The rupee depreciated 40 paise to an all-time low of 81.93 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday as the strengthening of the American currency and risk-averse sentiment among investors weighed on the local unit. Moreover, a negative trend in domestic equities and significant foreign fund outflows sapped investor appetite, forex traders said. At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 81.90 against the greenback, then fell to 81.93, registering a fall of 40 paise over its previous closing.
More than 60 people from Gujarat on board the Nicaragua-bound plane, which was sent back from France over suspected human trafficking, had agreed to pay Rs 60 lakh to Rs 80 lakh to immigration agents, who promised to cross into the US illegally after reaching the Latin American country, officials said.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her sixth straight Budget ahead of the Parliamentary elections, matching the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai. Sitharaman in her pre-election Budget, which technically is a vote on account and popularly termed an interim Budget, will seek Parliament's nod for a grant in advance to meet the central government's essential expenditure for the first four months of the new fiscal year that starts in April. A new government elected after the April/May general elections will present the full Budget, likely in July.
The 54-page document tabled in Parliament detailed how the Modi-government pull the economy from being counted among the most fragile-five in the world to being the fasted growing and the most attractive investment destination.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will have to take far more pro-active steps to rebuild forex reserves, because if the status quo remains, rupee could touch 75 per US dollar by the end of 2014, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a report.
'India is a rising power and it'll become one day a great power. I think the diplomatic skills, the execution of a flawless G-20 sends the message that India has arrived on the scene and it is becoming a great power'
Lavrov also noted that the G20 Summit in New Delhi provided a direction towards fairness in global governance and global finance as well.
The Wall Street major Morgan Stanley has upgraded India to "standout overweight" citing that the relative economic and earnings growth is improving and the macro-stability setup looks sufficient to withstand the higher real rate environment. "India remains standout overweight. "We increase our overweight stance on Indian equities and as our most-preferred emerging market," the brokerage said in a note on Friday.
Pakistan, the closest ally of China, has decided to skip the Democracy Summit that begins in Washington on Tuesday, opting instead to engage with the US bilaterally to strengthen democratic values, the foreign office in Islamabad said.
India's merchandise exports in May rose by 20.55 per cent to USD 38.94 billion, while the trade deficit ballooned to a record USD 24.29 billion, according to government data released on Wednesday.
The Reserve Bank has told the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the objective of frequent interventions in the forex market is to curb excessive volatility, dismissing the Fund's rationale for reclassifying India's exchange rate regime. The IMF, following the Article IV consultation with the Indian authorities, reclassified the status of the exchange rate regime to "stabilised arrangement" from "floating" for period between December 2022 to October 2023. India's Executive Director at IMF K V Subramanian and Senior Advisors Sanjay Kumar Hansda and Anand Singh questioned the selection period adopted by the Fund for analysis and also reclassification of the country's exchange rate regime.
He urged China to bolster the flow of its tourists to the Maldives.
The government has cleared US-based chip maker Micron's project to set up a semiconductor test and packaging unit worth USD 2.7 billion in the country, according to sources. The approved project is expected to create 5,000 jobs. "The project was cleared about a week back," a source said, confirming details of the project.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has presented a bleak picture of the country's dwindling economy, regretting that even friendly countries had started looking at Pakistan as one that was always begging for money.
In a recent note, the global brokerage firm said India now commands a weight of 19 per cent in the above-mentioned portfolio as compared to 18.2 per cent in September 2023. India, it said, is a large liquid market and remains a counter-weight to North Asia if a slowdown in the West occurs and China's recovery disappoints.
The rupee on Wednesday declined by 16 paise to close at its fresh lifetime low of 77.60 against the US dollar amid unabated foreign fund outflows and a stronger greenback in overseas markets. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened lower at 77.57 and later hit the day's low of 77.61 as the dollar rebounded in global markets following hawkish comments from US Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell. Crude oil prices also surged over 1 per cent, which weighed on the rupee.
