Election Financial News

Nikki Haley and Donald Trump, the Associated Press reported. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped his bid just two days before New Hampshire's primary.

Shri Ram Lalla was unveiled for devotees across the world on Monday, prominent publications gave it aplace in their online space. The Ram Lalla idol was unveiled during the grand 'Pran Pratishtha', which involved hour-long rituals led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

ElevenLabs, a startup that uses artificial intelligence software to replicate voices in more than two dozen languages, has raised a new round of funding that values the two-year-old company north of $1 billion. ElevenLabs said Monday that it raised $80 million in funding led by venture fund Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Smash Capital and SV Angel. The company has raised $101 million to date.  Chief Executive Officer Mati Staniszewski said the latest financing gives his startup a $1.1 billion valuation.

Catch all the Ayodhya Ram Mandir Inauguration Live UpdatesView

electorate strength of 6,18,90,348 with women voters outnumbering men as per the integrated final electoral roll of the special summary revision, 2024, released on Monday here. The final published electoral roll had reference to January 1, 2024 as the qualifying date, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Satyabrata Sahoo said.

Budget 2024 Expectations: The increased tax buoyancy as reflected in both income tax and GST monthly collection data will provide headroom to the government to allocate more funds for farmers and social sector schemes in the forthcoming interim budget, without sacrificing fiscal prudence, sources said. The focus in the interim budget, which will be the last major economic document of the Modi 2.0 Government ahead of the general elections, is likely to be on the issues being faced by poorer sections of the society, especially in rural areas.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament Pratap Simha faced resistance from Dalits in a village in Karnataka's Mysore district. The village had played a significant role in supplying the stone used to craft the idol of Ram Lalla, slated for installation in the Ram Temple in Ayodhya later in the day. Accusations of neglect spanning a decade and alleged derogatory remarks fueled the confrontation, as Simha, a two-time Lok Sabha representative from the area, faced a vocal and angered crowd.

Ayodhya dispute has been a contentious matter for many years, entangled in numerous court actions by Muslim and Hindu religious groups. 1528: A mosque was built on the site by Mughal emperor Babar which Hindus allege to be the birth place of Lord Ram and where a temple earlier existed. 1530-1605: There were multiple allegations of conflicts and incidents of sectarian violence in relation to the Mandir-Masjid debate.

The polls show Americans want to move on from President Biden, and Republicans have a choice to make about the alternative to offer voters in November. Will it be the prospect of a second Donald Trump term, with its inevitable turmoil and polarization, or will the GOP look forward to forge a new conservative governing coalition? That’s the essence of the choice facing Republicans as New Hampshire holds its primary on Tuesday. The Trump campaign, the press and the Biden Democrats say the race is over.

UltraTech Cement is optimistic about capacity utilisation and broader demand expansion, except in the northern region. The management also expects declining fuel costs to boost profitability at India's biggest manufacturer of the primary building material as the nation enters an election year.

Nitin Raheja, ED,Julius Baer Wealth Advisors, says “some of the defence stocks are getting valued based on order books. We forget that these kinds of businesses tend to be lumpy and from quarter to quarter, there could be big variances. Some of these valuations do not leave too much margin for error. In Railways stocks, again, we are seeing something similar taking place in terms of valuations. We will probably see some amount of lull in the next three, six months as we get into elections.” What is your take on the entire FMCG basket because for the bulk of last year, there was underperformance from this sector though in the last couple of months, there was a bit of an uptick. Is the worst over? Has the rural demand scheme bottomed out? Nitin Raheja: Anecdotally, two-wheeler companies are talking about at least initial signs of revival. So, while we do not have full-fledged data to support the fact that there is a revival, clearly there are early signs of a revival in the rural economy. If that were to subsist and also as we generally get into the election zone, some amount of spending will be taking place in the rural economies, more to do with infrastructure.

Donald Trump's surprise victory in the 2016 presidential election delivered a shock to financial markets. If he manages to secure a second one, traders will — if anything — be far more prepared.

Vincent Mortier, Group CIO of France's Amundi, Europe's largest asset manager, said the US Federal Reserve may not cut rates in March as the market is expecting. In an interview with Nishanth Vasudevan, Mortier, who oversees global assets under management worth over $2 trillion, spoke on a range of topics. Edited excerpts: The market is expecting the US Fed to cut rates as early as March. What are your thoughts?

NEW DELHI : The women and child welfare ministry may get a 3%-hike in the interim budget to ₹26,212 crore, according to two officials aware of the matter, amid a focus on women ahead of general elections. This outlay is expected to be earmarked for expanding marquee schemes such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Saksham Anganwadi and self help groups (SHG). Women voters are seen as a key constituency for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as it aims a third term in office.

It has become fashionable of late to compare US President Joe Biden in 2023 to Jimmy Carter in 1979. Just as the events of 1979 doomed Carter’s re-election hopes the following year, developments in 2023 are said to have effectively sunk Biden’s bid for a second term in November. Most obviously, both Carter and Biden confronted a demoralizing inflation problem.

Election Commission of India has a task at hand — deciding on symbols of key regional parties embroiled in dispute. The two cases before ECI are related to Maharashtra's Nationalist Congress Party and Bihar's Lok Jantantrik Party. While NCP is part of INDIA bloc, LJP is in NDA fold. Another one is related to Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena. While its original 'bow and arrow' symbol has been given to the Eknath Shinde faction, the free symbol allocated to it — 'mashaal' or torch — is in dispute.

parties, including NDA allies and erstwhile BJP partner SAD, have responded favourably to the idea of 'one nation, one election', sources said. Former president Ram Nath Kovind-led high-level committee is likely to hold deliberations with chief election commissioner and Bar Council of India representatives in its next meeting on Saturday, sources said. Several parties, including BJP, are yet to get back to the panel and have sought more time. Lok Janshakti Party, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, Tamil Manila Congress, PMK and SAD are among the parties that have backed the idea, sources said. The panel had sought views from 46 parties; only 17 have replied so far.

By Steve Holland

By Gram Slattery and James Oliphant

PM Modi fought the 2014 general elections on the issue of development, but was forced to change the issue to ‘national security’ in 2019 as people faced a lot of trouble during demonetisation. As the central government failed to protect India from China, PM Modi is again shifting the political agenda before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. "So this time round, the only thing they have is their original cause -- Hindu Hriday Samrat.

Congress Working Committee member and MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of shifting the political agenda every election year and alleged that the BJP-government at the Centre was unable to protect the nation's borders from Chinese encroachment. The hard hitting accusations from the MP from Thiruvananthapuram came on the eve of the Ram Temple consecration ceremony at Ayodhya on Monday. Tharoor said that Modi contested and won in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in the name of development and in 2019 in the name of national security by ordering surgical strikes on Pakistan.