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Saudi Arabia has announced that persons with any type of visa are now eligible to perform Umrah, or minor pilgrimage at the Grand Mosque in Makkah. Saudi Ministry of Haj and Umrah said, “Visitors can effortlessly perform Umrah from any location and with any entry visa, ensuring ease and peace of mind.” The ministry added that all visa holders, including personal, family, transit, labor, and e-visas, are permitted to participate in Umrah rituals.

forest fire has been sweeping through the dense foliage in the mountains surrounding Nainital over the last 36 hours, an official said, adding that the Indian Air Force (IAF) has deployed its personnel and MI-17 choppers in a dousing operation in the area. According to officials, the IAF choppers are lifting water from the nearby Bhimtal Lake in Nainital and spraying it in the area to contain and eventually put out the raging forest fire. Rahul Anand, the executive officer of Nainital Nagar Palika, informed after an aerial inspection that MI-17 choppers are jet-spraying on the affected areas amid the raging forest fire.

AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan in the case registered on the complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate against him. The court granted him bail on a personal bond of Rs 15,000 and one surety of like amount. ED had recently moved a complaint against him for not appearing before the agency and not joining the probe in the case related to the alleged irregularities in appointment in Delhi Waqf Board and leasing of its properties.

Read more Alphabet Inc. closed decisively above a $2 trillion market capitalization for the first time on Friday. The $2 trillion milestone followed the company’s results, where revenue beat expectations on the strength of its cloud-computing unit.

China's industrial firms rose 4.3% in the first quarter from a year earlier, official data showed on Saturday, adding to evidence of an uneven recovery for the world's second-biggest economy. The jump was slower than a 10.2% rise in the first two months, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed.

earnings growth is looking stronger at nearly the halfway mark of the reporting period, with corporate results giving a boost to stocks this week after recent weakness. S&P 500 year-over-year earnings growth for the first quarter of 2024 is now seen at 5.6%, according to LSEG data on Friday. That is up from 4.3% the day before.

Vodafone Idea on Friday through open market transaction. As many as 144 crore shares were sold by the ATC Telecom at ₹12.78 a share, valuing the deal at ₹1,840 crore. Citigroup Global bought shares worth ₹611 crore through bulk deals, while rest of the buyers were unknown. Shares of Vodafone gained about a percent on Friday to close at ₹14.01 apiece. Last month, ATC had converted the debentures allotted by Vodafone Idea into equity. In February2023, Vi had allotted OCDs worth ₹1,600 crore to ATC's India unit against its dues. Vi was then estimated to owe ATC around ₹2,000 crore.

India's state-run firms' output from overseas oil and gas fields marginally rose in 2023-24 after declining for four straight years. The output, however, remained a fifth below the peak of 2018-19 as producing fields matured and no new overseas assets were acquired in recent years. The share of India's state companies in oil and gas production from overseas fields increased to 19.9 million metric tonnes of oil equivalent (MMTOE) in 2023-24 from 19.5 MMTOE in the previous year. Production at Russia's Skahalin-1 project normalised during the financial year, after being badly affected in 2022 following the launch of the Russia-Ukraine war. ONGC Videsh, India's largest investor in overseas oil and gas fields, has a stake in Sakhalin-1, where production had nearly halted for some time following the exit of its operator Exxon, industry executives said.

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funding sources. Higher CP issuances follow RBI's November mandate to increase risk weights on bank loans given to higher rated NBFCs, said a Crisil report. CP issuances are still not as high as 2018 levels when they touched Rs 3.1 lakh crore in July-September, as NBFCs look for other funding avenues like securitisation, where volumes peaked in FY24 at Rs 1.9 lakh crore. CPs are short-term, unsecured debt instruments issued by corporates. While banks remain the major source of funding, NBFCs will look to diversify their funding source. «The share of CPs is expected to rise over the medium term from the low of 4% in FY20-23, but will remain lower than the pre-pandemic high of 11%,» said Malvika Bhotika, director, Crisil Ratings.

son to remember him on court, though the 22-time Grand Slam champion concedes time is not on his side. The 37-year-old Spaniard, who has said he expects to retire after the 2024 season, returned to competition in Brisbane in January after almost a year sidelined with a hip flexor injury. He was then out for another stretch due to a thigh issue and while he returned in Barcelona last week he says he is far from being in top form and does not know if he will play in next month's French Open.

