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The ministry has also estimated a $4.43 billion trade surplus in goods and services in February, the first surplus after the Covid-19 pandemic. In February, India’s gold imports slipped to $2.3 billion from the past month’s $2.68 billion. Meanwhile, crude oil imports dropped to $11.8 billion from $13.4 billion in January, data showed. Sequentially, goods exports were up 1.31% from January 2025. “This was a difficult year for us for trade. We are positively moving in the direction of above $800 billion exports,” said commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal, adding that services exports are growing above 14%. Live Events E

Nikkei share average surged nearly 1% on Monday, fuelled by widespread gains, as investor sentiment was lifted by a sharp rise in U.S. stocks at the end of last week. The Nikkei rose 0.9% to end at 37,396.52, its highest closing point in more than a week, while the broader Topix finished 1.2% higher at 2,748.12.

Samsung Electronics must adopt a «do-or-die» mindset, its chairman told executives, to confront the challenges posed by artificial intelligence that are upending the industry, Yonhap news reported Monday. South Korean giant Samsung has been struggling to meet Nvidia's requirements as rival SK hynix has become the US titan's main supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips for its AI graphics processing units (GPU). The world's largest memory-chip maker already acknowledged in October that it was facing a «crisis», and admitted questions had arisen about its «fundamental technological competitiveness and the future of the company».

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. A Microsoft executive made a compelling pitch to mountaineer and physics professor Chetan Nayak in 2000: Join the Redmond, Wash., company and together they would scale nearby Mount Rainier—and build a quantum computer. He summited Washington’s highest peak within two years.

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL), Chandigarh have jointly developed 32-bit Microprocessors — Vikram 3201 and Kalpana 3201-- for space applications, the space agency has said. Vikram 3201 is the first fully Indian-made 32-bit microprocessor qualified for use in the harsh environmental conditions of launch vehicles. The processor was fabricated at the 180nm (nanometer) CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) semiconductor fab of SCL. This processor is an advanced version of the indigenously designed 16-bit Vikram 1601 microprocessor, which has been operating in the avionics system of ISRO's launch vehicles since 2009, ISRO said in a statement released late on Saturday. A «Make-in-India» version of the Vikram 1601 processor was subsequently inducted in 2016 after the 180nm semiconductor fab was established at SCL, the statement said. Kalpana 3201 is a 32-bit SPARC V8 (Scalable Processor ARChitecture, version 8) RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) microprocessor and is based on the IEEE 1754 Instruction Set Architecture, the space agency said. This microprocessor has been designed to be compatible with open-source software toolsets along with in-house developed simulators and IDE (Integrated Development Environment), and has been tested with flight software, it said.

Ashwini Vaishnaw visited the Hyperloop testing facility at IIT Madras on Saturday and said that the Hyperloop tube, being developed with the help of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, will soon be the world's longest tube, measuring 410 meters in length. The 410-meter-long Hyperloop test tube located at IIT Chennai is already the longest Hyperloop test facility in Asia. Hyperloop is a high-speed train that runs in a vacuum in a tube. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday in a social media post added, «Longest Hyperloop tube in Asia (410 m)… soon to be the world's longest.»

The report noted that the Indian government’s initiatives over the last few years, to boost semiconductor fab and OSAT investments by inviting global firms, has created awareness about the importance of global supply chains and led to increased interest among domestic suppliers. We take a look at the potential opportunities and challenges facing the sector.

US recession. A raging tariff war. Supply chains in disarray. Companies grappling with uncertainty. Governments on tenterhooks. It hasn't even been two months since Donald Trump was sworn in as US President and it has been more dramatic than an episode of his reality show The Apprentice. On March 5, Trump underlined this with his plan forreciprocal tariffs on countries such as India and China. “Whatever they tariff us, other countries, we will tariff them. That’s reciprocal, back and forth,” Trump said in his first address to the joint session of Congress.

Participating at the inauguration of a manufacturing factory of Zetwerk Electronics at Sriperumbudur, Vaishnaw said he was lucky as he got a professor by name Sadagopan while pursuing his academics at IIT Kanpur who taught him about the Tamil language. Greeting the audience with a traditional 'Vanakkam' (Namaste) in Tamil language at the beginning of his speech, Vaishnaw said, «Tamil is a very very sweet language. All I know is three words — Vanakkam, Eppadi Irukeenga (How are you) and Nandri (Thanks).» Referring to his interaction with Sadagopan at IIT Kanpur, the Minister said, «Sadagopan introduced me to Tamil language and in North India, Tamil is generally known as masala dosa, right?.. He taught me so many facets of Tamil culture… It is a very, very deep culture, very ancient culture. We all respect Tamil culture and we all respect the Tamil language.» «This is one of our assets of our country and this is also one of the assets of the world and lets take pride in that. Let's take joy in that and let's enjoy all the Indian languages. And that is the spirit with which our Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) is working today making sure that every Indian language gets its big place under the Sun and make sure they get the respect which is due to them, make sure that they get the exposure,» he said.

