"The people of Gaza need food, water, medicine, shelter. Today, I asked the Israeli cabinet to agree to the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza...and the aid should go to civilians, not to Hamas. Israel agreed that the humanitarian assistance can begin to move from Egypt to Gaza. If Hamas diverts or steals the assistance it will have demonstrated once again that they have no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people.. and it will stop the international community from being able to provide this aid," Biden said.
State-run oil firms will supply Euro-IV grade petrol and diesel in 13 big cities and Euro-III complaint petrol in rest of the country from April 1 but supply of the cleaner diesel to rest of the country may be delayed by three to six months.
In Amman, Biden will meet with King Abdullah of Jordan, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Pranab Mukherjee said India will undertake the civil nuclear cooperation with the US and any other country on the basis of bilateral agreements only and that the government has "no doubt" that Washington will fulfil its "commitments and obligations" specified in the agreement.
The spike in food prices at the onset of the monsoon season has corroborated the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) view that the fight against inflation is far from over, the State of the Economy report of the central bank said. At the same time, the report said that the country is poised to become the fastest-growing major economy in the world, notwithstanding some sequential moderation in economic activity in June. Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation rate increased to 4.8 per cent in June 2023, from 4.3 per cent in May, primarily on account of an increase in food inflation.
India on Friday made it clear that the civilian nuclear cooperation with the United States will be guided only by the 123 agreement which, when operational, will become a 'legal' document in accordance with well-recognised principles of international law and Law of Treaties.
The proposed India-United States nuclear agreement provides undefined India-specific safeguards and fails to explicitly state whether the US nuclear trade will terminate if India conducts a nuclear test.
SpiceJet grounded all its aircraft due to payment woes
Agreements may provide rights but this does not mean asserting them or implementing them will be easy. India may consider itself to be on firm legal ground in invoking Paragraph 29, for example, in order to deal with the consequences of a fuel supply disruption, but the political opposition it will encounter internationally could be formidable. Some of this political opposition could even be couched in legal terms.
While consumers have enjoyed lower fuel prices, producers have cut spending and thousands of jobs
Consumption-related stocks, such as hotels, and quick service restaurants (QSRs), have been hitting the ball out of the park ahead. On the other hand, the Miss World Pageant scheduled for later this year in New Delhi, too, could provide some tailwind to these stocks, especially hotels and aviation. However, analysts suggest investors put their best foot forward and buy these counters only on a decline given the recent rally and economic headwinds.
Petrol and diesel prices, which have been on a freeze for the past four months in view of assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh, need to be increased by over Rs 12 per litre by March 16 for fuel retailers to break even. International crude oil prices shot above $120 a barrel for the first time in nine years on Thursday before retreating a little to $111 on Friday, but the gulf between cost and retail rates has only widened. With international oil prices - on which domestic fuel retails are directly benchmarked - spiking in the last two months, state-owned fuel retailers "need a massive price hike of Rs 12.1 per litre on or before March 16, 2022, just to breakeven and a price hike of Rs 15.1 is required" after including margins for oil firms, ICICI Securities said in a report.
Shaboo, who is living with her husband, Nedal Toman, and youngest daughter, Karima, in Gaza, said the 'water supply was officially cut off' in addition to electricity.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has decided to sack 64 striking executives. This was stated by the petroleum secretary R S Pandey on Thursday.
Fuel supplies in many parts of the country were affected on the second day of the indefinite strike by oil PSU executives that also resulted in refineries running below capacity and impacted oil and gas production.
Government's fuel subsidy estimate was based on crude oil at $70.
Originally, it was envisaged that the 2,150-MW power plant would shift to imported-LNG once the terminal is completed but now natural gas from Reliance Industries' eastern offshore D6 field is envisaged to fire the plant.
Stressing the need for coal sector reforms, the presentation said, "Independent regulation of coal sector becomes essential to ensure that e-auction remains competitive, to fix formulae for price revision for long-term fuel supply, to fix trading margins and to improve exploitation and allocation of available resources.
The dreary, cold months from December to February may prove to be the undoing of many a nation as they grapple with sky-high fuel prices - a result of the Ukraine conflict and the pandemic. Many - Europe, South Korea, Japan, and China - will still pull through on the strength of their wealth or because of strong storage infrastructure. But India will have its back to the wall. Signs of liquefied natural gas (LNG) rates hitting new records this winter are already evident.
