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Sri Lanka: IMF approves $3 bn bailout to support India’s cash-strapped neighbor

March 21, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: After a year of unprecedented political and economic turmoil which resulted in the overthrow of the Rajapakse dynasty’s stranglehold on bankrupt Sri Lanka, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a nearly USD 3 billion bailout package on Monday for the South Asian island nation. Sri Lanka is burdened with an […]

Business

SVB fallout: Sensex tanks 900 points and Nifty tests 17k as US bank’s collapse panics investors

March 13, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: Although the Indian startup ecosystem is relatively free from the contagion’s likely spread across the US after last week’s collapse of America’s 16th largest bank, Silicon Valley Bank, the fears of a banking sector crisis led to Sensex losing nearly 900 points and Nifty testing 17,000 on Monday. Senses closed […]

Business

Roving Periscope: SVB’s collapse makes Hindenburg a laughing stock!

March 13, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: It was as if waiting to happen. But nobody thought it would happen so soon. In what has become America’s second bank collapse after Lehman Brothers in 2008, the very foundation of the US banking system has come under the scanner globally. And, those who smelt the rat in Hindenburg […]

Business

Image makeover: A year after turmoil, China assures Colombo of IMF bailout

March 7, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: Nearly a year after Sri Lanka declared default amid widespread economic and political turmoil—which ended the China-friendly Rajapakse dynasty’s long stranglehold on the island nation—Beijing has mercifully assured Colombo to support Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring. This comes days after China similarly assured its ‘all-weather friend’ Pakistan also as a face-saver […]

Business

Indian economy: SBI report junks Rajan’s warning on “Hindu rate of growth”

March 7, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: “Ill-conceived, biased, and premature.” This is how a research report from the State Bank of India on Tuesday dismissed former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan’s warning that the country is “dangerously close to the Hindu rate of growth,” in view of the recent GDP numbers and the available […]

Business

Pakistan: Imran evades arrest, media regulator bans his speeches on TV

March 6, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: Hours after controversial former Prime Minister Imran Khan dodged arrest in the Toshakhana corruption case and made ‘provocative statements’ against state institutions on Sunday, Pakistan’s electronic media watchdog banned satellite TV channels from broadcasting his live and recorded speeches with immediate effect. Evading arrest, Khan, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman, […]

Business

Road to 2024: China the strongest and the most disciplined “enemy”, says Nikki Haley

March 4, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: The level of superpower rivalry between the US and China showed up on Friday when Republican presidential aspirant, Indian-American politician Nikki Haley, warned that China is the strongest and the most-disciplined “enemy” that America has ever faced. The next US presidential election is due on November 5, 2024. In a […]

Business

Roving Periscope: Adani stocks bouncing back; Rs.68k crores added on Friday alone

March 4, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: After witnessing a washout of over USD 100 billion worth of market capitalization since the January 24 Hindenburg Report’s allegations, the stocks of Adani Group companies are bouncing back on the bourses with investors, after their initial panic, returning to the intact ‘India Story.’ While the Adanis are currently busy […]

Business

Roving Periscope: ‘Outcome document’, not “joint statement” in G-20 FMM, too

March 2, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, cast its shadow on the last year’s G-20 meeting in Indonesia. This year, the conflict may be eclipsing the G-20 bloc’s ongoing meetings in India. As in the recent Bengaluru meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs, […]

Business

G-20 FMM: Global governance has failed to prevent wars; common interests ignored, says PM Modi

March 2, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said multilateralism is in crisis today and the failure of the global architecture of governance is affecting developing countries the most. Inaugurating the first foreign ministers’ meeting (FMM) of G-20 nations here in 2023, he said “The architecture of global governance created after the […]