International Financial News

general elections shall impact the sales of laptops, desktops and other IT hardware in the first half of 2024 as the government will slow down IT procurement spending, industry experts told ET. In the commercial segment, IT hardware sales in the first half of the calendar year are expected to remain flattish at the year-earlier levels of about 2.9 million units which was already comparatively weak, according to data from market tracker firm International Data Corporation (IDC). When compared to the first half of calendar year 2022, the segment might see a decline of 24%, IDC said. Consumer sales might also follow a similar pattern as sales might drop by 17% to 3.4 million units when compared to the first half of 2022, IDC predictions showed.

By Ryan Woo and Liangping Gao

Oscars 2024 LIVE Updates: The 96th annual Academy Awards are scheduled to take place on March 10 at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles. Jimmy Kimmel returns as host for the fourth time, joined onstage by an all-star list of presenters.

German Formula 1 racetrack designer Tilke, real estate consultancy company CBRE and architecture firm Arcop ranked the highest on a list of six international consultants that are competing for designing a racetrack in Gujarat's GIFT City that could position the financial centre also as an international sporting destination, according to people in the know. The Tilke-led consortium scored 98% marks in an evaluation conducted by Sports Authority of Gujarat during March 7-8 and is likely to be granted the work order to develop a design for the F1 track, the people said. The project could cost up to ₹10,000 crore.

new rule by the National Labor Relations Board that would have made it easier for millions of workers to form unions at big companies. The rule, which was due to go into effect Monday, would have set new standards for determining when two companies should be considered “joint employers" in labor negotiations. Under the current NLRB rule, which was passed by a Republican-dominated board in 2020, a company like McDonald’s isn’t considered a joint employer of most of its workers since they are directly employed by franchisees.

The maker of a much-debated drug for Lou Gehrig's disease said it failed to help patients with the fatal disease

OpenAI is reinstating CEO Sam Altman to its board of directors and said it has “full confidence” in his leadership after the conclusion of an outside investigation into the company’s turmoil

Microsoft says it is still trying to evict the elite Russian government hackers who broke into the email of senior company executives in November and have since been trying to breach customer networks with stolen access data

The Romanian government has won a yearslong legal dispute with a Canadian mining company seeking damages over failed plans to open a gold and silver mine in the Eastern European country

leadership roles at companies has remained unchanged over the past five years, shows a study, suggesting that corporate India still has a long way to go to ensure gender equality at decision-making levels. At leadership roles like director, vice president, CXO, or partner at Indian companies, there are currently two women compared with 10 men, the same as in 2020, according to the findings of the study by professional networking platform LinkedIn and shared exclusively with ET.

Private sector investment in clean energy, especially in countries like India, is pivotal for the course of energy transition, said Riccardo Puliti, regional vice president, Asia and the Pacific, at International Finance Corporation. India continues to be the key destination for IFC, including in energy transition, and the World Bank Group member is looking to push up its investment in the country in the ongoing fiscal, which runs from July through June. In FY23 (July-June), IFC committed $3 billion across 30 projects, more than doubling its lending year-on-year. «This year we will do substantively more than that [FY23]. India is a country willing to move the needle on the energy mix,» he said. Financing that brings in private sector investment is vital to scaling India's climate solutions, he said. «The rule of the game is really to mobilise the private sector,» he added. India is IFC's largest investment destination with 10.4% of its global portfolio. It will help expand and diversify capital sources for critical power infrastructure, as done through its investment in IndiGrid, he said. IFC is also looking at sustainability-linked finance, enabling issuers to build a strong pipeline of green projects, Puliti said. IFC's focus is to leverage private capital to up support for sustainable infrastructure, industrial decarbonization, and green finance.

ALSO READ: Why Nvidia share price is plummeting after 80% rally in YTD — explained Following companies are due to report quarterly earnings in the week ahead— Oracle, Casey's General Stores, Asana, On Holding, Kohl's, International Game Technology, Dollar Tree, Petco Health and Wellness, Williams-Sonoma, Lennar, DICK'S Sporting Goods, Dollar General, Adobe, Blink Charging, Ulta Beauty, and Jabil. On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 68.66 points, or 0.18 per cent, to close at 38,722.69, the S&P 500 lost 33.67 points, or 0.65 per cent, to close at 5,123.69 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 188.26 points, or 1.16 per cent, to close at 16,085.11. The yield on the two-year Treasury dipped to 4.48 per cent from 4.51 per cent late on Thursday.

