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☆ Indian maker of cough syrup linked to Uzbekistan deaths halts production
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI, Dec 30 (Reuters) - The Indian maker of a cough syrup that was linked to the death of 19 children in Uzbekistan said on Friday that it had halted production of all medicines after an inspection by the drug regulator. Indian media reported that the inspectors had found deviation from rules on manufacturing at one of Marion Biotech's units. Uzbekistan's health ministry said at least 18 children died in Samarkand city after consuming Marion Biotech's Dok-1 Max syrup. Hasan Harris, Marion Biotech's legal head, told Reuters partner ANI, "We await the reports, the factory was inspected. The Uzbekistan case follows deaths of at least 70 children in Gambia that had been linked to cough and cold syrups manufactured by New Delhi-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

☆ India to require COVID test for arrivals from China, four other Asian countries
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW DELHI, Dec 29 (Reuters) - People arriving in India from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand will have to show a negative COVID-19 test from Sunday, India's health minister said. Travellers from those countries would have to upload their test result on an India government website before their departure, the minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, wrote on Twitter on Thursday. The new requirement for a COVID test would be in addition to the random tests on 2% of all international passengers arriving in India. India joins the United States, Japan, Italy and Taiwan in imposing mandatory COVID tests for travellers from China, amid a COVID surge there after authorities relaxed strict "zero-COVID" rules. Reporting by Shivam Patel; editing by Sudipto Ganguly, Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Indian power regulator retains price cap at electricity exchanges
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Companies Indian Energy Exchange Ltd FollowNEW DELHI, Dec 28 (Reuters) - India's power regulator on Wednesday retained a price cap of 12 rupees ($0.1450) per unit on electricity traded on its spot power exchanges ahead of expected record energy demand in the coming summer months. The CERC had lowered the price ceiling on power exchanges in April, from 20 rupees a unit, in light of desperate buying by state electricity companies to meet surging summer demand. The Indian Energy Exchange (IIAN.NS) and unlisted PXIL are the two main power exchanges in India. Industry sources expect the cap to remain in place indefinitely because there will be a separate market segment without a price cap. That new segment on the country's power markets would include costlier electricity from imported gas and coal-based power stations.

☆ Uzbekistan says 18 children die after consuming India-made syrup
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Uzbekistan's health ministry has said at least 18 children have died after consuming a medicinal syrup manufactured by Indian drugmaker Marion Biotech Pvt Ltd. The ministry said 18 out of 21 children who took the Doc-1 Max syrup while suffering from an acute respiratory disease died after consuming it. The syrup was imported into Uzbekistan by Quramax Medical LLC, the ministry said in its statement released on Tuesday. An Indian government source said the health ministry was looking into the matter. The Uzbek health ministry said it had dismissed seven employees for negligence for not analysing the deaths in a timely manner and not taking the necessary measures.

☆ India finance minister hospitalised but fine - source
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

NEW DELHI, Dec 26 (Reuters) - India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been admitted to the AIIMS hospital in New Delhi, a source with knowledge of the situation told Reuters on Monday. She is fine," the source said on the condition of anonymity. It was not immediately clear why she was hospitalised. The finance ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reporting by Nikunj Ohri and Shivam Patel in New Delhi; writing by Sudipto Ganguly; Editing by Krishna N. DasOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Ukraine's Zelenskiy seeks India PM Modi's help with 'peace formula'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday said he sought India's help with implementing a "peace formula" in a phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "I had a phone call with PM Narendra Modi and wished a successful G20 presidency," Zelenskiy wrote on Twitter. "It was on this platform that I announced the peace formula and now I count on India's participation in its implementation." loadingZelenskiy asked the Group of 20 (G20) major economies last month to adopt Ukraine's 10-point peace formula and to end the war. India holds the G20 presidency for a year.

REUTERS/Amit Dave/File PhotoSummary India to save nearly $20 billion over 12 monthsEnding pandemic-era free food programme may cool pricesIndia to provide already highly subsidised food for freeNEW DELHI, Dec 23 (Reuters) - India will end its COVID-19 era free food programme on Dec. 31 and replace it with a cheaper programme that will save the government nearly $20 billion in the next 12 months. Late on Friday, India's Food and Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said the government will stop the free food programme after 28 months as the economic situation has improved since COVID-19 cases and restrictions have eased. The programme provided poor families with 5 kg (11 lb) of foodgrains each month in addition to other highly subsidised foodgrains. Now the government will make the highly subsidised foodgrain free for the next 12 months, Goyal said. The government will save at least $20 billion over the next 12 months by ending the pandemic-era free food programme, as they will only spend on one food scheme instead of multiple programmes, according to an official, who did not want to be named.

