A 23-year-old man from Surat working as a 'helper' for the Russian Army was killed in a Ukrainian missile strike in a war zone, as per the claim made by his relatives.
US Principal Deputy NSA Jonathan Finer said the US and India have a "complicated history" and they have not always been "wholly aligned".
Continuing their selling spree for the sixth consecutive month, foreign investors pulled out a massive Rs 41,000 crore from the Indian equity market in March on anticipation of rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve and deteriorating geopolitical environment amid the Russia-Ukraine war. Further, flows from foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) are expected to remain volatile in the near term given the headwinds in terms of elevated crude prices and inflation, experts said. According to data available with the depositories, FPIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 41,123 crore in the equity market last month.
Although India-US relations have strengthened significantly in recent years, partly because of the security situation in the region, the Indian policy establishment would have to be prepared to protect India's interests in a world that could get more unpredictable.
The silver lining for India's presidency is likely to be the support by almost all G20 countries to its proposal to include the African Union as a permanent member of the bloc that has emerged as perhaps the most influential multilateral forum after the United Nations.
Two-wheeler exports from India have decreased by 20 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to 1.69 million units in the first half (H1) of 2023-24 (FY24) due to a challenging geopolitical situation and foreign exchange (forex) crises in key markets such as South Asia, industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) said on Monday. On the other hand, passenger vehicle (PV) exports in H1FY24 increased by 5 per cent to 336,754 units because the key markets are much more diversified worldwide, Vinod Aggarwal, president, Siam, told reporters during a press conference. The Russia-Ukraine war, which started in February 2022, has brought significant instability to global fuel prices.
'It makes sense to have gold in one's portfolio keeping the political and economic risks of 2024 in mind.'
Moody's Investors Service has warned that India, along with the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam are highly vulnerable to volatile food and energy prices in the Asia-Pacific region as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to disrupt supplies and raise the cost of agricultural products, especially cereals and vegetable oils, as well as fertilizers and other agricultural inputs. This is so because these countries have a higher weighting of energy and food prices in their consumer price index (CPI) baskets, Moody's said in its report released on Tuesday. The weighting of energy and food in overall Indian CPI stands at over 55 per cent.
Reserve Bank will have to constantly re-assess the "dynamic and fast changing situation" and tailor its actions accordingly, Governor Shaktikanta Das said during the recent meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) which decided to maintain status quo on key interest rate. According to the minutes of the six-member MPC meet released by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday, the five other members had also expressed a similar opinion amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict's impact on the global and domestic economies. MPC, which held its meeting from April 6-8, unanimously decided to keep the borrowing costs unchanged at a record low for the 11th time in a row in a bid to continue supporting economic growth despite inflation edging higher in the aftermath of Russia-Ukraine conflict.
India's iconic Vande Bharat train project may finally find a solution to its two Russian-related issues.
'The succesfully conduct of the global event would have filled the Indians with pride'
Prices may go up because of higher energy costs, caused by the rise in shipping charges, with commercial vessels taking a longer route to avoid the troubled Red Sea region, the finance ministry said on Monday. Iran-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen are repeatedly attacking ships in the Red Sea. While the global economy is grappling with challenges such as sticky inflation, sluggish growth, and mounting fiscal pressure, India's external sector could face "potential risks" due to the ongoing geopolitical tensions, according to the finance ministry's report on the review of the Indian economy.
The Indian rupee may remain under depreciation pressure on account of plateauing of exports and subsequent widening of the current account deficit, said the Economic Survey 2022-23 tabled in Parliament on Tuesday. It said the "risks to the current account balance stem from multiple sources". The country's current account deficit (CAD) widened to 4.4 per cent of the GDP in the quarter ended September from 2.2 per cent in April-June due to higher trade gap, as per latest data of the Reserve Bank of India.
On the Sensex chart, NTPC, SBI, UltraTech Cement, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv and Bjaja Finance were among the major laggards, shedding as much as 1.63 per cent.
Investors' wealth tumbled Rs 86,741.74 crore on Wednesday, mirroring weakness in the global equity markets amid escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The BSE benchmark Sensex slumped 1,227.18 points to 55,020.10 during the day in line with a global selloff. It finally settled at 55,468.90, lower by 778.38 points or 1.38 per cent. Surging crude prices and foreign capital outflows also weighed on investor sentiment.
In what could be a lesson learnt from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war where anti-tank missiles have played a big role, the Indian Air Force is arming its Russian-origin helicopters with the Israeli 'Non-Line of Sight (NLOS) ATGMs' which can hit ground targets from distances up to 30 km.
Among the Sensex firms, Axis Bank, Power Grid, Maruti, State Bank of India, Tata Motors, ITC, Nestle and Mahindra & Mahindra were the major gainers. Bajaj Finance and Larsen & Toubro were the laggards.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has raised India's long-standing concerns about pro-Khalistan extremism in the United Kingdom during his meetings with the country's leaders, stressing that they should be on guard against the misuse of freedom of expression and speech.