₹60,000 crore to expand the seven existing airports in its portfolio over the next 5-10 years, Karan Adani, MD of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd, said. About half of the investment would be pumped into terminal and runway capacity over five years, and the rest would be invested in city-side development of the airports over a period of 10 years, Adani said on the sidelines of an event. These investments will be in addition to the ₹18,000 crore that the group plans to invest in Navi Mumbai airport.

coalition of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party is set to finalise the federal cabinet soon with the PML-N deciding to request its prime supporter PPP to join the Cabinet, according to a media report on Sunday. A meeting chaired by the PML-N supremo and three-time former premier Nawaz Sharif and attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif besides other leaders decided that the PPP should be approached again with the request to join the federal cabinet. «Shehbaz Sharif told the meeting, which was held prior to the presidential election on Saturday, he would talk to Asif Ali Zardari after his election as the president,» The News International said on Sunday.

Mint. These next-generation reforms will go alongside India's aspirational goal of establishing the rupee as a stable currency over the next decade, helping internalize its usage, besides enhancing its global acceptance as a payment mode. Additionally, the bureaucracy must keep pace and meet the demands of the 21st century, Sanyal said, adding that the other major area for reforms would be the legal processes.

Enforcement Directorate has registered a money laundering case to probe an international drugs trafficking racket that allegedly involves a former functionary of the DMK, official sources said Sunday. The case has been filed by the federal agency under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) taking cognisance of a bunch of FIRs, including the NCB case where 36-year-old Jaffer Sadiq was arrested on Saturday for his alleged involvement in smuggling about 3,500 kgs of pseudoephedrine with a street value of about Rs 2,000 crore. The NCB said Sadiq's links with Tamil and Hindi film financers, some «high profile» people and related to «political funding» were under its scanner. The NCB is expected to soon summon a senior DMK party functionary in connection with two transactions of Rs 7 lakh made by Sadiq, according to sources in the anti-narcotics agency.

airport projects, entailing a total capital expenditure of Rs 9,800 crore and includes new terminal buildings at 12 airports such as Delhi, Lucknow Airport and Pune. «Earlier, during the election season, people made announcements. No one asked them about the status of these projects...Before elections, they would come and lay the foundation stone. Foundation stones used to get lost, so would the politicians,» Modi said. «You must not look at this matter from the lens of general elections...This is a journey for development, and by 2047, I aim to make India a developed country,» he added.

Tamil Nadu Law Minister and DMK leader S Regupathy on Sunday asserted that his party has no links whatsoever with Jaffer Sadiq, the prime accused in an international drug trafficking case being investigated by the Narcotics Control Bureau. The DMK also warned of legal action against those who attempt to link Sadiq with either the party or its leaders. Speaking to reporters, Regupathy said the BJP regime has now deployed the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to «besmirch» the DMK regime after «misusing» the Enforcement Directorate, the Income Tax department and the Central Bureau of Investigation for that purpose. After the DMK assumed office in 2021, the state government has taken swift action against drug peddling and this has been lauded by courts, he said. «Today, they (Centre) are thinking of intimidating the DMK through the NCB.» Sadiq had held the post of Chennai West-NRI Wing Deputy Organiser in the DMK until he was recently dismissed by the party after allegations connecting him to drug trafficking surfaced. Regupathy blamed NCB Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh for holding a press conference about Sadiq's arrest — even before the probe is completed — based on «false calculations» to tarnish the DMK's image and «to let the BJP gain political mileage» out of it just before the Lok Sabha polls.

Stone Sapphire India will invest Rs 1,000 crore to set up a manufacturing facility for homewares like glassware, sippers, dinnerware etc, in Baroda… Talking with PTI, Stone Sapphire India Pvt. Ltd. (SSPL) Chairman Vick Rana said that homeware products available in India are either for the lower class or very high-end for the elite and leave a huge vacuum for middle-class consumers. «Our work on new plant and capacity expansion has already begun in Baroda which is focused on the homeware segment. We are investing Rs.1000 crore on this expansion,» Rana said. The Baroda plant will manufacture small kitchen appliances, metal cookware, and drinkware. This will help increase not just the production capacity for the Indian market but also increase exports by at least 50 per cent, thereby making products in India for the world, he stated…

DD News, Priya Kumar. Manoj Kumar said that this initiative of DD News and Khadi India will also send a message to those who do not want to wear Khadi, while addressing the program. While praising DD News for its innovations in the media landscape, he said that the journey of Khadi has to be taken further under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Sarfaraz was fielding at forward short leg and Kuldeep Yadav was in the attack for India. Kuldeep bowled a brilliant delivery that almost took Bashir's wicket had the batsman not put his bat down in time.