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BENGALURU, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The United States and China will hold deputy-level talks between their finance officials on Friday to discuss debt and other issues on the sidelines of a G20 finance meet in India, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday, ahead of a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors near Bengaluru, that communication between the United States and China was important for "the sake of the entire globe". China's Ministry of Finance and its central bank did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment. The United States has repeatedly criticised China over what it considers to be "foot-dragging" on debt relief for dozens of low-and middle-income countries including Sri Lanka. China, the world's largest bilateral creditor, urged G20 nations on Friday to conduct a fair, objective and in-depth analysis of the causes of global debt issues and to "resolve the problem in a comprehensive and effective manner."

☆ G7 raises Ukraine support to $39 bln for 2023, urges IMF programme by March
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] FILE PHOTO-Flags are pictured during the first working session of G-7 foreign ministers in Muenster, Germany, November 3, 2022. Ukraine is hoping to clinch a $15 billion programme with the International Monetary Fund that will cover immediate financial assistance and support for structural reforms to underpin efforts at post-conflict rebuilding. "For 2023, based on the Government of Ukraine's needs, we have increased our commitment of budget and economic support to $39 billion," the statement said. The bloc's financial leaders have gathered in India's Bengaluru ahead of a meeting of financial chiefs of the Group of 20 (G20) nations. Japan's Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki also told reporters that the G7 needs to assess the effectiveness of current sanctions on Russia before deciding on further action.

☆ Bank of Japan to maintain easy monetary policy - governor
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/3] Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda speaks during a news conference after a meeting of G7 leaders on the sidelines of G20 finance ministers' summit on the outskirts of Bengaluru, India, February 23, 2023. REUTERS/Samuel RajkumarBENGALURU, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan intends to maintain easy monetary policy and the government's energy assistance programme will hold down inflation, the central bank's governor Haruhiko Kuroda told a news conference at a G20 event on Thursday. The governor expects inflation to be below 2% for fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2024, adding that Japan is no longer in a deflationary environment. Given that import prices have fallen, the Japanese government's energy assistance will aid in holding down inflation, Kuroda said. India is hosting the first major G20 event under its year-long presidency at the summer retreat of Nandi Hills near tech hub Bengaluru.

"India is not keen to discuss or back any additional sanctions on Russia during the G20," said one of the officials. "The existing sanctions on Russia have had a negative impact on the world." Japan's finance minister said on Tuesday that financial leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations will meet on the sidelines of the G20 meeting to discuss measures against Russia. "Russia themselves want to discuss the economic impact of sanctions." However, neither the Russian finance minister nor the central bank chief were expected to attend the meeting and they will be represented by their deputies.

[1/2] The Gateway of India monument in Mumbai is lit up to mark India's G20 presidency on December 13, 2022. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File PhotoBENGALURU, Feb 22 (Reuters) - India does not want the Group of 20 nations to discuss additional sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine during New Delhi's one-year presidency of the bloc, six senior Indian government officials told Reuters. "India is not keen to discuss or back any additional sanctions on Russia during the G20," said one of the officials. "The existing sanctions on Russia have had a negative impact on the world." India has also sharply raised purchases of oil from Russia, its biggest supplier of defence hardware.

Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from G20 nations will join the meeting on Friday. The meeting in the Nandi Hills summer retreat is the first major event of India's G20 presidency and the war in Ukraine is likely to feature prominently during the proceedings. The G20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs are also expected to discuss unblocking debt restructuring for distressed economies that have been badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and German Finance Minister Christian Lindner will be attending the meetings and are expected to press China to "quickly deliver" on debt relief for low and middle income countries. However, neither the Russian finance minister nor the central bank chief were expected to attend the meeting and they will be represented by their deputies.

NEW DELHI, Feb 16 (Reuters) - G20 finance and central bank chiefs meet in India next week at the first-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine to discuss rising debt troubles among developing countries, the regulation of cryptocurrencies and the global slowdown. The Feb. 22-25 meeting in the Nandi Hills summer retreat near Bengaluru is the first major event of India's G20 presidency and will be followed by a March 1-2 meeting of foreign ministers in New Delhi. As global borrowing costs rise, India - whose neighbours Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh have all sought International Monetary Fund support in recent months - wants to put debt relief at the forefront of discussions at the finance talks. "Crypto assets are by definition borderless and require international collaboration to prevent regulatory arbitrage," India's Ministry of Finance told parliament this week. Neither the Russian finance minister nor the central bank chief were expected to attend the meeting.