Insurance giant LIC has fixed the price band at Rs 902-949 per share for the Rs 21,000 crore public offer that is likely to open on May 4, sources said. According to sources, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) would offer a Rs 60 discount for policyholders and Rs 40 for retail investors and employees.
S&P Global Ratings on Monday cut India's economic growth forecast for current fiscal year to 7 per cent, but said the domestic demand-led economy will be less impacted by the global slowdown. S&P had in September projected the Indian economy to grow 7.3 per cent in 2022-23 and 6.5 per cent in next fiscal year (2023-24). "The global slowdown will have less impact on domestic demand-led economies such as India... India's output will expand 7 per cent in fiscal year 2022-2023 and 6 per cent in next fiscal year," S&P Global Ratings Asia-Pacific chief economist Louis Kuijs said.
Gen Pande said India will have to especially watch out for the stance of its two adversaries in the emerging geopolitical scenario, in an oblique reference to China and Pakistan.
Indian students returned from Ukraine early on Wednesday morning following advisories issued by the Indian embassy in Kyiv amid rising Russia-Ukraine tensions.
Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty rallied for a third day in a row on Wednesday on buying in Reliance Industries, Infosys, HDFC twins and ICICI Bank following gains in global equities amid hopes of a breakthrough in Russia-Ukraine peace talks. The 30-share BSE barometer index surged 740.34 points or 1.28 per cent to settle at 58,683.99. During the day, it jumped 784.13 points or 1.35 per cent to 58,727.78. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty climbed 172.95 points or 1 per cent to settle at 17,498.25. Among the 30-share pack, Bajaj Finserv, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Power Grid, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Nestle, Maruti, Reliance Industries Limited were among the lead gainers. On the other hand, ITC, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel and Titan were among the laggards.
The triennial exercise will take place for two hours and fifteen minutes during the day, dusk and night, he said.
Notably, Ukrainian forces disabling bridges across the Dnipro river and attacking Russian supply lines made it very difficult for Russia to defend the occupied territory.
Petrol and diesel prices were cut by Rs 2 per litre each as state-owned oil companies ended a nearly two-year-long hiatus in rate revision, just hours before the general election schedule was announced.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said India is ready to cross the Line of Control (LoC) to maintain its honour and dignity, and called upon civilians to be ready to support the soldiers in such a situation.
Taking advantage of the Russia-Ukraine war, China has been conducting military drills on its far north-eastern border, raising expert concerns that Beijing could be considering a push into Russian territory.
'With China falling out of favour, India is where investors see the demographic and digital dividend apart from the benefits of reforms playing out.' 'Your prime minister has also done a great job of sharing this story with the world.'
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday said the government and the central bank are in discussion with South Asian countries to have cross-border trade in rupee. He also said the central bank digital currency (CBDC) is in trial phase and the RBI is moving very carefully and cautiously on digital rupee launch. After the successful launch of the wholesale pilot, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on December 1, last year, began its retail CBDC pilot project.
Following the capture in eastern Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the assault teams of the Wagner private military and Russian troops.
There have been growing global concerns over China's sweeping claims of sovereignty over all of the South China Sea, a huge source of hydrocarbons.
India on Saturday pulled off a big diplomatic win after the G20 summit held under its presidency adopted a consensus declaration overcoming major differences on the Russia-Ukraine war, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for ending the "global trust deficit".
Officials hint the visit could finally see a formal defence industrial road map being adopted by both nations.
From the 30-share pack, Indusind Bank, Axis Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, UltraTech Cement and Mahindra & Mahindra were the biggest drags, tumbling up to 7.63 per cent.
>Two hundred and forty one Indians in the Ukraine returned on a special Air India flight from Kyiv amid rising Russia-Ukraine tensions.
The commanders present in Delhi gathered at the South Block in Raisina Hills area, while many others joined the deliberations virtually.
India, he said, has already taken a host of reforms in banking and other sectors and is now focussing on stepping up public investment. "Compared to other nations, even among advanced countries, I think India is relatively better placed for the simple reason that India paid a certain price last decade... we had a banking system stress which was then compounded by stress in the non-banking financial sector towards 2018," he said at Amazon Smbhav Summit.
India's GDP is estimated to grow at 7.4 per cent in the financial year 2022-23 with rising prices triggered by the Russia-Ukraine conflict posing as the biggest challenge to the global economic recovery, Ficci's Economic Outlook Survey released on Sunday said. According to the survey, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to start a rate hike cycle in the second half of 2022, while a repo rate hike of 50-75 bps is expected by the end of the current fiscal. The RBI is expected to continue supporting the ongoing economic recovery by keeping the repo rate unchanged in its April policy review, the survey said.
India's exports may have touched an all-time high of $422 billion in 2021-22 but recession in key western markets and geo-political crisis due to the Russia-Ukraine war are expected to impact the growth of the country's outbound shipments in 2023. All the global trade promoting factors like political stability, movement of goods, adequate availability of containers and shipping lines, demand, stable currency and smooth banking systems are in disarray. Adding to the woes, COVID cases have again started rising in countries like China, Japan, South Korea and the US.
