The Biden administration has proposed a massive hike in immigration fees, including the much sought-after H-1B visas for high-skilled foreign workers, which is very popular among Indian tech professionals. Under the proposed rule, published by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Wednesday, the application for the H-1B visa increases from $460 to $780, and L-1 from $460 to $1,385. The application fee for O-1 visas has been proposed to increase from $460 to $1,055.
Exporters on Thursday demanded fiscal incentives, tweaking in customs duties on certain products and credit at affordable rates in the forthcoming Budget to boost exports and create jobs. In a pre-budget virtual meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said the depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar is affecting exports' competitiveness and the sector requires more support. "Creation of employment is the biggest challenge faced by the country...We would urge the government to provide fiscal support to units which provide additional employment in the export sector," the exporter's body said.
The government on Friday proposed hiking the securities transaction tax on Futures & Options (F&O) contracts, a move that will increase the trading costs in the derivatives segment as well as help in curbing excessive trades. In the Finance Bill 2023, passed by the Lok Sabha on Friday, the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on options is proposed to be increased to 0.0625 per cent from 0.05 per cent and on futures contracts to 0.0125 from 0.01 per cent. Analysts opined that higher STT will shore up the government's revenues to some extent and also discourage excessive trading since a large number of retail traders are losing money in the segment.
India would not be seen to be anything but rude with the Pakistanis. In the big picture, who is the bigger adversary right now? Who is the bigger pain in the neck? And who is it that is keeping more than 3,000 km of our borders active, throwing our military posture and deployments into imbalance? asks Shekhar Gupta.
Gautam Adani was the world's third and Asia's richest man a month back but a damning report by a US firm triggered a massive sell-off in shares of his apples-to-airport group, plunging his own wealth by $80 billion and the tycoon slipping to No.30 on the world billionaire index. Adani's sprawling conglomerate, which spans from sea ports to airports, edible oil and commodities, energy, cement and data centres, is under attack by US short-seller Hindenburg Research, which successfully deflated electric-vehicle maker Nikola Motors in 2020. Hindenburg, which held short positions in unidentified shares of Adani Group firms through its US-traded debt and offshore derivatives, on January 24 accused the conglomerate of "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud" and using a number of offshore shell companies to inflate stock prices.
Jairam Ramesh said the Congress has to be the "fulcrum" of any Opposition alliance to take on the BJP in the 2024 general elections as it is the only political force with a pan-India presence.
IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), in its Q4FY22 results, said the company's banking, finance services and insurance (BFSI) crossed the $10 billion milestone. This includes revenue from financial products, services and platforms. For Suresh Muthuswami, who recently took over as Chairman of North America, one of the focus will be to grow this percentage going ahead. The first step to grow the US market is hiring. Muthuswami said that the company will be hiring more in the US, especially from the campuses. In FY22 TCS hired over 7,000 people in the US and going ahead too the numbers will be similar.
Abramovich had sanctions imposed on him by the British government after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Gujarat is on the road to market 'Brand Gujarat'. The state has aimed at an accelerated industrial growth of about 15 per cent for the next five years. According to the new policy, the state will create room for three new economic corridors to house four special investment regions (SIR), 10 logistic parks for Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and a slew of industrial parks. For trained manpower, the state government will create a synergy between industry and education.
Germany-based Mutares SE & Co will acquire 80 per cent controlling stake in Mahindra & Mahindra's French unit Peugeot Motocycles. In a statement, the Mumbai-based auto major on Thursday said Mutares has submitted an irrevocable binding offer to acquire 50 per cent of equity and a controlling stake of 80 per cent in France-based Peugeot Motocycles (PMTC). As part of the deal, Purple, a fully-owned entity of Mutares Holding, would invest 7 million euros in PMTC, which would entitle it to a 50 per cent shareholding and 80.01 per cent voting rights in the French firm.