RBI) Friday proposed asking lending service providers (LSP) to share information in digital form about all the loan offers available to the borrower from all the willing lenders with whom they have lending arrangements. The banking regulator proposes this in a draft guideline on 'digital lending — transparency in aggregation of loan products from multiple lenders.' The RBI draft stated, «The LSP shall provide a digital view of all the loan offers available to the borrower, as per his/her requirements, from all the willing lenders with whom the LSP has arrangements with.»

industry body representing micro, small and medium enterprises has pitched for a dedicated commercial bank to ease credit flow to the sector. It has also recommended introduction of a law to address the issue of delayed payments faced by such units. The Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME), which represents about two million MSMEs in the country, has in a submission to the government also suggested setting up an equity guarantee fund trust to cover the risks related to equity financing for the sector.

Jonny Bairstow's incredible hundred, Punjab Kings set a new world record for the highest run chase in the history of T20 cricket as they overhauled the 262-run target set by Kolkata Knight Riders with eight wickets to spare in the IPL here on Friday. PBKS bettered South Africa's 259/4 against West Indies in March last year. In the IPL, Rajasthan Royals held the previous record for chasing down 224 against KKR at Eden Gardens recently, equalling the record they had set against then Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in 2020 in Sharjah. Sent into bat, Kolkata Knight Riders scored 261/6 but PBKS completed the chase with eight balls to spare. KKR rode on a 138-run partnership between openers Phil Salt (75 off 37 balls) and Sunil Narine (71 off 32 balls).

Manipur's Ukhrul, irate voters destroyed EVM after miscreants threatened them to vote for a certain party. An official who does not want to be named told ET, «The incident took place in the polling station 44/41 and 44/50.» Congress leader Jairam Ramesh uploaded a video on X where a miscreant was threatening voters.

Patanjali Foods Ltd, which is mainly into edible oils, on Friday said it will evaluate a proposal to acquire the non-food business of promoter group Patanjali Ayurved, led by Baba Ramdev. In a regulatory filing, Patanjali Foods informed that its board has discussed the initial proposal received from Patanjali Ayurved Ltd for a sale of the latter's non-food business undertaking to the company. «The board accorded its in-principle approval for evaluating the most efficient mode of enhancing synergies with Patanjali Ayurved non-food portfolio in any manner on an arm's length basis,» the filing said. The board also authorised officials to carry out due diligence, appoint professionals, negotiate the terms and conditions of the proposal, and report the findings to the Audit Committee and the board for further consideration.

CSB Bank on Friday reported a marginal fall in net profit for the March quarter at Rs 152 crore, owing to higher provisions to cover credit losses. It had earned a net profit of Rs 156 crore in the year ago quarter. The bank has made provisions of Rs 22 crore during the quarter against a provision write-back of Rs 9 crore earlier.

Eveready Industries India announced a fourth-quarter profit of Rs 8 crore for the period ended March 2024, compared to a loss of Rs 14.39 crore in the corresponding quarter of FY'23, amidst a marginal dip in operational revenue to Rs 281 crore. However, sequentially, the profit saw a marginal decline compared to the December 2023 quarter. The company reported revenues for the full FY24 at Rs 1,314.2 crore, marking a slight decline of one per cent from Rs 1,327.7 crore in FY23. Profit After Tax (PAT) for the year saw a substantial increase of 231 per cent to Rs 66.7 crore in FY'24, against Rs 20.1 crore in FY'23.

nomination papers for five Lok Sabha constituencies and 35 Odisha Assembly segments to be held on May 20 started on Friday with the Election Commission of India and Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) issuing the notification in this regard. The five Lok Sabha constituencies are Bargarh, Sundergarh (ST), Bolangir, Kandhamal and Aska Lok Sabha constituencies along with 35 assembly segments under the Lok Sabha constituencies. «As recommended by the Election Commission of India, in pursuance of sub-section (2) of Section 15 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (43 of 1951), the Governor of the State of Odisha is, hereby, pleased to call upon...,» the chief secretary said in a notification. As per the notifications, May 3 is the last date for making nominations while scrutiny of nominations will be done on the next day. Candidates can withdraw their nominations on or before May 6.

Thiruvananthapuram: Polling in all the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala for the 2024 general election concluded at 6 pm on Friday with the state recording a provisional voter turnout of over 67.27 per cent. Though the official time for polling ended at 6 pm, huge queues were seen outside polling booths across the state and therefore, the final turnout percentage is likely to go up. Tokens were issued to voters waiting in the queues. The huge queues in some places were due to delays caused by technical glitches and breakdown in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) as well as instances of bogus voting. In other places, the lines were due to people turning up in large numbers in the last couple of hours to cast their votes.

business connected to Ukraine has been charged with conducting hostile activity to benefit Russia, prosecutors said Friday. Dylan Earl, 20, is connected to Russia's Wagner mercenary group, which the U.K. government has declared a banned terrorist organization, prosecutors said. Earl is accused of fraudulent activity, research and reconnaissance of targets, and attempting to recruit others to assist a foreign intelligence service carrying out activities in the U.K.