International Financial News

Sri Lanka will hand over the loss-making Mattala International Airport in Hambantota to a joint India-Russia venture «during the next few weeks» to run, Minister of Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva said here on Wednesday. The India-Russia joint venture was awarded the management of the Mattala International Airport in Hambantota in southern Sri Lanka in April. The USD 209 million facility was once dubbed the «world's emptiest airport» due to a lack of flights. «Action will be taken during the next few weeks to handover the loss-making Mattala International Airport to a joint India-Russia venture,» de Silva told reporters. Earlier, the Sri Lankan Cabinet, which met on January 9, approved the calling of Expression of Interest by prospective parties. Accordingly, five proposals were received, and the Cabinet-appointed consultative committee decided to award a management contract spanning 30 years to Shaurya Aeronautics (Pvt) Ltd of India and Airports of Regions Management Company of Russia.

Hamas has accepted a U.S. proposal to begin talks on releasing Israeli hostages, including soldiers and men, 16 days after the first phase of an agreement aimed at ending the Gaza war, a senior Hamas source told Reuters on Saturday. The militant Islamist group has dropped a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before signing the agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week first phase, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.

hotel chains are rushing to India’s Northeast—home to natural beauty, rich flora and fauna and diverse culture—to capture a fast-growing market for leisure and business travel. Estimates shared by JLL with ET showed a sharp rise in branded new hotel signings in the Northeast in 2023 with about 1,230 keys signed, up from around 449 keys signed in 2022. Guwahati—considered as the ‘Gateway to the Northeast’—was the most active market, with 1100 keys signed since 2018, followed by Gangtok at 690 keys and Shillong at 280 keys.

annual summit surprised many in the international community, the genesis of this visit was two telephone conversations between President Vladimir Putin and the Indian PM this year. The two first spoke following Putin’s Presidential polls victory in March. This was followed by Putin’s call to Modi (first P5 leader to telephone the PM) after BJP-led NDA’s election victory on June 4. ET has learnt that during the conversations the two discussed the possible visit by Modi for annual summit and it was decided that the PM could probably visit Russia by middle of this year. The government on both sides then worked to firm up the schedule as it was felt that a political summit was imperative to give momentum to the strategic partnership. Earlier during his trip to Moscow last December External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had informed that Modi will visit Russia this year and he is also scheduled to attend the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, end of October.

OpenAI is working on a novel approach to its artificial intelligence models in a project code-named "Strawberry," according to a person familiar with the matter and internal documentation reviewed by Reuters. The project, details of which have not been previously reported, comes as the Microsoft-backed startup races to show that the types of models it offers are capable of delivering advanced reasoning capabilities.

Indian tourists and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) visiting the UAE, providing them with a seamless and secure method to make transactions using UPI, as announced by NPCI International. Network International is a leading facilitator of digital commerce across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. The company operates a network of over 200,000 point-of-sale (POS) terminals, which serve more than 60,000 merchants in diverse sectors such as retail, hospitality, transport, and supermarkets. This wide-ranging network will now support UPI payments, offering Indian visitors a familiar and convenient payment method while abroad. The rollout of UPI acceptance will be progressive, eventually covering a broad spectrum of establishments. These will include retail stores, dining outlets, and various tourist and leisure attractions, notably popular destinations like Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates. This phased implementation aims to ensure a smooth transition and widespread availability of UPI payment options across the UAE.

Cuba, close to the coast of Florida. China has traditionally lacked spying facilities in North America and this news has the potential to raise the level of conflict between China and the US. The Centre for Strategic and International Studies found the presence of these Chinese facilities after analyzing satellites images from Cuba. These facilities are close to the Florida coast and threaten the national security and the commercial interest of the US. They are located just 100 miles, off the coast of Florida.

A few months ago, Edmundo González’s life in retirement consisted of academic conferences, visiting old friends and playing with grandchildren at his Caracas high-rise. Few in Venezuela knew him. Now, the soft-spoken 74-year-old is the opposition’s presidential candidate in the July 28 election and what analysts say could be a last hope for democracy in a country ruled for 11 years by the strongman he is challenging, President Nicolás Maduro.

A SpaceX rocket has failed for the first time in nearly a decade, leaving the company's internet satellites in the wrong orbit

Kazakhstan): The SCO Summit is a major occasion, not least because the organisation represents over 3 billion people – nearly 45% of the world’s population. The SCO plays a key role in fostering regional stability, economic growth, and multilateral cooperation. “As one of the founding members, Kazakhstan has always prioritised the development and success of the SCOwithin our balanced foreign policy framework,” Kazakhstan Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vassilenko told select group of foreign journalists ahead of the Summit. “This summit is an opportunity for us to reaffirm our commitment to the principles of mutual respect, equality, and consensus-building and to chart a path forward for the organisation.”

