Elections

Business

Pakistan: IMF says Islamabad requires USD 25 billion as foreign loan this year

November 18, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit    New Delhi: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised Pakistan’s foreign loan requirements downwards from USD 28.4 billion in July to USD 25 billion now for this year, but it is unlikely to give any respite to the near-bankrupt country. This revision came after the global lender’s delegation wrapped up two-week-long talks […]

Read more

Business

Economy: India to be among top three in ‘my third tenure,’ says PM Modi

November 8, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit    New Delhi: Exuding confidence of a win in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, due by May 2024, two-term Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said India’s economy will be among the top three during his third tenure. Addressing a public meeting in Damoh town of Madhya Pradesh, amid a campaign for the […]

Read more

Business

Economy: Pakistan’s debt servicing cost may go up to PKR 8.5 trillion

November 7, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: Nearly bankrupt, Pakistan has informed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that its debt servicing costs may go up to PKR 8.5 trillion in the current financial year and that efforts are being made to lower this projection through adjustments in debt maturity profiles. A substantial portion of this debt is […]

Read more

Business

Economy: India’s GDP is up, but any hike in crude prices could dent progress

November 6, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: As rating agency Fitch on Monday upgraded India’s mid-term GDP growth forecast from 5.5 percent earlier to 6.2 percent now, investment banker Morgan Stanley cautioned that any crude price hike above USD 110 per barrel might force the RBI to increase interest rates again. For 2023-24, Fitch said the Indian […]

Read more

Business

Roving Periscope: Amid Taliban’s protest and threats, Pak deports 170,000 Afghans

November 6, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: Islamabad, which is shedding tears over the plight of fellow Muslim Palestinians of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip amid its war with Israel, has itself deported nearly 170,000 ‘unregistered’ poor Afghan refugees in about two weeks, despite the Taliban’s threats and approaching winter. The media reports, quoting Pakistan’s border officials, said […]

Read more

Business

Testing own medicine: Terrorists attack Pak air force base, damage 3 aircraft, all 9 killed

November 4, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: As Pakistan forced 1.7 million “illegal” Afghan refugees to flee home this week, supports the Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel, and heads to hold General Elections to the National Assembly in February next year, a little-known terror outfit, Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan (TJP) launched a massive attack on a major Pakistan Air […]

Read more

Business

Roving Periscope: As Nawaz returns, Afghans flee, Pakistan announces Feb 11 polls

November 2, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit    New Delhi: Days after three-time Prime Minister Mian Mohammed Nawaz Sharif returned home after four years in self-exile in London to try his luck a fourth time, and Islamabad started a crackdown on 1.7 million Afghan refugees to force them out amid Taliban threats, the Election Commission of Pakistan  (ECP) on Thursday […]

Read more

Business

The Gaza War: Bolivia cuts Israel ties; two more LatAm countries ‘consult’ envoys

November 1, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: The fallout of the ongoing Hamas-Israel war has not surfaced only in those countries where the Muslims have expressed solidarity with the Palestinian terror groups, taken out massive parades, and pressured their respective governments to favor the Palestinian cause, it has also started sucking in nations far away from the […]

Read more

Business

Roving Periscope: Presidents Biden, and Xi to meet in mid-November, says White House

November 1, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: Amid the 24-day-long Gaza war intensifying and the 20-month-long Russia-Ukraine conflict going nowhere, the Presidents of the world’s two largest economies—Joe Biden of the US and Xi Jinping of China—are meeting in San Francisco this month—in a bid to resolve their differences, including mistrust and trade deficits. The two Presidents […]

Read more

Business

Season’s worries: Ahead of Assembly elections, onion prices up, demand down

October 31, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: It happens almost every year when the gap between two crops shoots the prices up. As five state assemblies go to the polls in the coming weeks, the onion prices have gone through the roof across India in the last 10 days. This price rise has pulled down the bulb’s […]

Read more