☆ India clears defence purchase plan worth $10 bln
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

NEW DELHI, Dec 22 (Reuters) - India has approved proposals to acquire defence equipment, including infantry combat vehicles, light tanks and missile systems, worth 843.28 billion rupees ($10.18 billion), the defence minister said on Thursday. Of the total approvals, more than 97% have been earmarked to be procured from Indian manufacturers, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh wrote on Twitter. ($1 = 82.8330 Indian rupees)Reporting by Shivam Patel in New Delhi Editing by Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ At least a 100 Rohingya stranded in boat off India's coast, many dead, activists say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MUMBAI, Dec 21 (Reuters) - At least 100 ethnic Rohingya are stranded in a boat off India's Andaman Islands and as many as 16-20 may have have died of thirst, hunger or drowned, said two Myanmar Rohingya activist groups. Each year many Rohingya, members of a Muslim minority, risk their lives boarding rickety vessels to escape violence in Myanmar and squalor in Bangladesh refugee camps. A spokesperson for the Indian Navy said he did not have any details to share. Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network’s Rohingya Working Group said the group had been adrift for more than two weeks. "We hope that the Indian Navy or Coastguard will manage to rescue and disembark the boat as soon as possible.

☆ Nepal court to release serial killer Charles 'the serpent' Sobhraj
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Gopal Sharma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] French serial killer Charles Sobhraj leaves Kathmandu district court after his hearing in Kathmandu May 31, 2011. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar/File PhotoKATHMANDU, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Nepal's Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release, due to his age, of Charles Sobhraj, a French national known as "the serpent" who police say is responsible for a string of murders in the 1970s and 1980s. Sobhraj, 78, is accused of killing over 20 young Western backpackers across Asia, usually by drugging their food or drink. Last year, the BBC and Netflix (NFLX.O) jointly produced a TV series dramatizing his crimes called "The Serpent." On Wednesday, Supreme Court judges Sapana Pradhan Malla and Til Prasad Shrestha ordered that Sobhraj be freed and deported from Nepal, after 19 years in prison.

☆ 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.

☆ 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.

☆ Kabul hotel attack ends as three gunmen killed; two foreigners injured
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KABUL, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Armed men opened fire on Monday inside a hotel in central Kabul popular with Chinese nationals in an attack that ended when at least three gunmen were killed by security forces, the Taliban-run administration said. Two foreigners were injured while trying to escape by jumping from the hotel balcony, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on Twitter. Kabul's Emergency Hospital, run by an Italian non-profit near the attacked hotel in the Shahr-e-Naw area, reported receiving 21 casualties - 18 injured and three dead on arrival. Taliban sources said the attack was carried out at Longan Hotel where Chinese and other foreigners usually stay. China's state-run Xinhua news agency said the attack happened near a Chinese guesthouse and its embassy in Kabul was closely monitoring the situation.

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".

☆ India shared a list of products with Moscow for access to Russian market - minister
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Russia has been India's largest supplier of military equipment for decades and it is the fourth-biggest market for Indian pharmaceuticals. "We have given Russians a set of products which we believe we are very competitive in and which we feel should be getting access to the Russian market," Jaishankar told reporters in a briefing with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock, who is on a visit to India. I think a large part of it would be determined by the market," Jaishankar added. During a visit to Moscow in November, Jaishankar said India needed to boost exports to Russia to balance bilateral trade that is now tilted towards Russia. Reporting by Shivam Patel in New Delhi; Editing by Alison Williams and Peter GraffOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Pakistani embassy in Kabul attacked, one injured
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A spokesperson for Kabul police said the embassy compound was targeted by gunfire from a nearby building. Pakistan's Foreign Office said the attack had been aimed at the head of mission, Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani. It said Nizamani was safe, but a Pakistani security guard, Sepoy Israr Mohammad, was critically wounded in the attack while protecting the ambassador. A spokesperson for Pakistan's foreign office said they had no plans to evacuate the embassy after the incident. "(The) Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns the attempted shooting and failed attack on the Pakistani embassy in Kabul," spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi said on Twitter, adding that Taliban security agencies would investigate.

☆ Pakistan suicide blast targeting police kills 3, wounds 28
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Gul Yousafzai | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

QUETTA, Pakistan, Nov 30 (Reuters) - A suicide bomb blast in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta targeted a police patrol on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding 28, police said. "A bomb blast that targeted a police patrol wounded more than 30 people, including 15 police," a police official, Abdul Haq, told Reuters. The patrol had been guarding a polio vaccination team at the time of the suicide blast, he added. Islamist militants in Pakistan often target polio vaccination teams, in the belief that the immunisation effort is a Western tool to spy on them. Quetta is the capital of Pakistan's province of Balochistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran, where both Islamist and separatist insurgents operate.

