Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty ended lower on Monday after hitting their all-time high levels in early trade amid selling in blue-chip IT stocks and HDFC Bank. After breaching the 77,000-mark during the early trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex came under selling pressure at the fag-end of the session and ended 203.28 points or 0.27 per cent lower at 76,490.08. During the day, the benchmark jumped 385.68 points or 0.50 per cent to hit a new record of 77,079.04.
It is the first time in nearly nine years that India's foreign minister travelled to Pakistan even as the ties between the two neighbours remained tense over the Kashmir issue and cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP, Tapan Sen, on Friday termed as a 'drama' the Central Vigilance Commission referring a complaint to the Central Bureau of Investigation on alleged irregularities in use of coal blocks by some private firms.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has identified "climate shocks" as a risk to food inflation rates and overall price rise while stating that the outlook for the country's economic growth remains bright. In its Annual Report for 2023-24, released on Thursday, the central bank said easing supply-chain pressures, broad-based softening in core inflation, and early indications of an above-normal southwest monsoon meant well for the inflation outlook in 2024-25. "The increasing incidence of climate shocks, however, imparts considerable uncertainty to the food inflation and overall inflation outlook," said the RBI while noting headline inflation moderated by 1.3 percentage points on an annual average basis to 5.4 per cent in 2023-24.
Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley will lead a high-power delegation to the WTO ministerial beginning at Cancun in Mexico on September 10 in which India and other developing countries are expected to lock horns with the US and EU on several issues.
As India goes into firming up trade deals with developed nations like Australia, the United Kingdom (UK) and the regional bloc, and the European Union (EU), it will have to be well prepared to negotiate on new-generation issues, such as data protection regulation, e-commerce, and environment. India is yet to negotiate pacts with its trading partners on these evolving issues since discussions between them have until now been largely focused on tariff and non-tariff barriers and the rules of origin. "We can no longer look at trade just as trade. We have to look at it in totality of global and regional conditions.
The past few weeks have seen several hundred people let go of by IT services firms joining unions claiming to represent tech workers fighting for their rights.
The brief exchange and handshake between Jaishankar and Sharif took place at a banquet dinner hosted by the Pakistani prime minister at his residence in honour of the delegates attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
The 24-hour transport strike began on Thursday, affecting normal life in several parts of the country including in Kerala and Karnataka, even as the Centre asked private operators and employees of state transport authorities to call off their strike.
'You cannot treat workers like beggars.'
Voting for the bypolls in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were held on Wednesday.
The government is looking at tweaking provisions of the Indian Contracts Act of 1872 to bring agreements between farmers and companies under its ambit, aiming to prevent exploitation of farm people.
Mumbai's Azad Maidan will be to be the venue for mass meetings and demonstrations for those participating in the nationwide general strike called by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions on Tuesday.
Centre of Indian Trade Unions district secretary Muthukumar said the workers were arrested when they tried to stage an agitation in front of the plant at Sriperumbudur.
Sri Lanka on Thursday signed an agreement with India to jointly redevelop the strategic World War II-era oil tank farm in the island nation's eastern port district of Trincomalee, in a new milestone in bilateral economic and energy partnership.
The national carrier has drawn a blueprint to cut the number of recognised unions in the airline from 15 to two -- one for pilots and another for the rest of the employees.
The Congress expressed its 'whole-hearted' support to the 'Bharat bandh' called by farmer unions against the new agri-marketing laws and announced that it will hold protests that day at all district and state headquarters in solidarity with the demands of the farmers. TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said the party rank and file would actively participate in the bandh to ensure it was a success.
'By investing in a basket of funds, FoFs can help minimise the impact of underperforming funds, thus reducing overall investment risk.'
Banking operations across the country may be impacted on Thursday as some bank unions would be joining the one-day nationwide strike called by central trade unions. Ten central trade unions, except Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, will observe the nationwide general strike to protest against various policies of the central government. Many lenders, including IDBI Bank and Bank of Maharashtra, in regulatory filings on Wednesday said their normal working could be affected at the branches and offices.
Concerned over the fallout of the Red Sea crisis and severe shortage of containers against the backdrop of a steep decline in merchandise exports in August, the Union government is pulling out all the stops to find a solution. To begin with, the government has devised a strategy aimed at boosting container supply and supporting exporters.
The US is keeping a close watch on the developments in the IT sector in West Bengal, which has just witnessed the formation of an union affiliated to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions.
The 11 Indian officials of a steel company, abducted in Nigeria two days back, have been released.
The activists of various green groups called on the French authorities on Monday, urging them not to scrap the decommissioned French warship - Clemenceau - in ship-breaking yards in India.
'The government there at one point did not even permit migrant labourers to return...we do not want to say anything against anyone but the situation there was not handled properly'
'As we enter 2025, it must be acknowledged that there is a convergence of capital, influential people (from business and politics) and technology deciding the destiny of others in the name of pride, patriotism, nationalism, nation building, all of it thinly veiled disguises for personal profit and glory,' asserts Shyam G Menon.
On the eve of the Modi government's two years in office, the RSS-linked Bharatiya Mazdoor Sabha leadership met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. After the meeting, the BMS claimed the FM told its delegation 'the government has realised that labour reforms are not essential for industrial growth in the country.'
'India has not integrated into any major trade agreement'.
The 17-day strike by workers at Hyundai Motor India's Sriperumbudur factory ended after a meeting of workers' representatives, the company management and the labour board in Chennai.
Polling for 16 Rajya Sabha seats in four states will be held on Friday amid allegations of attempts at horse-trading by rival parties which have corralled their MLAs in hotels and scenic resorts, prompting the Election Commission to appoint special observers and order videography of the entire exercise.
A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said Indian firms, involved in the export of arms and equipment to Israel, may be sued for breach of contractual obligations if they are stopped by it from supplying.
Countries that raised concerns about the quality of Indian spices have called for urgent attention and action, Delhi-based think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said on Wednesday. The stakes are high since India exported spices worth about $692.5 million to the United States (US), Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and Maldives in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), it said. During FY24, India's spice exports were worth $4.25 billion, accounting for a 12 per cent share of the global spice exports.
More than 50 per cent of SIP accounts come from semi-urban and rural areas.
In a bid to enter the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal, Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo members Sitaram Yechuri and Brinda Karat on Monday filed their nominations for the upcoming election to the Upper House.
10 central trade unions have called a nationwide shutdown against 'anti-worker policies' of the central government. Apart from being successful in Bengal, Kerala and NE states, the bandh has also got support from Cong leader Rahul Gandhi and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.
Preferential Trading Agreements entered into by the United States and the European Union with some of their trading partners could pose a major threat to India's textiles exports, government officials said.
Postings to places at an altitude above 1,000 metres but less than 1,500 metres, between 1,500 and 3,000 metres, and above 3,000 metres entail different rates of allowances -- the higher the location, the bigger the allowance, reveals Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Workers' attitude is changing and they want to work more and demand more wages. They want more productivity.
Industry cheers while unions label the move veiled entry of a 'hire & fire' regime.
'Since the bilateral deficit is a reality -- and a worry -- we need to find a way to deal with it,' says Ravi Bhoothalingam.
