MEA data show that the number of Indian students in the UAE in 2025 was 253,832, just behind the United States with 255,447 students, and Canada being on top at 427,085.
Next week's three-nation foreign tour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will see India and Oman sign a free trade deal. The visit will also pave the way for agreements with Ethiopia and Jordan to increase India's bilateral trade and investments.
What began as a mentor-protege relationship between UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has now evolved into a broader contest over influence, strategy, and leadership in the Middle East, points out Asif Ullah Khan.
'There are very few issues and a political call needs to be taken about some of them.'
FDI inflows into India are expected to register robust growth in 2026, supported by strong macroeconomic fundamentals, big-ticket investment announcements, sustained efforts to improve the ease of doing business, and a new generation of investment-linked trade pacts.
Bharathi Sihag, joint secretary at the ministry of commerce of India, told Abu Dhabi's National newspaper that the date had almost been set: "We will be meeting very soon, next month or October." The FTA between India and Gulf Cooperation Council has been delayed, ever since the first round held in March 2006, due to administrative reasons as the same set of officials are involved in talks with EU and Korea over similar trade pacts.
'When global politics has some intervention on the core software one uses, and if you are cut off from your own data in critical workflows, sovereignty is no longer optional. It becomes a necessity.'
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has secured a 13-day custodial remand for Jawad Ahmed Siddiqui, chairperson of the Al Falah group, accused of generating over Rs 415 crore dishonestly from students. The ED claims Siddiqui has incentives to flee India as his family is settled in the Gulf.
'Saudi-Pak defence pact is to anchor the defence and security of Saudi Arabia and not Pakistan, per se, with Islamabad being the junior partner.'
The era where nations thrived through rigid alignments is giving way to an age where the connective State defines power. For India, that era has arrived, points out Dr Nishakant Ojha.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have 10 Indian billionaires.
Some of these nations are India's biggest export market. India is also dependent on these countries to meet its energy needs.
The four million expatriate Indians in the six Gulf Cooperation Council states remit an incredible $5 billion annually, a study shows.
Hospital chain Aster DM Healthcare's plans to sell its Gulf business may run into rough weather with voting advisory firm Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS) raising concerns over the transaction. Recommending an 'against' vote on the resolution, IiAS has said there is no clarity on how Aster DM will utilise the proceeds that it will obtain by selling the unit, which contributes to bulk of its revenues. In November, Aster DM had announced its plans to sell its wholly-owned subsidiary Affinity Holdings, which conducts business in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, to Alpha GCC for $1 billion.
In a move which could pave the way for a Free Trade Agreement between India and the Gulf Cooperation Council, both the partners have concluded negotiations for a Framework Agreement expected to be inked soon.
The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have decided to enhance cooperation in the economic, commercial, investment, educational, cultural and media fields.
Professional expatriates, including Indians, would be able to hold dual residency in the Gulf nations under a move recommended by top immigration officials of the six nations. According to him, GCC residents looking for new jobs would also be allowed to enter other Gulf states on visiting visas, before securing employment.
India is vigorously pursuing for a free trade agreement with Gulf countries, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Monday.
GCC consists of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates.
Gulf nations have postponed the six-year residency cap on foreign unskilled workers.
With US President Donald Trump "temporarily suspending" country-specific reciprocal tariffs until July 9, India sees the three-month window as an opportunity to renew its push for a proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) with the US and expedite finalisation of the first tranche of the trade deal.
Software major Wipro has tied up with Sun Microsystems to widen its reach within the Gulf Cooperation Council countries such as UAE and Saudi Arabia.As part of the deal, Wipro would resell and integrate the entire suite of Sun systems, storage, software, and services to serve Sun's customers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar.
The unemployment rate in the GCC reached 8.8 per cent in 2009 and is expected to increase to 10.5 per cent this year, said the report titled 'GCC Unemployment: Sustainable Economies'.
Qatar will lead growth in the region with around 8.7 per cent, while growth will be about six per cent each in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, 4.5 per cent in the United Arab Emirates, 4.2 per cent in Oman and 3.1 per cent in Bahrain, the report by Kuwait-based Gulf Investment Company said.