Bombay High Court has upheld the mandatory use of FASTag, the electronic toll collection system, and the imposition of double toll fees for vehicles without it. The court dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Pune resident Arjun Khanapure, challenging the National Highways Authority of India's (NHAI) directive, which mandates that vehicles without FASTags pay twice the regular toll fees. Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Bharati Dangre, in their ruling on Thursday, emphasized that the implementation of FASTag is a well-considered policy decision aimed at ensuring efficient and smooth road travel. «The system of FASTag, introduced in 2014, is here to stay,» the judges remarked, stating that there was no legal basis to intervene in the Centre's policy, which is being carried out by NHAI. Khanapure had filed the PIL after NHAI's circular in February 2021, which made it mandatory for all vehicles to use FASTag to pass through toll plazas. He had urged the court to keep at least one toll lane for hybrid payment options, such as cash.

Thangam Thennarasu presented the DMK government’s fifth state budget since coming to power in 2021 under chief minister MK Stalin. This is Thennarasu’s second budget after taking over as finance minister in May 2023 during a Cabinet reshuffle.

Net profit for October-December for Apple's top iPhone assembler and Nvidia's AI server maker came in at T$46.33 billion ($1.41 billion), missing analysts' average forecast of T$54.4 billion, according to an LSEG consensus estimate of 15 analysts. Foxconn said in January its fourth-quarter revenue jumped 15.2% to a record for that quarter on strong sales of AI servers.

compressor shortage seems to have been well managed. The industry faced a shortage of high-value intermediaries, i.e., compressors and copper during 3QFY25 which came as a surprise to the manufacturers as BIS certifications for certain players were not extended and imports got impacted.

As many as 15,590 new companies were registered in UP between April 2024 and January 2025, compared with 12,759 in Delhi, data from the corporate affairs ministry showed. Maharashtra added about 21,000 new companies in this period. Company incorporations indicate investor confidence in the medium-to-long term growth prospects of a state, among other reasons. Strong economic growth in recent years, a vast and expanding consumer base, greater focus on ease of doing business and a large pool of affordable workers, on top of improved law and order situation, have drawn investors to UP, experts and a state government official said. The national capital’s proximity to Noida, a key industrial centre in UP, also helps draw investors there, the official said, given that real estate costs are lower there than in Delhi.

Tamil Nadu's progressive social policies, robust infrastructure facilities, and large skilled labour force enabled the state to place itself on an elevated economic development trajectory, making the state contribute 9.21 per cent to national GDP in 2023-24, Tamil Nadu's first economic survey 2024-25 said on Thursday. The survey brought out by the State Planning Commission and handed over to Chief Minister M K Stalin, said the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at current prices reached Rs 27.22 lakh crore in 2023-24, posting a nominal growth rate of 13.71 per cent and a real growth rate of 8.33 per cent. «Tamil Nadu economy in 2024-25 faced global headwinds with its innate economic strength. The pandemic, coupled with geopolitical tensions and extreme weather events, disrupted global supply chains and triggered crises in the energy and food sectors,» it said. The global economy posted a real growth rate of 3.33 percent in 2023. India's economy recorded 7.61 percent growth in 2022-23, 9.19 per cent in 2023-24, and 6.48 per cent in 2024-25. «Building on a strong foundation of inclusive policies, Tamil Nadu has demonstrated remarkable economic resilience, consistently achieving growth rates of 8 per cent or more since 2021-22, and the state is expected to maintain a growth rate above 8 per cent in 2024-25,» it said. In 2022-23, Tamil Nadu's per capita income was Rs 2.78 lakh, 1.6 times the national average of Rs 1.69 lakh. The state consistently outpaced the national average over the years and is the fourth-largest state in per capita income.

Oriental Trimex Ltd.(up 3.06%), Aro Granite Industries Ltd.(up 1.02%) and Ashapura Minechem Ltd.(up 0.46%) stood among the top gainers.

The NSE Nifty index ended the session 73.3 points down at 22397.2, while BSE Sensex fell 200.85 points to 73828.91.

Coromandel International Ltd.(up 2.05%), Bohra Industries Ltd.(up 2.00%), Paradeep Phosphates Ltd.(up 1.86%), Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd.(up 1.62%), Agro Phos India Ltd.(up 1.41%), Southern Petrochemicals Industries Corporation Ltd.(up 0.68%), Krishana Phoschem Ltd.(up 0.54%), Gujarat State Fertilizer & Chemicals Ltd.(up 0.27%) and Rama Phosphates Ltd.(up 0.09%) stood among the top gainers.

Adani Green Energy Ltd.(up 2.37%), ACME Solar Holdings Ltd.(up 1.86%), Suzlon Energy Ltd.(up 1.36%), GE Power India Ltd.(up 1.28%), Inox Wind Energy Ltd.(up 0.89%), Energy Development Company Ltd.(up 0.76%), PTC India Ltd.(up 0.58%), NTPC Ltd.(up 0.54%), Ravindra Energy Ltd.(up 0.22%) and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd.(up 0.21%) stood among the top gainers.

Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), marks a significant shift towards self-reliance in defence technology. These LLTRs, designed and developed by the Electronics & Radar Development Establishment of DRDO, will be the first indigenous radar systems of their kind for the IAF, replacing previously imported equipment. The system is expected to strengthen India’s ability to track aerial threats, ranging from high-speed fighter jets to slow-moving drones and helicopters.