DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Pakistan suicide car bombing kills one police official, injures others
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Asif Shahzad | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Police officers and rescue workers gather at the site of a suicide car bombing in Islamabad, Pakistan December 23, 2022. "Our initial information says that there was a man and a woman in the car," Islamabad operations police chief, Sohail Zafar, told reporters. "Had the car reached its target, it would have caused heavy losses," Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah told Geo News TV. Pakistani Taliban claimed the car bombing, saying it was revenge for the killing of one of their leaders. The bombing came two days after a Pakistani military operation killed 25 TTP militants after a standoff at a counter-terrorism facility.

☆ India tweaks gas procurement norms for fertiliser units - sources
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

NEW DELHI, Dec 22 (Reuters) - The Indian government has tweaked the gas procurement policy for fertiliser companies, enabling them to purchase about a fifth of their gas needs through spot markets, two government sources told Reuters. Reporting by Sarita Chaganti Singh in New Delhi; Editing by Krishna N. DasOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ India cenbank chief says next financial crisis will come from private cryptocurrencies
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

MUMBAI, Dec 21 (Reuters) - India's central bank chief on Wednesday warned that the next financial crisis will come from private cryptocurrencies adding that he still holds the view that cryptocurrencies should be prohibited. Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das also added that cryptocurrencies have no underlying value and pose risks for macroeconomic and financial stability. Reporting by Swati Bhat and Siddhi Nayak; Writing by Nupur Anand; Editing by Muralikumar AnantharamanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Crypto will ignite the next financial crisis if it's not banned — just look at the FTX fiasco, India's central bank boss says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

FTX's bankruptcy filing shows that crypto is a threat to the global financial system, according to Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das. "Mark my words, the next financial crisis will come from private cryptocurrencies," he added. Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das said Wednesday that digital assets lack any underlying value – and so they should be banned outright rather than regulated by governments. "They have no underlying value. Das's comments come as India assumes its presidency of the G20 – a group of countries including China, Russia, and the US.

☆ Cryptocurrencies could cause the next financial crisis, Indian central bank head warns
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Shaktikanta Das, governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), called for private cryptocurrencies to be "prohibited." The next financial crisis will be caused by private cryptocurrencies, if these assets are allowed to grow, the head of India's central bank warned on Wednesday. Das' comments come as the central bank pushes to introduce its own digital version of the Indian rupee. The digital rupee is a type of central bank digital currency (CBDC). China's central bank is furthest ahead globally on the development of a CBDC.

Pakistani Taliban militants detained at the centre had snatched interrogators' weapons and taken them captive on Sunday. Asif did not say how many militants were killed or how many hostages they had held. Residents said they heard explosions coming from the vicinity of the centre on Tuesday as helicopters hovered overhead. The army operations forced the militants and their leaders to flee to neighbouring Afghan districts. There, Islamabad says, they set up training centres to plan and launch attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Afghan authorities deny.

☆ World Bank approves $1.69 bln for Pakistan flood relief projects
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Dec 20 (Reuters) - The World Bank has approved financing of $1.69 billion for flood relief projects in Pakistan, it said in a statement on Monday. Pakistan's already stressed economy took a further hit after severe floods earlier this year submerged large swathes of the country, killing nearly 1,700 people, damaging farmlands and infrastructure. The World Bank financing is aimed at relief projects in the south-eastern Sindh province, which it said was worst-affected by the floods. Reporting by Shivam Patel in New Delhi; Editing by Krishna N. DasOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Maiden Pharma hopes to reopen plant as Indian lab clears syrups suspected by WHO in Gambia deaths
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Krishna N. Das | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

I have not done anything wrong," Maiden Managing Director Naresh Kumar Goyal told Reuters. "We will now try to request the authorities to reopen the factory. Somani, said that tests on samples of Maiden's products had "been found to be complying with specifications" and no ethylene glycol or diethylene glycol was detected in them. A spokesperson for India's health ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The tests were carried out by the state-run Regional Drug Testing Laboratory in the northern city of Chandigarh, the government said earlier.

☆ Sri Lanka's economy shrinks 11.8% in second-worst quarterly performance
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Uditha Jayasinghe | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

COLOMBO, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's economy shrank 11.8% in the July-September quarter from a year ago, government data showed on Thursday, the second-worst quarterly contraction ever for the country going through a severe financial crisis. Economic mismanagement and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic have left Sri Lanka short of dollars for essential imports including food, fuel, fertilisers and medicine. "This is the second-worst contraction Sri Lanka has experienced in a quarter after a 16.4% contraction in the second quarter of 2020," said Dimantha Mathew, head of research at First Capital. Sri Lanka's central bank estimates the economy will contract by about 8% in 2022. The economy had contracted 8.4% year-on-year in the second quarter, one of the worst performances in the island of 22 million people.

