India extended a mandate to power plants to import coal until March as the driest August in more than a century pushed electricity demand to a record, putting a strain on supplies of the nation’s main generation fuel.Plants designed to run on domestic coal have been asked to import 4% of their supplies of the fuel through March to avoid outages, extending an earlier direction to buy from overseas until the end of this month, power secretary Pankaj Agarwal said in an interview.from Business News: Latest News on Business, Stock Markets, Financial News, India Business & World Business News https://ift.tt/nZ6kvCd
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Pakistan's business community on Saturday observed a shutter-down strike across the country to protest against the inflated electricity bills and rising inflation.Rightwing Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and traders' groups gave the call for protest and they got support from lawyers.Commercial activities were halted in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar, as well as in other cities, while public transport was largely off the main roads.
Adani Group claimed on Saturday that its stocks and financials were unaffected, just days after the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) reported that the family's business associates used 'opaque' cash to buy in stocks. Adani Group said the'misleading reports' had no significant impact on its business performance and that it remained in line with the law.
Presently, Marriott boasts 145 operational hotels in India, comprising around 27,000 rooms, with 10 new hotels having been inaugurated this year.
The Indian rupee strengthened by 9 paise to reach 82.61 against the US dollar in early trade on Friday. This was driven by positive domestic equity markets and robust macroeconomic data. India recorded a GDP growth rate of 7.8% in the April-June period, maintaining its position as the world's fastest-growing major economy.
The government is considering to put stock limit on chana (gram) considering the increase in its prices in recent weeks. So far, stock limits have been imposed on wheat, tur and urad. The government may also scrap the tender for import of masur considering that the importers are quoting exorbitant prices.
India's imports of cheap Russian oil declined for the third consecutive month in August due to reduced demand caused by monsoon rains and scheduled maintenance works. Indian refiners also cut shipments from Iraq by 10% in August. However, imports from Saudi Arabia saw a significant surge, rising 63% on month.
Chinese developer Country Garden Holdings Co has warned of a potential default on its debt and expressed concerns about staying in business after reporting a record loss of nearly $7bn for the first half of the year. The company stated that if its financial performance continues to deteriorate, it may not be able to meet its debt obligations, raising doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern.
The government is likely to put LPG (cooking gas supplied to households in cylinders) price on freeze for the rest of the year, after announcing a cut of Rs 200 per cylinder on Tuesday, providing a relief of over Rs 18,500 crore to consumers during the remaining seven months of the fiscal.
The expected incremental production under the scheme is pegged at Rs 3.35 lakh crore, said Union minister Vaishnaw. "India is emerging as a trusted supply chain partner and value added partner ... companies are happy to come to India for manufacturing and design," he said at a media briefing.
India's tech industry is decentralising from the seven major hubs, including metropolitan hubs, to 26 cities, with representation from tier-2 and tier-3 towns as well, the 220-page report titled "Emerging technology hubs of India" stated. About 60 per cent of graduates come from smaller cities in key fields, 30 per cent of whom relocate to tier-1 cities for employment after graduation.
Between January and March 2023, in India, over 1.9 million videos were removed for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines. In comparison, in the US, 6,54,968 videos were removed, Russia (4,91,933), and Brazil (4,49,759). "Since the earliest days as a company, our Community Guidelines have protected the YouTube community from harmful content. We enforce our policies using a combination of machine learning and human reviewers," YouTube said.
Indian shares ended near the session's low as a late slide in financials offset gains in IT stocks. The Nifty 50 index closed slightly higher, while the S&P BSE Sensex also rose marginally. Financials were dragged down by HDFC Bank, while IT stocks climbed on easing interest rate concerns in the US.
India is planning to auction around 100 critical mineral blocks within the next four months in order to secure domestic supplies for the green energy transition. The blocks contain minerals such as nickel, lithium, cobalt, platinum, and rare earths. The government aims to incentivize global and local miners by reimbursing half the cost of exploration.
The Congress has cited media reports suggesting that SEBI may let off the Adani conglomerate with "token fines" for "technical violations" to question the investigation into the Adani issue. The party alleges that this demonstrates India's transition to a "kleptocracy" and accuses the government of using investigative agencies to protect Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "close friends". The party is calling for a joint parliamentary committee probe to investigate the Adani issue.
Indian benchmark stock indices, the sensex and Nifty, closed higher for the second consecutive day, led by gains in metal, power, and select financial shares. However, losses in Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, and Airtel, along with foreign fund outflows, limited the gains. The sensex rose by 0.12% to settle at 65,075.82, while the Nifty gained 0.19% to end at 19,342.65.
Airtel Uganda is planning to raise $216 million in an initial public offering, which would be the nation's largest share sale. The IPO is priced at 100 shillings per share, valuing the telecommunications carrier at 4 trillion shillings. The company aims to sell a 20% stake, or 8 billion shares, on the Uganda Securities Exchange to meet regulatory requirements.
