Department Financial News

By Mimosa Spencer

The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), under the Department of Commerce, has taken a significant stride towards fostering a safe and trustworthy environment for Artificial Intelligence (AI) through the inception of the Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute Consortium (“Consortium”). The Consortium's formation was announced in a notice published on November 2, 2023, by NIST, marking a collaborative effort to set up a new measurement science for identifying scalable and proven techniques and metrics. These metrics are aimed at advancing the development and responsible utilization of AI, especially concerning advanced AI systems like the most capable foundation models.

By Ernest Scheyder

World Cup between India and Australia on Sunday, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel chaired a high-level meeting to review the arrangements. Also Read: India Vs Australia, ICC World Cup 2023 final: 'Australia will win by 385 runs', Mitchell Marsh's prophecy goes viral The state CM took the meeting, on Friday, to review the security, cleanliness, and traffic management-related arrangements. The much-awaited final match will also be joined by the top leaders of both countries.

government to allow FDI in inventory-based model of online trade for export purposes only. The extant policy does not allow FDI foreign direct investment in the inventory-based model of e-commerce.

By Moira Warburton and David Morgan

coal ministry aims a 14% reduction in rail logistics cost through railway network optimization for coal logistics, the government said Friday, a day after the 60th meeting of the Network Planning Group (NPG). “The meeting focused on discussions on Sectoral Plan for efficient Logistics (SPEL)by individual line ministries/departments,” the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement. This initiative, among the various initiatives proposed under the Comprehensive Logistics Action Plan (CLAP) of National Logistics Policy (NLP), was proposed to ensure that a focused approach is taken in addressing logistics-related requirements at the individual sector level. The ministries of steel and coal presented their plans to address logistics issues pertaining to infrastructure, processes, digital improvements, policies and regulatory reforms, and capacity building for a better workforce. Steel ministry outlined their SPEL approach, encompassing in-depth supply and demand analysis for iron ore and steel, forecasted requirements up to 2030-31 and beyond, and strategic planning for future readiness in logistics.

The savage sell-off that hit Treasuries in prior months was driven by concerns a buyers’ strike had hit the $26 trillion bond market. It’s now confirmed: at least one set of investors headed for the exits back in September.

RBI) and others to smoothen out various issues faced by the sector. "We (DGFT) are working with the RBI, and Indian banking association to streamline the process of export credit availability," Sarangi said.

DFW housing and macro econ analyst Amy Nixon discusses the future of the housing market on Making Money.

 DISTILL CEO Neely Tamminga reacts to the Supreme Court slashing President Biden's student loan handout plan on 'Making Money.'

The e-commerce industry has suggested the government permit foreign direct investment (FDI) in inventory-based model of online trade only for export purposes, a senior government official said on Friday. 

Gaza Strip, triggered by Hamas's cross-border attack on Oct. 7, has brought upheaval and destruction to the Palestinian territory on a scale never before seen in the enclave. Here are latest estimates from international organisations on the socio-economic impact of the conflict. Housing The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), quoting data from the Palestinian public works and housing department, said Israeli attacks had destroyed more than 41,000 housing units and damaged more than 222,000 housing units. In all, it said at least 45% of Gaza's housing units had reportedly been damaged or destroyed. It was impossible to independently verify the numbers, but Reuters reporters in Gaza say the destruction is on a huge scale.

By James Pearson

Jennifer Hicks, Binance’s Senior Counter-Terrorism Official, has officially resigned from the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, as disclosed on her LinkedIn profile.

monitoring pollution, Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Thursday. The six-member STF will perform other functions like coordinating with different departments and compiling reports to tackle poor AQI. The Delhi minister said that the current scenario of air pollution in the city is likely to remain the same for the next three days due to unfavorable meteorological conditions.

Also Read: Adani to kick off Dharavi project with $1.5 billion investment The state government’s Urban Development Department has modified the rules through a notification, the report added. According to the existing rules, there is an indexation provision for the utilization of Transferable Development Rights (TDR). This means that there would not be any cap on area-specific use of the TDR.

Israel's invasion of Gaza has destroyed decades of work to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has set «the whole region on fire,» Jordan's foreign minister told CNN on Thursday. «Israel is not producing security for itself by the killing of innocent Palestinians,» Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said, adding, «It's putting the whole region on fire again, and it has destroyed the hard work that many had made over the decades to make sure that we come to a peaceful conclusion to this conflict.» Israel had «killed any embrace of peace in the region» and its war against Hamas had pushed regional relations back more than 30 years, Safadi also said, according to CNN. The Jordanian government had been discussing with Israel about exchanging solar power for energy but these discussions have now stopped because people «don't see any value» in dealing with Israel as its ground offensive in Gaza continues, Safadi said. He said he thought the evidence Israel had shared to back its claim that Hamas had a «command node» under the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City was «just ridiculous» and an «insult to intelligence.» He was also opposed to Israel's claim that its military operations in Gaza were self-defence. «Any other country in the world that would have done a fragment of what Israel is doing would have been under sanctions by now,» Safadi said, adding, «This is not self-defence.

Semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials is under US criminal investigation for potentially evading export restrictions on China's top chipmaker SMIC, according to three people familiar with the matter. The largest US semiconductor equipment maker is being probed by the Justice Department for sending equipment to SMIC via South Korea without export licenses, the sources said. Hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment is involved, one of the people said. Reuters is reporting details of the probe for the first time.

Nasdaq managed to eke out tiny gains on Thursday while the Dow Industrial Average ended slightly lower with pressure from tech and retail bellwethers Cisco and Walmart after disappointing forecasts. Shares of Cisco Systems tumbled 9.8% as the communications and networking technology company cut its full-year revenue and profit forecasts on slowing demand for its networking equipment. Also in technology, Palo Alto Networks shares fell 5.4% after its forecast late Wednesday for second-quarter billings missed expectations. Walmart shares sank 8.1% a day after touching a record high.

Gaza's biggest hospital. Reuters could not immediately verify the video that showed a deep hole in the ground, littered with and surrounded by concrete and wood rubble and sand. The army said its troops also found a vehicle in the hospital containing a large number of weapons, according to a report published by Reuters. 1) Hamas on Thursday said claims by the Pentagon and US State Department that the group uses Al Shifa for military purposes "is a repetition of a blatantly false narrative, demonstrated by the weak and ridiculous performances of the occupation army spokesman." 2) White House spokesperson John Kirby said the United States is confident in an assessment from its own intelligence agencies on Hamas activities in Al Shifa hospital and will neither share nor elaborate on it.