He said that the Communist Party of China has used the COVID-19 pandemic as a smokescreen for ratcheting up their oppression of Hong Kong and advancing their control and influence throughout the region.
Four Chinese soldiers were killed in the fierce clash with the Indian Army in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in June last year, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) acknowledged for the first time on Friday.
The sources said both sides held extensive deliberations on modalities for disengagement of troops from all the friction points in eastern Ladakh at the talks.
Market participants attribute the stability to the Reserve Bank of India's timely intervention in the foreign exchange market, both in terms of selling and buying dollars.
Corporate India is starting to step up its capital expenditure plans amid government incentives and signs of rising demand, company executives and analysts have indicated. This coincides with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently citing a double-digit growth in private capital expenditure. Healthy balance sheets of banks and corporates, along with increasing capacity utilisation and improving business sentiment, are contributing to a favourable environment for sustained growth in private sector investments, the RBI said in its policy last week.
While India should be concerned about disparities, the fact is that whereas three decades ago about half the people had incomes greater than $2.15 a day, today seven out of eight do, notes T N Ninan.
'China seems more intent on creating a new world order rather than shaping the existing one.' 'India is of course, at this moment in time, aligned with the West-led order because of China's full-spectrum aggressive behaviour towards India.'
The incident had taken place at a time when the Indian Foreign Minister, S Jaishankar, was in Moscow for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting, where he met his Chinese counterpart to address the border issues.
People's Bank of China's holding in HDFC stood at 1,74,92,909 equity shares, accounting for 1.01 per cent of the share capital of the company as of March-end, as per exchange data.
In a fresh incident in eastern Ladakh, the Chinese PLA carried out "provocative military movements" to "unilaterally" change the status quo on the southern bank of Pangong Tso lake but the attempt was thwarted by the Indian troops, the Army said here.
In the Sensex pack, Yes Bank, Tata Motors, Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, HDFC twins, IndusInd Bank, RIL, Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp, Axis Bank, M&M, HUL, Bajaj Auto, NTPC, HCL Tech, Kotak Bank and Infosys fell up to 5.30 per cent.
Crisil Ratings on Wednesday projected India's GDP growth at 6.8 per cent in the next fiscal and said the country will become an upper middle-income nation by 2031 with the economy doubling to $7 trillion. In its India Outlook report, Crisil said the Indian economy will take support from domestic structural reforms and cyclical levers and can retain -- perhaps even improve -- its growth prospects to become the third largest economy by 2031. "After a better-than-expected 7.6 per cent this fiscal, India's real GDP growth will likely moderate to 6.8 per cent in fiscal 2025," said the Crisil India Outlook report.
India spends significantly less on defence than could be expected from a country that faces simultaneous armed threats from two hostile neighbours -- China and Pakistan.
Under the India-China agreement on the disengagement process in eastern Ladakh, the Chinese army will pull back its troops to east of Finger 8 areas in the northern bank of Pangong lake, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in Parliament on Thursday, in what is seen as a significant step to dial down tensions in the key face-off site.
From the Sensex pack, Larsen & Toubro jumped 4.26 per cent to emerge as the biggest gainer, followed by IndusInd Bank, Tech Mahindra, State Bank of India, HCL Technologies, Power Grid, NTPC, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank and Wipro. Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, UltraTech Cement and Hindustan Unilever were the major laggards.
This is the case even though the benchmark index is only 5 per cent below its all-time high. The list of stocks trading at a discount primarily consists companies in the automotive, banking, oil and gas, insurance, healthcare, and metal sectors.
Axis Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, climbing 3.33 per cent, followed by PowerGrid, SBI, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries and Maruti.
RInstead of disengagement, the Indian and Chinese armies have deployed an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 soldiers each along the LAC. The PLA has deployed S-400 air defence missiles to neutralise the IAF's advantage in air power
Beijing's growing assertiveness as kingmaker in Kabul has suffered a setback with Washington quietly moving in, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The virus of trust deficit seems to be taking a toll of the friendship built over the years by succeeding leaderships of the two countries,' notes Rup Narayan Das.