☆ Nepal to end eight-month ban on imports of cars, phones as reserves rise
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Gopal Sharma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KATHMANDU, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Nepal will end an eight-month ban on the import of cars, expensive mobile phones and liquor on Friday as the country's foreign currency reserves have increased, officials said on Thursday. The Himalayan nation, tucked between China and India, restricted imports of cars, gold and cosmetics in April saying its reserves could barely support imports for fewer than seven months. But the central bank said on Thursday that reserves had increased 1% to $9.63 billion as of mid-November from $9.54 billion in mid-July – sufficient to cover imports for 8.4 months. "The government feels that the reserves are in a comfortable position now," Commerce Ministry spokesperson, Narayan Prasad Regmi, told Reuters. Imports of seven other items, including cosmetics, were eased in September.

☆ India's wheat stocks to fall further but sufficient, government says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW DELHI, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Wheat stocks in India's government warehouses will fall by about 13% by early next month from current levels but will be sufficient for welfare schemes of the country, the ministry of consumer affairs and food said on Thursday. Wheat stocks in government warehouses for December fell to the lowest in six years, as prices jumped to a record high on rising demand and falling inventories. The statement comes as wheat prices in the country have seen a surge due to a drop in yields. Wheat reserves in state stores fell to 19 million tonnes on Dec. 1 from 37.85 million tonnes a year ago, government data showed. The last time stocks for December were this low was in 2016, when droughts in the previous two years had hit wheat output.

☆ Exclusive: Sri Lanka expects up to $8 bln more in loans, asset restructuring
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Uditha Jayasinghe | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Ali Sabry speaks during an interview with Reuters at his office, in Colombo, Sri Lanka December 14, 2022. Sabry said Sri Lanka was still waiting for "letters of assurance" for debt restructuring from its largest bilateral creditor China, as well as India. The two countries have backed the restructuring efforts and Sri Lanka has shared documents and data with them, he said. Overall, Sri Lanka's economy has improved with essential imports such as fuel and food becoming regular, Sabry said. "So that should start in the next quarter of next year with the IMF loan coming in, other multilateral agencies coming in.

☆ India's Tata Group to open 100 exclusive Apple stores -report
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Dec 12 (Reuters) - Indian conglomerate Tata Group-owned Infiniti Retail, which runs the 'Croma' chain of stores, plans to open 100 stores across the country that will only sell Apple Inc (AAPL.O) products, the Economic Times newspaper reported on Monday, citing two people aware of the matter. Reporting by Biplob Kumar Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'SouzaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Indian, Chinese troops suffer minor injuries in clash on Dec 9: Indian army
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MUMBAI, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Indian and Chinese troops suffered minor injuries in a clash in the Tawang sector of India's Arunachal Pradesh state on Dec. 9, the Indian army said on Monday, the first such incident since the deadly clash between the two neighbours in June 2020. An Indian foreign ministry spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment, while a defence spokesperson declined to comment on injuries sustained by Indian or Chinese soldiers during the skirmish. Neither the Chinese foreign ministry nor its embassy in New Delhi responded to a request seeking comment. In June 2020, Indian and Chinese troops were involved in a hand-to-hand combat in the Galwan Valley of Ladakh, abutting the Chinese-held Tibetan plateau. The incident led to the death of 20 Indian soldiers, while China suffered an undisclosed number of casualties.

NEW DELHI, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin will not hold an annual in-person summit this year, an Indian government source said on Friday, after the two held discussions on the sidelines of an event in September. Bloomberg News reported earlier in the day that the decision to cancel the summit was taken after veiled threats by Putin to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war. The government source, who declined to be named citing the sensitivity of the matter, said the decision not to hold a summit was taken much earlier and that the nuclear angle was not a factor. Putin visited New Delhi in December last year for the 21st India–Russia annual summit. A Russian official told Bloomberg that India’s decision not to hold a summit was clear at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan, where Modi told Putin that this was "not an era of war".

☆ Lightning kills 907 in India as extreme weather surges in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A policeman jumps off a makeshift raft after wading through a flooded area of a slum on the banks of the river Yamuna in New Delhi, India, September 28, 2022. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis/File PhotoNEW DELHI, Dec 7 (Reuters) - India saw a big jump in extreme weather events such as heatwaves and lightning strikes this year and related deaths rose to their highest in three years, government data showed on Wednesday, with scientists blaming climate change for the heavy toll. There were nearly eight times as many heatwaves, 27 in all, and lightning strikes rose more than 111 times, killing 907 people, the Ministry of Earth Sciences said in a report to parliament. Lightning and floods and heavy rains accounted for 78% of the deaths this year, the data showed. India is the world's third-largest carbon polluter, though its per-capita emissions are much lower than many developed countries.

☆ India cenbank says digital currency transactions to stay largely anonymous
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Nupur Anand | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

India started the pilot project for its digital currency, or e-rupee, from Nov 1, when it was opened for initial trial. Then only being used by banks for settlements with each other, the scope of the project was expanded to include consumers and retailers-led transactions from Dec. 1. "E-rupee is money, UPI is a payment method," RBI's Sankar said. "Digital currency is like payment of cash, it is possible that two private entities can provide wallet features and money can move in between them. That is not possible with UPI which has to be from one bank to the other," he said, adding that e-rupee provides privacy unlike UPI.

