Elections

Business

Poll funding: If voted back to power, Nirmala hints at reinstating electoral bonds

April 20, 2024 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: If voted back to power after the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, the NDA government is likely to reinstate corporate funding to political parties through controversial electoral bonds. According to the media reports, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hinted at this possibility, stating to bring in a political funding framework acceptable to all […]

Business

Tesla’s EVs: Elon Musk postpones next week’s India visit to “later this year”

April 20, 2024 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: Tesla chief Elon Musk, who was expected to announce an investment of around USD 3 billion to manufacture his electric vehicles and start satellite broadband services in India, has postponed his next week’s visit to the South Asian country to “later this year.” “Unfortunately, very heavy Tesla obligations require that the […]

Business

Election year: IMF official applauds India for fiscal discipline

April 19, 2024 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: An International Monetary Fund (IMF) official has praised India for maintaining fiscal discipline in an election year, saying the Indian economy is doing well and continues to be the world’s bright spot. “At this point, India’s economy is doing well. Growth at 6.8 percent is very good. Inflation’s coming down. We […]

Business

Roving Periscope: India trying to catch Musk’s EV to reach the UNSC top seat

April 18, 2024 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: The biggest stumbling block in India’s securing the Permanent Membership of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has been its first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s shortsighted decision to pass on the offer to China instead. For over 75 years, India has paid heavily because of this strategic blunder of a romanticist […]

Business

Pakistan: “I’ll not leave the Army chief,” Imran threatens Gen Asim Munir

April 18, 2024 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: “If anything happens to my wife, I will not leave Asim Munir as long as I am alive,” said former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi from behind bars in his latest rant against the Army chief whom he holds responsible for all his problems. Bushra Bibi, 49, was convicted […]

Business

The Maldives: India imposes port restrictions for export of essential commodities

April 16, 2024 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: Amid volatile bilateral relations with the Maldives, India on Tuesday imposed port restrictions on the export of essential commodities to the island nation in the Indian Ocean which has earned China’s friendship and debt-trap but lost India’s tourists and goodwill in the last six months. According to a notification issued by […]

Business

Roving Periscope: How UPA govt tried to make the RBI its cheerleader?

April 16, 2024 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor D. Subbarao’s recent memoirs have exposed the UPA government’s alleged pressure during his tenure (2008-13) on the central bank to paint a rosier picture of its performance. His book arrived when his successor, the former RBI chief Raghuram Rajan, was under attack in some […]

Business

Monsoon: Above-normal rainfall likely this year, says IMD

April 15, 2024 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: A week after private weather forecaster Skymet predicted normal rains this year, India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday announced that the country is likely to receive above-normal cumulative rainfall in the 2024 monsoon season with La Nina conditions expected to set in by August-September. However, normal cumulative rainfall does not guarantee […]

Business

Pakistan: Broke Islamist country has the highest cost of living in Asia

April 13, 2024 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: With a whopping 25 percent inflation rate—lower now, because it was nearly 40 percent last year!—a nearly bankrupt Pakistan has the highest living cost in Asia and its economy may grow at the fourth lowest pace of 1.9 percent in the South Asian region. According to a new Asian Development Bank […]

Business

Roving Periscope: The Mideast on edge as Iran, and Israel brace for ‘Armageddon’

April 12, 2024 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: Israel’s seven-month-long attempts to suck Iran directly into the conflict against Hamas, Houthi, and Hezbollah—the Tehran-supported terror outfits—and the Ayatollahs-run regime’s efforts to avoid exactly that may now have to come to a tipping point. The Middle East is on the verge of a wider conflagration between a nuclear power—Iran—and a […]