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Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. What was meant to be a peace dialogue on February 28 quickly spiraled into a heated verbal brawl that left the world in disbelief. Now, a body language expert has weighed in on the explosive encounter, suggesting that Vice President JD Vance played the role of Trump’s 'wingman' — intentionally stirring the pot to provoke the Ukrainian leader.

Demand for loan collection agents, or temporary manpower often deployed to chase sticky advances, has climbed more than 30% in the past six months, TeamLease data shared with ET showed, pointing to the mounting pile of doubtful unsecured retail advances at lenders that now need specialised recovery support. TeamLease, which manages more than 85,000 frontline employees in areas such as sales, customer care, and field operations, has recruited up to 7,000 new collection agents for banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), credit card firms, microfinance institutions, and fintech companies. «This is a direct result of the challenges we've seen in the unsecured loan segment, and as a result, the demand for collection agents has increased by over 30%,» said Krishnendu Chatterjee, VP and business head, TeamLease Services. «In many cases, lenders have shifted sales roles into collection roles.» The central bank increased risk weights on unsecured loans to reduce systemic risks, and to prevent a further increase in potential stress in bank balance sheets since retail segment was at vanguard of credit demand lately.

Varun Chakravarthy on Sunday became a «good headache» for India ahead of their Champions Trophy semi-final against Australia after his match-winning five-wicket haul against New Zealand, said captain Rohit Sharma. Mystery spinner Chakravarthy returned figures of 5-42 in Dubai to help India beat New Zealand in their last group match of the 50-over tournament. His recent 14 wickets in a 4-1 T20 series win over England at home got Chakravarthy back into the India reckoning in the white-ball formats and he was a last-minute addition to the Champions Trophy squad.

But, the hero of India’s day, Varun Chakravarty, with 5 for 42, ensured that India defended a middling score with some ease. Varun was not part of India’s 50-over set up till recently and the fact that he got so few chances left him wondering if he was even in the scheme of things, from a big-picture point of view.

ethnic wear, suits, motorbikes and staples. Listed jewellery chains, such as Tanishq, Kalyan Jewellers and Senco Gold, said same store sales growth has been strong, while the 30%-plus surge in gold prices over the past year appears to have had little impact on demand for the precious metal that has become seemingly inseparable from traditional wedding rituals in the country. «The wedding demand is very strong,» said Ramesh Kalyanaraman, executive director, Kalyan Jewellers India. This, he said, is despite the recent «turbulence» in gold prices.

Wopke Hoekstra, the European Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth, feels when it comes to the India-EU partnership, «the sky truly is the limit for the future». This comes at a time when countries are grappling with challenges on multiple fronts-geopolitical headwinds, the need to secure industrial competitiveness while also tackling climate change. Bullish on India's efforts to transition to a low-carbon economy while expanding the country's economic output and bridging development gaps, Hoekstra, who was in Delhi last week, spoke of the potential for increased India-EU cooperation in areas like renewables and batteries, building the clean manufacturing industrial base in India and Europe, and delivering on the promise of carbon markets.

operational excellence will be path to growth and not acquisitions. It currently operates through three flagship divisions in auto, farm, and services with each contributing almost a third of revenue to the group's top line. The services business has a mix of financial services, technology, logistics, hospitality and real estate interests. «If we were to look at the group five years later or 10 years later, there should be a greater number of large businesses that we have,» Anish Shah, group CEO and MD, Mahindra & Mahindra, told ET.

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Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi said on Sunday. After meeting the protesting fishermen at Rameswaram, who sought quick release of arrested fishermen and their boats from Sri Lanka, Ravi said the fishing community was a victim of an «iniquitous agreement» of 1974 (between India and Sri Lanka), which was extremely insensitive to the livelihood concerns of the state's poor fishermen. The governor alleged the ruling DMK was equally responsible «for the wrong of 1974» as it held power at that time in the state. Law Minister S Regupathy hit back at Ravi, asking him to not «compete» with BJP Tamil Nadu President K Annamalai as the Saffron party's state unit chief is available for politics.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: When the government announced the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for semiconductors in 2021, with an outlay of around $10 billion, it was perhaps fitting that it was the largest of all schemes to promote hi-tech manufacturing in India announced by the government. The world over, governments love semiconductors, as a target for industrial policy.

