakistan consulted with the US before conducting the strikes in Iran, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller, during a routine press briefing in Washington, stated, “I do not have any private conversations to read out." Also Read: Pakistan-Iran News LIVE Miller said, “The US is concerned about the escalating tensions in the region and has urged restraint on all sides." He stressed there is no need for escalation in the matter and that the country has noted the Pakistani government's comments about the importance of “cooperative relations between Pakistan and its neighbours." In response to a question on how the US administration reads the situation between Iran and Pakistan, Miller said, “We are concerned about escalating tensions in the region.

Lenny Bogdonoff, known on Twitter as @rememberlenny, marked his departure from OpenAI on January 6, 2024, culminating a remarkable journey in the realm of AI and coding. Bogdonoff's 20-month tenure at OpenAI was marked by significant contributions across various departments, starting with his initial role in the Codex team. His journey at OpenAI began after leaving a startup he founded, bringing his entrepreneurial spirit into the cutting-edge world of AI.

Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda. The sowing of wheat, the main rabi (winter) crop, that began in October has been completed. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Punjab are the top three states having the maximum area under wheat coverage.

nuns and priests, working as teachers in government-aided Christian missionary schools, are entitled to income tax exemption. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra on Thursday took note of the submissions of senior advocate Arvind Datar that the plea of several dioceses and congregations from Tamil Nadu and Kerala on the issue needed an urgent hearing. The bench agreed to consider listing the plea, which raised the issue whether the income of nuns and priests, working as teachers, can be subjected to income tax. In December, 2014, the Income Tax department asked the educational authorities to effect TDS (tax deducted at source) from persons working as teachers. The appeals have been filed in the top court after the high courts did not agree to the challenge raised by nearly 100 dioceses and congregations from Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The plea said the income of nuns and priests become the income of the congregation which runs the school and that these teachers personally do not acquire the money paid as salaries. The high courts at Madras and Kerala rejected the pleas for income tax exemption. The pleas said the IT exemption was being enjoyed by government-aided missionary schools from 1944 till the union government decided to impose tax deduction at source in 2014.

Ram temple consecration ceremony scheduled in Ayodhya, as per an order issued by the Ministry of Finance on January 18, The order specifies a half-day closing, effective until 2:30 PM, for Central Government Offices, Central Institutions, and Central Industrial Establishments on January 22, 2024. The Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT) has also released an order allowing employees to participate in the 'Pran Pratishtha' celebration.

The projected cost of replacing the aging nuclear missiles buried in silos across the Great Plains has soared by more than a third to $107 billion, the Pentagon said, a development that comes as China pushes ahead with an expansion of its arsenal. The problems at one of its priority programs put more pressure on the Pentagon’s funding for other programs as it wrestles with the prospect of cuts over the next several years unless Congress can agree on a broader budget deal.

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week fell to its lowest level in more than a year, underscoring the resilience of the labor market amid elevated interest rates

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) — Malaysia's economy likely grew 3.4% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2023, slightly faster than the previous three-month period, official advance estimates showed on Friday.

Ram Temple in Ayodhya, scheduled for January 22, has prompted several states or central governments to declare it a public holiday or half day in honor of this significant Hindu event. The Department of Personnel and Training on Thursday announced that all central government offices will be closed for half day on January 22 on the occasion of the Pran Pratishta ceremony of Ram Lalla idol at Ayodhya Ram Temple.

Investing.com — Macy's (NYSE:M) will reportedly cut about 3.5% of its workforce and shutter five of its stores as the department store ramps up efforts to cut costs amid a difficult demand backdrop. 

By Richard Cowan and Makini Brice

₹77,000 crore) is exhausted. Further, license fee should be brought down from 3% to 1% at the earliest, to cover only administrative costs by the department of telecommunications," a statement by Coai said.

.Job gains and raises helped power solid economic growth in the U.S. last year, but what if those gains were a mirage? The Labor Department overestimated job gains last year by about 13%. That suggests some of Wall Street’s optimism last year was built...

President Joe Biden says that U.S. military strikes against Iranian-back Houthi rebels in Yemen will continue, but he acknowledges that the American and British bombardment has yet to stop shipping attacks by the militants on vessels in the Red Sea

₹36.85 crore. The company had posted a net profit of ₹62.74 crore in the October-December period a year ago, according to a regulatory filing from Shoppers Stop. The firm's revenue from operations was up 8.83 percent to ₹1,237.52 crore during the quarter under review.

unemployment benefits last week fell to its lowest level in more than a year, underscoring the resilience of the labour market despite elevated interest rates that are intended to cool the economy. Jobless claim applications fell to 187,000 for the week ending January 13, a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That's the fewest since September of 2022.