The ministry of finance is likely to assume crude oil price to remain within $85 per barrel while estimating subsidies for the Interim Budget 2024-25 (FY25), to be presented on February 1. Brent crude prices moved up on Thursday, ending at $78.9 per barrel. Crude oil and cooking gas prices, which move in tandem, impact fertiliser and cooking gas subsidies, constituting 53 per cent of the government's total subsidies.
The disengagement plan was discussed between the two sides during the 8th Corps Commander-level talks which were held on November 6 in Chushul.
China's birth rate has been in decline since 2017, despite easing of the 'one-child policy' in order to avert an incoming demographic crisis.
Profit taking in Bajaj Finance, Nestle, Kotak Bank, SBI, Bharti Airtel L&T and Asian Paints also weighed on the benchmark index. Maruti bucked the trend by gaining 1.73 per cent after strong retails sales in September. Power Grid, M&M. JSW Steel and Tata Steel also advanced.
The job placement rate for students trained by NIIT in China is over 90 per cent.' A revealing excerpt from Saibal Dasgupta's Running With The Dragon: How India Should Do Business With China.
'Indian diplomacy faltered amidst multiple failures of statecraft.' 'The functionaries responsible must be held to account for their abject failure,' asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd climbed eight spots to the 45th rank, the highest for an Indian company on Forbes' latest Global 2000 list of public companies worldwide.
They were called to the special cell office in the afternoon and questioned till late evening, a Delhi police source said.
Other major laggards were IndusInd Bank, SBI, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Tata Steel and Reliance Industries -- falling as much as 6.30 per cent.
The crises of the 21st century, 9/11, the economic meltdown, COVID-19, Russia-Iran war and the Hamas-Israel war seem to be never ending. In this situation, Iran might be contemplating a nuclear deterrent to defend itself, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan, the distinguished long-time Rediff contributor who turns 80 on June 17..
China is the world's second-largest - both in terms of GDP and m-cap. At $10 trillion, its m-cap is second only to the US at $38 trillion.
Army Spokesperson Colonel Aman Anand said troops from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) 'violated' the consensus arrived at during military and diplomatic engagements on the ongoing standoff in eastern Ladakh, and carried out provocative military movements to change the status quo.
Top other laggards in the Sensex pack included Tata Motors, Maruti, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, RIL, NTPC, Bajaj Auto, Asian Paints, ITC, Kotak Bank, Bajaj Finance and TCS, falling up to 5.10 per cent.
The sources said the situation in eastern Ladakh remained 'tense' and that around 30-40 soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) are holding up at a position close to an Indian post in the Rezang-La ridgeline in eastern Ladakh.
India and China to hold the 11th round of corps commander-level talks at Chushul in eastern Ladakh at 10.30 am on Friday that is expected to focus on disengagement of troops in remaining friction points, sources within the Indian Army said.
Top gainers in the Sensex pack included IndusInd Bank, Tata Steel, Vedanta, Tech Mahindra, ONGC, Axis Bank and ITC, rising up to 5.18 per cent.
The Army Chief further spoke about the situation at other friction points where China was aggressive like Gogra Hotsprings.
"India and China are in communication and negotiations on lowering the temperatures through military and diplomatic channels. No party should engage in any action that may escalate the situation at this point," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said during a briefing when asked about the Prime Minister's visit.
From the Sensex pack, Mahindra & Mahindra emerged as the biggest gainer, climbing nearly 5 per cent. Power Grid, Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, NTPC, Axis Bank, Nestle, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Asian Paints and Wipro were among the other major gainers. Maruti, HCL Technologies, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank, Infosys and Tata Steel were among the laggards.
Benchmark BSE Sensex recovered from early lows to close at a five-month high on Friday, riding on gains in banking and auto stocks ahead of the release of key inflation data. The 30-share index gained 123.38 points or 0.20 per cent to settle at 62,027.90, the highest closing level since December 12, 2022. The barometer opened lower due to early weakness in energy, power and IT stocks and touched a low of 61,578.15 in the day trade.