Lulu Retail announced on Wednesday that its initial public offering (IPO) was oversubscribed 25 times across all tranches, excluding cornerstone investors, generating demand exceeding $37 billion-a record for a private sector IPO in the United Arab Emirates. The company is controlled by Kerala-based business tycoon MA Yusuff Ali. The final offer price for Lulu shares was set at AED 2.04 per share, raising a total of $1.72 billion (AED 6.32 billion), making it the largest IPO in the UAE in 2024 to date.
During the discussions attended by Simon Williams, Chief Economist at HSBC, Chirag Shah, Head of Strategy and Corporate Planning at DIFC Authority, and Yousef Bazian, Head of Corporate Finance at PwC in the Middle East, a consensus emerged that the Gulf region has achieved considerable non-oil economic growth.
The Gulf Cooperation Council will consider a proposal to define a time-frame ceiling for residency of the workers in member states. The proposal says after the expiry of the six year-contract, the worker will go back home to his original country.
A survey by the Arabian Business weekly magazine shows that Landmark boss, Mr Micky Jagtiani, now has close to $1.5 billion more than his nearest rival in the wealth stakes, New Medical Centre Group boss, B R Shetty, who was second with a $1.72 billion fortune.
The Indian arm of the Norwegian investment company Orkla ASA, which owns spice brands like MTR and Eastern, is exploring the possibility of launching an initial public offering (IPO) in 2025, said a top company executive. "The ASA board just cleared the proposal. "We had done a pre-IPO study last year to understand what we need to do and based on that the board said, 'okay, let's go ahead and explore capital markets'," Sanjay Sharma, CEO, Orkla India, told Business Standard.
Investments from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to India remain negligible relative to trade flows and represent just a small percentage of total FDI from the region to the world, says a report.
In a condolence message sent to the families of the victims of the fire incident in Mangaf, the Emir expressed his sincere sorrow and deep sympathy to the families of the victims and wished a fast recovery to the injured.
Exports of high-quality basmati rice from India grew by 22 per cent to $5.2 billion during April 2023-February 2024, amid robust demand, primarily from West Asia. According to data compiled by the commerce department, exports of basmati rice increased to 4.68 million metric tonnes (MMT) in April-February, from 4.1 MMT during the same period a year ago, registering a growth of 14 per cent.
Acutely conscious that he's left with less than four years to create his legacy, Trump is undoubtedly a man in a hurry, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
US President Donald Trump spoke with Saudi Arabia's King Salman amid the Arab world's biggest diplomatic crisis in years over Qatar's alleged support to extremists, reports Lalit K Jha.
'Christians, for example, make up 2 per cent of India's population but an estimated 16 per cent of those who were born in India now reside elsewhere,' said Pew.
India is expected to be the top recipient of remittances in 2023 as inflows increase 12.4 per cent to $125 billion, said a World Bank report on Tuesday. Mexico will come next by receiving $67 billion and China will follow it at $50 billion. The key drivers for remittance growth in 2023 are a tight labour market in the United States, high employment growth in Europe reflecting extensive leveraging of worker retention programs, and a dampening of inflation in high-income countries. India's growth in remittances is expected to halve to 12.4 per cent in 2023 from a historic peak of 24.4 per cent in 2022.
India is pushing for greater disclosures by credit card companies, fintech firms, and payment aggregators (PAs) at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), so that the sender and recipient in a cross-border financial transaction can be easily identified and the information shared with law enforcement agencies. Separately, the inter-governmental group, which sets standards to curb money laundering, will release the fourth round of its mutual evaluation report on India on September 19. FATF in June had adopted the mutual evaluation report on India and placed the country in the "regular follow-up" category - the highest rating given by the global watchdog and a distinction shared by only four other G20 countries.
Their shared brief: To assert India's case with clarity, rebut hostile narratives, and secure enduring partnerships for global counter-terror cooperation.
Another priority in the first 100 days could be the launch of an e-platform -- Trade Connect -- to help exporters connect with stakeholders of international trade.
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