«This Bombay hotel provides bathroom slippers. But to ensure people don't flick them, they provide mismatched pairs,» the user named Thejaswi Udupa said, dropping a snapshot of a pair of slippers on top of a hotel towel. The slippers featured in the image he posted were noticeably mismatched, with each foot sporting a different color. According to the user, this was a deliberate strategy employed by the hotel to ensure that guests would only find the slippers convenient to wear within their rooms, discouraging them from taking them for personal use outside the premises.

Shreyas Iyer and a fiery cameo by Hardik Pandya towards the end powered India to a solid total of 249/9 on a tough Dubai wicket during their ICC Champions Trophy final group stage match on Sunday. After India collapsed to 30/3, the middle order held the innings together for India. India needs to defend 250 runs to end the group stage with three wins in three matches. After NZ won the toss and elected to bowl first, India was dealt an early setback, as Shubman Gill was trapped leg before wicket by Matt Henry for just two in seven balls. India was 15/1 in 2.5 overs.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: The Centre has approved nearly 97% of the amount allocated to states under the Special Assistance scheme, which provides interest-free loans for 50 years to states, during the first 10 months of the ongoing fiscal year, two people aware of the matter told Mint. The amount approved is ₹1.22 trillion.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: Chhattisgarh is courting defence firms from Russia and the US to set up manufacturing units in the state under its new Industrial Development Policy 2024-30, as it looks to position itself as a key player in India’s defence supply chain. "Numerous companies from Russia, the US, and other countries participated in our investment summit in Mumbai, and these investments will come to Chhattisgarh," chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai told Mint in an interview.

Donald Trump's «common sense» aim to end the war in Ukraine, but accused the European powers which have rallied around Kyiv of seeking to prolong the conflict. Lavrov said the United States still wanted to be the world's most powerful country and that Washington and Moscow would never see eye to eye on everything, but that they had agreed to be pragmatic when interests coincided. «Donald Trump is a pragmatist,» Lavrov told the Russian military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda, according to a transcript released by the Foreign Ministry. «His slogan is common sense. It means, as everyone can see, a shift to a different way of doing things.»

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The first flush is just starting and while I wait for these teas, I decided to catch up on some tea history, on tea and golf’s shared beginnings here in India. Back in the early 19th century, as British planters set up large tea estates, far removed from towns and cities, they needed a place to unwind and relax.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Every day, a new health trend floods our screens—one reel tells you carbs are the enemy, the other swears by a juice cleanse, and somewhere in between, there’s a superfood that promises eternal youth. It’s exhausting.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Dear Chairman Pandey, At the outset, let me wish you a rewarding and productive tenure as the head of India’s securities market regulator. I would have personally preferred a 5-year term, with no re-employment or extension.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. SOON AFTER he took power in 2012, Xi Jinping urged caution about China’s prospects. “The further our cause advances," he told fellow leaders, “the more new situations and problems will arise, the more risks and challenges we will face and the more unforeseen events we will encounter." As China’s economy flounders and social tensions increase—and with Donald Trump about to enter the White House—the coming year will be full of the kind of difficulties Mr Xi feared.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. If you want a one-liner to put on a T-shirt that sums up the spirit of the times we are living in, I bet you can’t find a better one than this droll sentence from the late Philip Roth’s 1993 novel, Operation Shylock: “It’s too ridiculous to take seriously and too serious to be ridiculous." I stumbled upon it in writer and activist Naomi Klein’s 2023 book, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, where this quote runs like a refrain, much like an anthem you may hum under your breath every time you are scrolling through the internet, especially if you are looking for news or information that is reliably true.

Delhi and Udaipur. This being part of the ‘Golden Triangle’, the plane usually had a fair number of tourists, many from France. Seated somewhere near on the plane, I would hear them catalog the ways in which “this could be such a great place if only…”. In French, of course, oblivious to the possibility that anyone around would understand. While I seethed, my nationalist instincts primed. I wanted to ask them how much they paid for their room in a haveli near the lake, and three square meals among the bougainvilleas? Where else could they buy so much beauty so cheap? All that came back to me with the recent stories in the Economist and Le Monde on why India does so badly on tourism: India gets about 10 million foreign tourists a year, while France, a tenth in area and less than a twentieth in population, gets 100 million. France has the Mona Lisa, but we have the Taj Mahal. France is easy for European tourists but we are next to China, the biggest spender in the world on international tourism.