However, some experts pointed out that it was still not clear whether the latest understanding between the two sides will free India, facing technology denial for over three decades, to shop around for civil nuclear technology and fuel.
Automobile retail sales in India rose 14 per cent in January on the back of robust registrations across passenger vehicles, two-wheelers and tractors, dealers' body Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations said on Monday. Total sales across categories last month rose to 18,26,669 units, as compared to 16,08,505 units in January 2022. Passenger vehicle registrations rose to 340,220 units last month, an increase of 22 per cent as compared to 279,050 units in the year-ago period.
Crisis-hit Go First has sought various interim directions from the National Company Law Tribunal, including restraining lessors from taking back aircraft and regulator DGCA from taking any adverse action against the airline. The Wadia group-owned airline, which has liabilities worth Rs 11,463 crore, has sought voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings and the plea is set to be heard by the Delhi bench of the NCLT on Thursday. Go First has cancelled all its flights for three days starting from May 3.
The Jordanian-drafted resolution did not make any mention of the militant group Hamas, with the US expressing outrage at the "omission".
The Indian power sector's preference for coal-based plants (more than half of India's capacity of 132,000 Mw is based on coal) may change as stricter norms for carbon emissions emerge, a report by the Tata Strategic Management Group has said.
The company is currently negotiating with more buyers.
Kakodkar took over as Chairman, AEC from Dr R Chidambaram in November 2000 and was the first chairman to get three extensions -- in 2003, 2005 and 2007 -- in the history of India's nuclear programme.
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 NFUP smacks of an extremist version of masochism. It's tantamount to: You, there, c'mon clobber me, but if you leave me alive I'll disembowel you!
The US grounded the entire fleet of the Chinooks over fuel leaks that caused a "small number" of engine fires.
India may miss the April 1, 2005 target of conforming to Euro-III emission norms in metro cities and Euro-II norms in the rest of the country due to inability of refiners to supply the specified category of petrol and diesel.
Petrol doped with 20 per cent ethanol was rolled out on Monday at select petrol pumps in 11 states and union territories as part of a programme to increase use of biofuels to cut emissions as well as dependence on foreign exchange-draining imports. At present, 10 per cent ethanol is blended in petrol (10 per cent ethanol, 90 per cent petrol) and the government is looking to double this quantity by 2025. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the higher 20 per cent ethanol blended petrol two months ahead of the planned rollout in April, at the India Energy Week (IEW) 2023 in Bengaluru.
In a joint statement after their talks, President Biden and Prime Minister Modi expressed their deep concern over the conflict in Ukraine and mourned its terrible and tragic humanitarian consequences.
"There are limits to which we can keep consumer prices unaffected by rising import costs. Our oil companies cannot go on incurring losses. This way they will have no money to import crude oil from abroad," the Prime Minister said in an address to the nation.
The EGoM has fixed priority for the 25 million standard cubic metes per day of gas Reliance plans to start pumping from September this year and 40 mmscmd from March 2009. It has asked the company to first supply gas from KG-D6 field, the first major field of NELP to go on production, to existing gas-based urea plants, which are now getting fuel below their full requirement.
Amid the raging Israel-Hamas war, a group of opposition leaders, including MP Danish Ali and former parliamentarians Mani Shankar Aiyar and K C Tyagi, visited the Palestine Embassy in New Delhi on Monday to express solidarity with Palestinians.
Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal warned that it would take years to alleviate coal supply shortages, which have reduced stocks at thermal power stations to their lowest since a huge blackout in 2012 cut off 620 million people.
Wholesale price inflation remained in the negative territory for the fourth month in a row in July at (-)1.36 per cent, even though prices of food items, especially vegetables, skyrocketed. The inflation, however, has inched up from (-)4.12 per cent recorded in June fuelled by 62.12 per cent rise in vegetable prices. In July last year, wholesale price index (WPI) was 14.07 per cent.
The complaint was lodged by Mumbai-based Express Industry Council of India, which represented major express courier and cargo companies such as DTDC, Aramex India, Blue Dart, DHL Express, GATI and First Flight.
The two-day old strike by coal workers across India was on Wednesday called off with the government and the unions reaching an agreement after a marathon meeting.