China and other G20 countries were aware that India was working on a proposal, the officials said. "China takes the debt issue of developing countries seriously and supports relevant financial institutions to put forward solutions," he said. The People’s Bank of China and the Finance Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. New Delhi expects the United States to be one of the main backers of its proposal, said one of the sources. India and the Paris Club of creditors recently told the IMF they supported Sri Lanka's debt restructuring plan as the bankrupt nation sought a $2.9 billion loan.

☆ Adani crisis: Modi's party has 'nothing to hide', says India home minister
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Sudipto Ganguly | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] BJP President Amit Shah and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are seen after the election results in New Delhi, India, May 23, 2019. The Adani group has denied the allegations and threatened legal action against Hindenburg. Without referring to Adani, Modi told parliament last week that the "blessings of 1.4 billion people in the country are my protective cover and you can't destroy it with lies and abuses", as opposition lawmakers chanted "Adani, Adani". Adani Power (ADAN.NS) and Adani Green Energy (ADNA.NS) fell too in a wider Mumbai market (.NSEI) that was up slightly. India's Economic Times daily reported on Tuesday that Adani group executives had been holding negotiations since last week with Abu Dhabi's International Holding Corp (IHC) for capital infusion into Adani Enterprises or other group entities.

BENGALURU, Feb 13 (Reuters) - India wants to more than triple annual defence exports to $5 billion by 2024/25 from $1.5 billion currently as it looks to ramp up domestic manufacturing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday while inaugurating the Aero India show. "Today, India is not just a market for defence companies, it is also a potential defence partner," Modi said in his speech at the show. "I call on India's private sector to invest more and more in the country's defence sector." India, for decades one of the world's biggest importers of defence equipment, now exports to 75 countries, he added. India's airlines are also expanding, with Tata Group's Air India expected to announce a potentially record deal to buy nearly 500 jets from Airbus and Boeing, worth more than $100 billion at list prices.

NEW DELHI, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s enormous popularity remains intact despite the biggest political attack on him in years as rivals accuse his government of giving undue favours to the Adani Group, approval ratings showed on Friday. Without referring to Adani, Modi told parliament this week that the "blessings of 1.4 billion people in the country are my protective cover and you can't destroy it with lies and abuses", as opposition lawmakers chanted "Adani, Adani". Data from polling agency C-Voter, shared with Reuters, seems to suggest support for the prime minister has not waned, although the survey did not refer to the Adani issue. Almost half of those surveyed until Feb. 5 were "very much satisfied" with Modi’s work as prime minister and a further 30% said they were "satisfied to some extent". Rivals accuse Modi and the BJP of longstanding ties with the apples-to-airports Adani Group, going back nearly two decades when Modi was chief minister of the western state of Gujarat.

☆ Iran OPEC official sees oil rebounding to $100/bbl in H2
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Nidhi Verma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BENGALURU, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Global oil prices may rebound to about $100 per barrel in the second half this year as Chinese demand recovers while supply remains limited, Iran's OPEC representative Afshin Javan said on Wednesday. "I think OPEC is moving in right direction," Javan told reporters on the sidelines of the India Energy Week, referring to the group's decision in December to cut production. "Why OPEC did it was because it was not very optimistic about the demand side," Javan said. Iran is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) although its oil exports are subjected to U.S. sanctions aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear programme. On Monday, OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais also defended the group's decision to cut production, adding that the move helped stabilise global oil markets.