'You know why? Because they know they can't vet them, and they don't want Hamas in their neighbourhood'
Former Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya has opined that cutting trade with Beijing at this juncture would amount to sacrificing India's potential economic growth.
Forex market was shut on Tuesday on account of 'Mahavir Jayanti'.
In shooting, India have added Manisha Keer, Preeti Rajak and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa, while in athletics, Amlan Borgohain, Preeti and Prachi have been added to the squad.
Former Cricket South Africa president Dr Ali Bacher is not pleased that India, Australia and England are "marginalising" other boards to enjoy complete hegemony.
The orders for aircraft, maintenance services and flight training programmes at the 12th edition of the airshow, which concluded on Thursday, are much higher than the last edition in 2009 which recorded orders worth USD 14 billion.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a Rs 11.11 lakh crore spending on infrastructure and vowed to continue reforms as she resisted resorting to populist measures in Modi government's last Budget before general elections, instead choosing to stay on the path of cutting deficit while bolstering measures for focus groups.
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a petition by a family member of Indian national Nikhil Gupta, under detention in a Czech prison over allegations of involvement in a foiled plot to kill pro-Khalistan Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the United States, for consular access.
Global financial firm J P Morgan has said that it plans to include Indian government bonds (IGBs) or government securities (G-Secs) into its benchmark Emerging Market index from next year, a move that will bring down borrowing cost for the government. The inclusion of the IGBs will be staggered over a 10-month period from June 28, 2024 to March 31, 2025, indicating one per cent increment on its index weight. "India's weight is expected to reach the maximum weight threshold of 10 per cent in the GBI-EM Global Diversified, and approximately 8.7 per cent in the GBI-EM Global index," J P Morgan said in a statement on Friday.
India will be handed USD 175,000 for finishing as the number-one Test side while also pocketing another USD 75,000 for finishing as second-ranked ODI team this season, the ICC said on Thursday.
India will never provide company or enterprise-specific incentives in the electric vehicle sector, a top government official said on Friday, amid a push from American electric carmaker Tesla for special sops to set up its factory in the country. If the government has to consider providing incentives then it will only be for all EV makers and entrants who want to come to India, the official said. The official added that inter-ministerial discussions have happened on the customs duty concession demand of the US-based electric car maker Tesla, but "we never" came to any conclusion on those.
The department Thursday confirmed by email that Officer Daniel Auderer has been administratively reassigned to a non-operational position.
Research Fellow and Director at Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia Aparna Pande, said that Beijing and Moscow will be keenly watching Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States.
The rupee has depreciated 9.7 per cent against the US dollar over a year and with the RBI stemming the rupee's weakness through dollar sales, its reserves have dropped to their lowest levels since October, 2020. The fall in reserves has widespread implications.
PM Modi proposed a USD one billion line of credit to promote projects that support physical and digital connectivity between India and ASEAN.
The rupee had shed 10 paise to close at 66.14.
On being asked if the ongoing spat between the two countries is going to have an impact on the India-Maldives ties, as well the revenue that Indian tourists have generated for the island nation over the years, the Maldivian leader, who was also the former Minister of Economic Development of Maldives, asserted that it is much more than economics or revenue.
Nandan Nilekani, co-founder and chairman of Infosys and the founding chairman of UIDAI, has donated Rs 315 crore to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay.
Severe heatwaves, responsible for thousands of deaths across India over the last few decades, are increasing with alarming frequency and soon the country could become one of the first places in the world to experience heatwaves that break the human survivability limit, according to a new report.
The staging of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in South Africa early this year helped the Cricket board there record a turnover of more than USD 11.4 million for the 2008/2009 season.
Comedian Kathy Griffin's became the first casualty of the move as her account got suspended.
The missile firing demonstrated the Indian Navy's firepower at sea, they said.
The dollar gained against other currencies overseas.
The top court said that a sum of Rs 50 crore lying with the RBI for the victims shall be utilised by the Union of India to satisfy pending claims of victims.
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