International Financial News

Visa-free travel has witnessed a surge and Visa on arrival options have also increased for people across the world, according to the latest UN Tourism report. The report says, 21 per cent of the world population does not need any form of visa, an increase from 17 per cent in 2008 and 20 per cent in 2018. Moreover, 14 per cent of the world population can apply for visa on arrival, an increase from 6 per cent in 2008 and 15 per cent in 2018.

By Arathy Somasekhar

Tube Investments of India Ltd.(up 0.68 per cent) were among the top gainers.

rupee depreciated 12 paise to 82.96 against the US dollar in early trade on Friday, weighed down by a strong American currency and a negative trend in domestic equities. Forex traders said foreign fund outflows and elevated crude oil prices in the international market also dented investors' sentiments. According to interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 82.95 against the dollar and touched a low of 82.96 in the initial trade, registering a fall of 12 paise over its previous close.

Investing.com-- Oil prices fell slightly from four-month highs in Asian trade on Friday, seeing some profit-taking and pressure from the dollar as hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data pushed up fears of a more hawkish Federal Reserve. 

Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 jet when part of its fuselage blew out in January are suing — including one who says his life was saved by a seat belt. The latest lawsuit, representing seven passengers, was filed in Washington’s King County Superior Court Thursday against Boeing, Alaska Airlines, Spirit AeroSystems and 10 people listed as John Does. Cuong Tran, of Upland, California, was sitting in the row behind where the side of the aircraft tore away and left a door-sized hole on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on Jan.

Paytm: On the eve of the March 15 deadline for Paytm Payments Bank to cease operations, Paytm secured a third-party application provider license from the National Payments Corporation of India on Thursday. This license will offer an alternative payment method to Paytm's customers via its app, following the shutdown of its banking division, Paytm Payments Bank, due to regulatory non-compliance. In related news, there are reports suggesting a potential 20% reduction in team sizes at Paytm.

There’s another International Day on its way: 20 March. It’s marked on the calendar as the Day of Happiness. In an increasingly polarized world that looks set to become more so as political divisions deepen, where two major wars are raging, one in its third year and the other with no end in sight, and where not a single day goes by without countless acts of violence, celebrating an International Day of Happiness sounds absurdly Panglossian.

Israel and Islamist militant group Hamas. Palestinian leaders hope he could now emerge as a unifying figure as he prepares to rebuild the enclave after five months of Israeli bombardment since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

Dividend stocks: Shares of SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd, IIFL Securities Ltd, Autoriders International Ltd, India Gelatine & Chemicals Ltd, ISMT Ltd, Kirloskar Ferrous Industries Ltd, Balkrishna Paper Mills Ltd, Hindustan Construction Co. Ltd, Gujarat Ambuja Exports Ltd, M. K.

Adani Group-helmed $2.1 billion project in the satellite city of Navi Mumbai is a microcosm of the massive infrastructure overhaul underway in India as its Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to outrun China. For Gautam Adani, it’s a test of whether he can put India on the global aviation map. The airport, with a lotus-shaped design mimicking India’s national flower as well as the election symbol for Modi’s party, should start operations in March next year with a capacity for 20 million passengers a year.

(Reuters) -Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas named Mohammad Mustafa, an ally and leading business figure as prime minister with a mandate to help reform the Palestinian Authority (PA), the state-run WAFA news agency said on Thursday.

Minimum wage workers in federally regulated sectors will get a bump in their paycheques starting next month.

After-Hours Stock Movers:

Indian travellers are buckling up for a sizzling summer season this year with early indicators from travel companies suggesting exponential demand. Bookings for the country's peak summer period of April-June are already 30-40% higher compared to last year. Officials at domestic airlines told ET that while Indians will be out in full force for the summer season, an inadequate number of flights is likely to trigger a spike in air fares. At online travel company Cleartrip, international flight bookings for the April to June period are 37% higher compared to the same period last year, said Gaurav Patwari, vice president for air category.

Few terms in economics are as ideologically loaded as ‘free trade.’ Advocate it nowadays, and you are likely to be regarded as an apologist for plutocrats, financiers and footloose corporations. Defend open economic borders, and you will be labelled naive or, worse, a stooge of the Communist Party of China who cares little about human rights or the fate of ordinary workers at home. As with all caricatures, there is a grain of truth in the anti-trade stance.

Gulf Oil Lubricants India is looking to acquire charge point operators (CPOs) and companies in intelligent grid technology space as part of a strategy to become a leader in the electric vehicle charging ecosystem, top executives said. «We are looking at the complete value chain. From manufacturing to research and technology,» said Mike Jones, CEO of Gulf Oil International, a London-headquartered Hinduja group firm. «We started from one end of the value chain by manufacturing EV chargers and are now looking to move to the rest as we want Gulf to be around for another 100 years,» he told ET. The intelligent or smart grid technology is a combination of hardware chargers and software to boost efficiency of electrical grids or networks by enabling bi-directional communication. Smart grids allow a car to send energy to various recipients using digital technologies, sensors, and software to better match the supply and demand of electricity in real time.

Lilavati Hospital are in talks with private equity investors and pension funds for its proposed Rs 4,000-crore pan-India expansion plan which entails setting up five to six multispecialty hospitals over the next five years. «We will be funding the expansion through internal accruals, and are also in discussions with PE investors, pension funds and donors,» said Prashant Mehta, promoter, Lilavati Hospital. «We will retain the controlling stake,» Mehta added. He said Lilavati is looking at both greenfield and brownfield hospitals as part of its expansion strategy. The proposed expansion will be carried out by Lilavati Foundation, a distinct and separate entity from Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai. «We believe there is still a huge potential for growth of healthcare services in India,» Mehta said. The expansion will encompass 3,000 hospital beds. Lilavati is setting up a greenfield 300-bed multi-specialty hospital in GIFT City, Gujarat with an investment of Rs 300 crore. The hospital is slated to open by 2025-end. Lilavati is also considering opening hospitals in Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh), Noida (Uttar Pradesh), Pune (Maharashtra), and Bengaluru (Karnataka) and Guwahati (Assam), Mehta said. He said they are also looking at expanding the 319-bed Lilavati Hospital & Research Centre in Bandra, Mumbai by adding a 150-bed oncology block, which might involve acquiring adjoining property.

The returns by S&P BSE Capital Goods index in FY24 so far have been 64% versus 23% by S&P BSE Sensex.

Pakistan on Thursday termed India's new Citizenship (Amendment) Act "discriminatory in nature", claiming that it differentiated between people based on their faith. The Indian government implemented the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 on Monday, paving the way for the grant of citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014. The government also came out with a press statement to say that Indian Muslims need not worry as the CAA will not impact their citizenship and has nothing to do with the community which enjoys equal rights as their Hindu counterparts.

NEW DELHI : Power Exchange India Ltd (PXIL), promoted by NSE and NCDEX, aims to launch its carbon-credit trading platform by the second quarter of next fiscal (FY25) year as it is already working on the technology for the product, its managing director and chief executive Satyajit Ganguly said. In an interview, Ganguly said that as the regulations for such platforms are likely to be rolled out by the second quarter, the exchange would be ready by then with its technology and also complete its educational workshops for industry participants across sectors to get them on board the platform and trade in carbon credits. "We have already started working on the technology.