☆ India's government has nothing to do with Adani issue - minister
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

NEW DELHI, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The Indian government has nothing to do with the issues of the Adani Group whose shares have tumbled following a scathing report from a U.S. short seller, the minister of parliamentary affairs said on Friday. "The government has nothing to do with Adani matters," Pralhad Joshi told reporters. Reporting by Nigam Prusty, writing by Tanvi Mehta; Editing by Krishna N. DasOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ India's Adani ditches $2.5 bln share sale after $86 bln rout
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW DELHI, Feb 1 (Reuters) - India's Adani Enterprises Ltd (ADEL.NS) on Wednesday withdrew its $2.5 billion secondary share sale after Adani Group shares plummeted on concerns raised by a U.S. short-seller. * Anchor investors Maybank Securities and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority pick up stake in Adani Enterprises' share sale, India's largest follow-on public offering (FPO). * Indian shares fell to their lowest level in more than a week, dragged lower by Adani Group stocks. * Adani Enterprises, the flagship company of the group founded by billionaire Gautam Adani, begins its $2.5 billion FPO for retail investors. JAN 31* Adani Enterprises' FPO fully subscribed as investors pumped funds into the share sale, despite the rout in the group's stocks.

☆ India to focus on growth, jobs in last full budget before 2024 election
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman holds up a folder with the Government of India's logo as she leaves her office to present the federal budget in the parliament, in New Delhi, India, February 1, 2023. REUTERS/Adnan AbidiNEW DELHI, Feb 1(Reuters) - India will focus on economic growth and job creation, the finance minister said on Wednesday presenting the government's last full budget in parliament before a general election due next year that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is projected to win. The aim is to have strong public finances and a robust financial sector for the benefit of all sections of the country, Nirmala Sitharaman said. She added that despite a global slowdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, the Indian economy was "on the right track". Sitharaman is expected to lower the government's fiscal deficit while announcing spending and other measures to keep India as one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world.

☆ India's Adani Group CFO says stocks rout similar to colonial-era massacre
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Krishna N. Das | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Francis MascarenhasNEW DELHI, Jan 30 (Reuters) - India's Adani Group has said a U.S. short-seller's report on the business house was a "calculated attack" on the country and its institutions while a senior executive has compared a rout of its stocks with a colonial-era massacre. Adani's finance chief, Jugeshinder Singh, likened the behaviour of Indian investors participating in the sell-off to the colonial-era Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar city. Hindenburg said in a statement on Monday that the Adani Group was trying to "lead the focus away from substantive issues and instead stoked a nationalist narrative". "In short, the Adani Group has attempted to conflate its meteoric rise and the wealth of its chairman, Gautam Adani, with the success of India itself," it said. Jawhar Sircar, a lawmaker from the opposition Trinamool Congress, posted on Twitter: "Since when is Adani = India?"

☆ Growth trajectory of Adani Group's underlying businesses not affected - CFO
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

NEW DELHI, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The growth trajectory of the underlying businesses of Adani Group has not been affected by the Hindenburg Research report that sparked a $48 billion rout in its stocks, Chief Financial Officer Jugeshinder Singh said on Monday. Speaking to local media, Singh said retail subscription would see "some pull back" in a $2.5 billion secondary share sale of the group's flagship company, Adani Enterprises (ADEL.NS). Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; Editing by Krishna N. DasOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Exclusive: WHO investigating links between cough syrup deaths, considers advice for parents
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Jennifer Rigby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The deaths of children from acute kidney injury began in July 2022 in Gambia, followed by cases in Indonesia and Uzbekistan. The WHO has said the deaths are linked to over-the-counter cough syrups the children took for common illnesses and which contained a known toxin, either diethylene glycol or ethylene glycol. The WHO, working with Indonesia’s drugs regulator, also issued an alert in October about cough syrups made by four Indonesian manufacturers and sold domestically. The manufacturers are: PT Yarindo Farmatama, PT Universal Pharmaceutical, PT Konimex, PT AFI Farma. PT Universal Pharmaceutical Industries’ lawyer, Hermansyah Hutagalung, said it had pulled from the market all cough syrups deemed dangerous.

REUTERS/Ruma PaulCOX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Mohammed Ismail says four of his relatives were killed by gunmen at the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh between April and October last year. The group has fought against Myanmar's security forces and some Rohingya say it has been recruiting fighters, often through coercion, in the Bangladesh camps. Ismail, who lives with his parents, wife and brother, says he fears for his life and understands why some Rohingya are fleeing Bangladesh. A FRAUGHT CHOICEReuters spoke with several refugees who returned to the Bangladesh camps after abandoning journeys to Malaysia, via Myanmar, out of trepidation. "People are risking their lives on sea journeys as there is no future here and criminal activities are rising," Aziz said.