Holograph, a blockchain tokenization platform, announced on July 2 the successful completion of the post-mortem report for the security breach that occurred on June 13.

international airport that is being planned for Bengaluru will be as large as the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) and would require about 4500-5000 acres of land, Industry & Infrastructure Minister MB Patil said on Wednesday. The KempeGowda International Airport, operated by the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) has been the third busiest airport in the country after Delhi and Mumbai. The airport recorded the highest-ever passenger traffic with 37.5 million travelers in the year 2023-24 and handled 439,524 metric tonnes of cargo. The international airport will reach its peak passenger and cargo load capacity by 2035, and the state government has to plan a second airport well ahead of time, the minister told a media conference.

As part of her new role, Hardman will be responsible pushing through for Downing's £1.6bn pipeline, including ten projects set to be developed across the UK in 2025 and 2026. The company, called Aboria Capital, will leverage Downing's 35-year experience in UK real estate development. Hardman joins Aboria having spent over seven years at DWS, where she started as head of the European portfolio management team in October 2017. There, she oversaw the business's global and European funds and the international clients' separate management account strategies. DWS names head of alternative c...

A long Fourth of July holiday weekend in the United States is expected to create new travel records

Hamas official told Friday the group expects a swift Israeli response — «likely today or tomorrow morning» — to its new «ideas» for halting the Gaza war and freeing hostages. With Israeli negotiators scheduled to arrive in Qatar for talks with mediators, Osama Hamdan insisted that the group's military wing remains «in a good condition» to keep up the nine-month-old war. Hamdan said there were no new concrete proposals in a document sent to Israel this week but «some ideas were proposed to overcome» Israeli reticence about a ceasefire.

Jobs crisis Temporary residents and recent immigrants are driving up Canada’s unemployment rate, as record numbers of newcomers welcomed to the country to fill labor shortages are now struggling to find work, Bloomberg has reported. The unemployment rate for temporary residents – including foreign workers, international students and asylum seekers – was 11% in June, according to Bloomberg calculations. Using comparable data, the unemployment rate for all workers was just 6.2% last month. Immigrants who’ve landed in the last five years are also having a hard time finding a job, with their unemployment rate reaching 12.6% in June.

Moll's departure was followed by investment manager Fiammetta Valentini's resignation, Investment Week understands. Due to the recency of her resignation, 7IM declined to comment, but confirmed that she had not left the firm yet. A 7IM spokesperson said: «We can confirm that Moll has left the business. We would like to thank him very sincerely for his contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavours.» 7IM poaches Fidelity International's head of growth for newly created role Moll joined 7IM in 2018 from Coutts and has been head of investment strategy and ESG at 7IM thro...

volume growth along with expansion in margins during the April-June quarter of this fiscal, helped by a revival in rural demand and a stable urban market. Listed FMCG companies such as Dabur, Marico and Adani Wilmar in their latest quarterly updates have reported a «gradual improvement» in demand trends in the April-June quarter, which was on the expected lines. Home-grown FMCG maker Dabur expects to register mid to high single-digit growth in its consolidated revenue, supported by mid-single-digit volume growth in the domestic market. Marico said its consolidated revenue grew in high single digits in the June quarter, while the domestic business posted a «modest uptick in underlying volume growth» on a sequential basis.

A Boeing jet operated by United Airlines lost a landing gear wheel during take-off from Los Angeles on Monday morning — the second reported wheel loss incident for the airline this year.

The IPO is a mix of fresh issuance of Rs 550 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 2.16 crore equity shares by promoters and investor selling shareholders.

Gopal's sweets will invest Rs 150 crore to set up a manufacturing unit in Mohali Industrial Economic Zone (MIEZ), being developed by the Royale Estate Group. Spread over 150 acres with a plan to expand it to 500 acres over the next three years, MIEZ's proximity to an International Airport, and other transport him gives advantage of connectivity to all the four states. «With the perishable nature of our products, mainly sweets and other dairy and bakery products, we were looking for the most central and strategic location from where we could serve all the four states within the desirable timelines,” said Sharanjit Singh managing director of Gopal's Sweets Pvt. Ltd. Punjab's green farm products, such as green peas, cabbage, onions and potatoes, which currently go to Rudrapur in Uttarakhand for processing & packaging, will now no longer have to go to Uttarakhand. The new plant at MIEZ will cater for all such operations for the farmers and food growers of Punjab.