The monetary policy committee (MPC), comprising three members from the RBI and three external members, raised the key lending rate or the repo rate (INREPO=ECI) to 6.25% in a majority decision. "The MPC was of the view that further calibrated monetary policy action was warranted to keep inflation expectations anchored, break core inflation persistence and contain second round effects,” Das said as he announced the monetary policy committee's decision. We see a possibility of another 25 bps rate hike before a prolonged pause," Upasna Bhardwaj, chief economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank said. A 6.8% growth (rate) is robust," Das said. The Indian rupee dipped against the dollar after the policy decision and comments on inflation, while government bond yields rose.

☆ India cenbank hikes key policy rate by 35 basis points
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

However, the pace of rate hikes is reducing from 50 bps to 35 bps, in line with expected global hikes." The market needs to keep a close watch on global rate hikes and sticky core inflation." "We expect RBI to go for another 25 bps hike in its next policy, with the terminal rate at 6.5%. ANUJ PURI, CHAIRMAN, ANAROCK GROUP, MUMBAI"The 35 bps rate hike by the RBI - the fifth consecutive rate hike this year - comes as no surprise. We see a possibility of another 25 bps rate hike before a prolonged pause."

☆ A Twitter engineer said it was a 'bummer' to lose her job while 8 months pregnant in Elon Musk's mass layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A Twitter employee said it was a "bummer" to get laid off while eight months pregnant. Malabika Das tweeted the same day Elon Musk laid off about half its workforce on November 4. Bummer that this happened while 8 months pregnant. Her tweet came the same day that around 3,700 Twitter staff were told by email that they'd been laid off. That happened to a content marketing manager at Twitter, who was also eight months pregnant at the time, when she got locked out of her company laptop.

☆ China wants US not to interfere in ties with India - Pentagon
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Krishna N. Das | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI, Nov 30 (Reuters) - China has warned the United States to not interfere in its relationship with India following deadly border skirmishes between the Asian giants in 2020, the Pentagon said in a report. Ties between India and China have nosedived since the worst border clashes between them in 45 years killed 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers. India is part of the so-called Quad alliance with the United States, Japan and Australia that aims to keep China's influence in the Indo-Pacific region in check. "The PRC seeks to prevent border tensions from causing India to partner more closely with the United States. PRC officials have warned U.S. officials to not interfere with the PRC’s relationship with India."

☆ India's economy likely slowed to annual 6.2% in July-Sept: Reuters poll
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Indradip Ghosh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Summary Data due at 1200 GMT on Wednesday, Nov. 30BENGALURU, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The Indian economy likely returned to a more normal 6.2% annual growth rate in July-September after double-digit expansion in the previous quarter, but weaker exports and investment will curb future activity, a Reuters poll showed. In April-June, Asia's third-largest economy showed explosive growth of 13.5% from a year earlier thanks mainly to the corresponding period in 2021 having been depressed by pandemic-control restrictions. The 6.2% annual growth forecast for latest quarter in a Nov. 22-28 Reuters poll of 43 economists was a tad lower than the RBI's 6.3% view. Meanwhile, the RBI raised its key policy interest rate to 5.9% from 4.0% in May and is widely expected to add another 60 basis points by the end of March. "Between December and February, the headwinds to growth may become more evident," said Deutsche Bank's Das.

☆ UAE's ADNOC to cut 5% of Dec crude volumes to term-buyers in Asia - sources
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SINGAPORE, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) will cut 5% of the December crude oil supply to some term-lifters in Asia but will provide full contractual volumes in January, five sources with knowledge of the matter said on Monday. ADNOC exports the bulk of its crude to Asia and its grades include Murban, Umm Lulu, Das and Upper Zakum. "The output cut has to be reflected in the market. And it makes sense that oil producers want to hold off selling at such oil prices," a Singapore-based trader said. read moreSpot premiums of Middle Eastern crude, Oman, Dubai and Murban, slid this month as market sentiment soured amid oversupply fears.

☆ How to 'act your wage,' according to 2 millennials who did it: 'If a company is paying you, let's say minimum wage, you're gonna put in minimum effort'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Workers are quiet quitting and acting their wage by doing their jobs as written — and nothing more. Here's how Soto's characters and other workers are quiet quitting, or, as some workers have rebranded it, "acting your wage." "If a company is paying you, let's say minimum wage, you're gonna put in minimum effort," Soto said. "If you're acting your wage, that means that the amount of labor that you're putting in reflects the amount that you're getting paid. And those victories of making work work for you — and acting your wage — can push towards something even greater.

☆ US sports writer says he was detained in Qatar for wearing rainbow shirt to World Cup game
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An American journalist said he was detained for wearing a rainbow t-shirt to a Qatar World Cup game. Grant Wahl said guards told him to remove it, took his phone, and detained him for 25 minutes. A New York Times spokesperson told Insider "Andrew Das was stopped briefly after photographing Grant Wahl's detention by World Cup security." Qatar's LGBT rights record has marred this year's World Cup, sparking renewed protests about the decision to let the country host it. Wahl is not the only journalist who has had difficulty in covering the World Cup there.

Search resuls for: "DAS"

25 mentions found