☆ Air India says pilot's licence suspension over passenger incident 'excessive'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW DELHI, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Tata Group's Air India said on Tuesday the recent suspension of a pilot's licence by the aviation regulator was "excessive" after a passenger behaved in an unruly manner onboard one of its flights. The regulator also suspended the licence of the pilot-in-command on the New York-New Delhi flight for three months. Air India said the matter should have been classified and reported as unruly behaviour by a passenger, but the flight crew and ground staff did not report it as such. "Air India wishes to acknowledge the good faith efforts made by crew to handle the situation effectively in real time, when not all facts were available," it said in a statement, adding that it deemed "the licence suspension of the commander excessive and will be assisting him with an appeal". ($1 = 81.5780 Indian rupees)Reporting by Tanvi Mehta; Editing by Krishna N. DasOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Apple targets raising India production share to up to 25% - minister
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW DELHI, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) wants India to account for up to 25% of its production from about 5%-7% now, the trade minister told a conference on Monday, as the iPhone maker continues to move its manufacturing away from China. "Apple, another success story," Piyush Goyal said, pitching India as a competitive manufacturing destination. Goyal did not say when Apple wants to meet the target. Foxconn plans to quadruple the workforce at its iPhone factory in India over two years, sources told Reuters late last year. Ashwini Vaishnaw, Indian's electronics and information technology minister, tweeted on Monday that Apple's exports from India had hit $1 billion in December.

Bangladesh Bank has accused RCBC and several others, including top executives, of conspiring to steal its money. The New York Supreme Court ruled on Jan. 13 that, contrary to Rizal bank's argument, it does have jurisdiction over the case, and dismissed Rizal bank's motion against Bangladesh Bank. In the same ruling, the court ordered the Bangladesh central bank and RCRC to initiate mediation. In response to the ruling, Rizal bank said it would continue to fight the case. Bangladesh Bank has welcomed the court ruling, saying in a statement this week that it clears the way for the matter to progress in court in New York as needed.

☆ As India debates demographics, small mountain state wants more babies
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Shivam Patel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Reuters GraphicsThose calls come as India's population gains slow. India's total fertility rate (TFR) - children per woman - fell to 2 in the latest assessment period, for 2019-2021, from 3.4 in 1992-93, according to a government report issued in October. Quraishi, the country's former chief election commissioner who has written a book titled: "The Population Myth: Islam, Family Planning and Politics in India". "India as a whole country will take at least 25 years." Reporting by Shivam Patel in New Delhi; Editing by Krishna N. Das and Sam HolmesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

COLOMBO, Jan 18 (Reuters) - India has told the International Monetary Fund that it strongly supports Sri Lanka's debt restructuring plan as the island nation seeks a $2.9 billion loan from the global lender, according to a letter seen by Reuters. "We hereby confirm our strong support for Sri Lanka's prospective (loan) program and commit to supporting Sri Lanka with financing/debt relief consistent with restoring Sri Lanka's public debt sustainability," Indian finance ministry official Rajat Kumar Mishra told the IMF chief in a letter dated Jan. 16. Sri Lanka owes India around $1 billion that will come under the debt restructuring plan, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier this week. New Delhi separately provided Sri Lanka with about $4 billion in rapid assistance between January and July last year, including credit lines, a currency swap arrangement and deferred import payments. Sri Lanka owed Chinese lenders $7.4 billion - nearly a fifth of its public external debt - by the end of last year, according to calculations by the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI).

☆ India tells IMF it backs Sri Lanka's debt restructuring plan, source says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A medical worker talks to a vendor selling household goods and food for patients and their family members, outside Apeksha Hospital, Colombo, Sri Lanka, August 11, 2022. Sri Lanka's finance ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Sri Lanka owes India around $1 billion that will come under the debt restructuring plan, the source said. "Talks with bilateral lenders including India and China to restructure Sri Lanka's debt are progressing well and we are hopeful of finalising support from the IMF in the first quarter of 2023," Sri Lanka's cabinet spokesperson, Bandula Gunawardana, told reporters on Tuesday. The IMF has stressed the importance of joint talks involving three of Sri Lanka's main bilateral creditors - China, Japan and India.

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