Healthcare

Business

Roving Periscope: “You saved us… prevented bloodbath,” Sri Lanka tells India

July 8, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: Sri Lankan Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena on Friday expressed deep gratitude to India, calling it a “trustworthy friend” which saved the island nation and prevented a “bloodbath” during its unprecedented economic crisis in 2022. He said that not a single nation extended that kind of assistance to Colombo as New […]

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Business

Green Cards: Thousands of Indian-Americans may benefit

July 7, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: Thousands of Indian-Americans are expected to benefit from the latest US move on providing green cards to them after a US President’s Advisory Commission approved that over 230,000 unused cards for family and employment categories since 1992 be recaptured. A green card, officially known as a Permanent Resident Card (PRC), […]

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Business

Economy: India’s growth sustainable, FinMin says, and cautions against headwinds

July 6, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi:  Noting that the Indian economy grew by 7.2 percent in 2022-23, especially in its last quarter (January-March 2023), the Finance Ministry on Thursday said the country will continue to register sustained growth in a more durable way than before—but also cautioned about the possible headwinds that could pose major challenges, […]

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English

Global warming: Earth records hottest day ever on Tuesday, July 4

July 5, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: This week’s Tuesday (July 4), when the United States celebrated its Independence Day, was the hottest day ever recorded globally, according to data from the United States National Centers for Environmental Prediction. The average global temperature reached 17.01 degrees Celsius (62.62 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday, surpassing the August 2016 record […]

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Defence

Roving Periscope: No country wants Japan to release Fukushima waters in the Pacific Ocean

July 5, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: Japan got a green signal from the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Tuesday for its plans to pump out and release 1.3 million tons of treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean over the next few decades from the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant, but no country […]

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Business

Roving Periscope: Canada’s domestic politics spoiling its relations with India

July 4, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit    New Delhi: Domestic political compulsions may have forced Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to go ‘soft’ on pro-Khalistani separatists in his North American country which has seen a recent spurt in violence by anti-Indian activists. The revitalized Khalistani separatists have resurfaced and attacked Indian interests in Canada, the US, and Australia, among […]

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Business

Roving Periscope: PM Modi to host Putin, Xi, and others virtually in SCO Summit on Tuesday

July 3, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: Ten days after the Wagner Group’s short-lived mutiny in Russia, its President Vladimir Putin will appear at the Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) hosted virtually by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. Besides President Putin, his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, among others, […]

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Business

Cliffhanger: IMF approves Pak’s $3bn loan program; may be considered in two weeks

June 30, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: Almost bankrupt Pakistan, facing a default on July 1, has clinched initial approval from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a USD 3 billion loan program, lowering the risk of a sovereign default, the media reported on Friday. The staff-level agreement is subject to approval by the IMF Executive Board, […]

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Business

Farmers’ stir, Covid-19: Karnataka HC fines Twitter Rs. 50 lakhs, rejects its claims

June 30, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: The Karnataka High Court on Friday dismissed global microblogging platform Twitter’s plea against the Union Ministry of Information Technology’s order to block its content about the farmers’ agitation and the pandemic and directed it to pay a fine of Rs. 50 lakhs. “You are not a farmer but a billion-dollar […]

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Business

Warriors: As the war with Russia rages, 2,300 Indian students return to Ukraine

June 29, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: Amid outcry from their worried parents, over 23,000 Indian students returned home when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Now, a tenth of them have returned to the war-torn nation which has faced wanton destruction in the last 16 months and is short on supplies of everything. After a […]

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