'In a special gesture, UAE President and Ruler of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, accompanied by senior members of the Royal Family, was at Abu Dhabi airport for the interaction with PM'
Benoy Babu of Pernod Ricard and Sharath Reddy of Aurobindo Pharma have been arrested under sections of the PMLA.
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Relaxing its norms for foreign investors, Sebi on Thursday allowed overseas entities using complex multi-fund structures to invest in India, if they need to use such models due to regulations in their home country and they are ready to provide details of actual beneficiary of funds.
Osaka takes equity stake in crypto exchange FTX
Based on the current momentum, the funds likely to be raised through the RBI's relaxed window would be $3.5 billion-$4 billion.
There are three things you never do in a small North East state: Undermine local leaders, divide and rule, push homogenisation, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Bandhan Bank has filed a draft red herring prospectus with Sebi for an IPO of up to 119 million equity shares, with face value of Rs 10 each.
The court allowed Karti to carry spectacles and medicines as per prescription subject to examination and approval by the jail doctor, but denied his request to carry toiletries, books, clothes and home food.
With the T20 World Cup looming later this year in Australia, Pandya bowling at full throttle is music to the ears of the team management.
India's current account slipped into a deficit of $9.6 billion or 1.3 per cent of GDP in the September quarter, the Reserve Bank said on Friday. The current account, which records the value of exports and imports of both goods and services along with international transfers of capital, was in a surplus mode both in the quarter-ago and year-ago periods. India's current account surplus had stood at $6.6 billion or 0.9 per cent of GDP in the April-June 2021 quarter, while in the year-ago period (Q2FY22), the surplus had stood at $15.3 billion or 2.4 per cent of the GDP, the data said.
Billionaire Gautam Adani's group on Monday said it has written confirmation that accounts of three foreign funds that are among its top shareholders are not frozen and reports to the contrary are "blatantly erroneous and misleading". Shares of Adani group companies plunged on Monday after reports that the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) froze the accounts of the three foreign funds that are among the top stakeholders in the firms. Adani Enterprises, the conglomerate's flagship company, as also Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Adani Green Energy Ltd, Adani Transmission Ltd, Adani Power and Adani Total Gas Ltd in identical filings to the stock exchanges said the reports of NSDL freezing accounts of Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund and APMS Investment Fund holding shares in the group firms were "blatantly erroneous and is done to deliberately mislead the investing community."
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
State-run Gail (India) Ltd on Friday approved Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) investment in Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd, the special purpose vehicle created to restart Dabhol power plant in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra.
Chirag Daruwalla, who is following in the footsteps of his famed astrologer father, the late Bejan Daruwalla, tells you.
Videocon group has signed an agreement with West Bengal government to set up a steel plant and a power project in the state with total investment of about Rs 15,000 crore.Videocon, which already has interests in oil and gas, plans to establish a three million tonne steel plant and a 1,200 MW thermal power project in Asansol-Durgapur area in Burdwan district.
The Bombay high court on Monday granted bail to former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar in a loan fraud case, saying their arrest was not in accordance with the provisions of law. A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and P K Chavan held that the arrest of Kochhars was in violation of Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which mandates sending notice for appearance before the police officer concerned. The couple was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on December 23, 2022 in connection with the Videocon-ICICI Bank loan case.
Here's the full text of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to a joint session of the United States Congress, delivered on Thursday.
Britain's prime ministerial candidate Rishi Sunak has said he wants to change the UK-India relationship to make it a more two-way exchange that opens up easy access to UK students and companies in India.
Each port will construct one smart city.
The government said on Monday it expected an investment of Rs 22,500 crore (Rs 225 billion) over the next five-six years in a proposed Special Economic Zone for manufacturing renewable energy equipment.
In a pre-budget meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the experts suggested timely implementation of the BJP's election manifesto promises to fix higher support prices. They also favoured a Kissan TV channel, an efficient procurement policy, priority for farm mechanisation and the linking of rivers.