☆ India, banks to discuss international trade settlement in rupees - source
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

NEW DELHI, Nov 29 (Reuters) - India's finance ministry will meet banks on Dec. 5 to discuss international trade settlement in rupees, a banking source said on Tuesday. The meeting will include representatives of all public sector banks, the central bank and some private banks and exporters, the source told Reuters. Reporting by Nikunj Ohri in New Delhi, writing by Shivam Patel, editing by Andrew HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Smog engulfs Indian capital as winter pollution worsens
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Shivam Patel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW DELHI, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Thick smog engulfed India's capital New Delhi on Tuesday as air pollution worsened with the setting in of winter, shooting up concentrations of fine particles in the air three times above the acceptable limits. The world's most polluted capital city struggles to breathe easy every winter as cold temperatures and calm winds trap pollutants closer to the ground. "As the minimum temperature is dropping, gradual fog occurrence during early morning hours is likely to increase, leading to deterioration of air quality index (AQI)," said the federal government's System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) in a daily bulletin. The AQI in parts of the city shot up above 400 on Tuesday, which is classified as the 'severe' category of air pollution, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). But experts have said these measures need to be applied across northern India and in cities and towns around New Delhi that form the wider National Capital Region, which also suffer from poor air quality, to effectively control pollution.

☆ Pakistan, IMF begin talks on $7 bln loan review
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Asif Shahzad | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"The IMF understands that the floods have changed the macroeconomic assumptions on which the programme was designed," the ministry told Reuters. Pakistan reserves stood at $7.8 billion as of Nov. 18, barely enough to cover imports for a month. ARY News reported on Monday that the IMF had asked Pakistan to reduce expenses before talks on the ninth review. The ninth review has been pending since September. The IMF told Reuters last week that finalisation of a recovery plan from the floods was essential to support discussions, along with continued financial support from multilateral and bilateral partners.

☆ Amazon to shut down food-delivery business in India
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW DELHI, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Amazon Inc (AMZN.O) will shut down a food-delivery business it was testing in India, the e-commerce giant said on Friday, a day after it announced the winding down of its online learning platform for high-school students in the country. Amazon Food, a business the company was trialing in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, would be discontinued, it said. "As part of our annual operating planning review process, we have made the decision to discontinue Amazon Food," a company spokesperson told Reuters. The Economic Times earlier reported that the business would be discontinued from Dec. 29 onwards, citing a communication from the company to its restaurant partners. On Thursday, Amazon said it was shutting down the Amazon Academy platform in India that was launched early last year amid a boom in virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

☆ U.N. rights council votes to probe Iran's ongoing crackdown
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERSGENEVA/DUBAI, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The U.N. Rights Council voted on Thursday to appoint an independent investigation into Iran's deadly repression of protests, passing the motion to cheers of activists amid an intensifying crackdown in Kurdish areas over recent days. Tehran's representative at the Geneva meeting Khadijeh Karimi earlier accused Western states of using the council to target Iran, a move she called "appalling and disgraceful". CRACKDOWNThe crackdown has been particularly intense in Kurdish areas, located in western Iran, with the U.N. rights monitor this week noting reports of 40 deaths there over the past week. Iranian authorities have arrested a number of soccer players for expressing their support for protests. Asked on Thursday about the unrest at home Iran national team striker Mehdi Taremi said they were in Qatar to play soccer.

☆ Iran official says 50 police killed in protests
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

DUBAI, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Around 50 police have been killed in the protests shaking Iran since September, the deputy foreign minister said on Thursday, giving a first official death toll amid an intensified crackdown on Kurdish areas in recent days. U.N. rights chief Volker Turk said on Thursday Iran faced a "full fledged human rights crisis" with 14,000 people arrested so far, including children. "Around 50 police officers were killed during the protests and hundreds were injured," said Iran's deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani, who is also Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, in an interview on Indian television. He gave no figure for the number of protesters killed but said the Interior Ministry had formed a panel to investigate the deaths. Iranian state media reported last month that 46 security forces had been killed but without citing officials.

☆ India's electronics industry moves towards uniform charging ports for smartphones
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW DELHI, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Electronics industry stakeholders in India have agreed to a phased roll-out of USB-C type uniform charging ports for devices including smartphones and laptops, the Indian government said on Wednesday. A different charging port may be adopted for phones lacking the more advanced features of a smartphone, such as being able to use the web to download applications, the ministry said. A group will also be formed to examine the feasibility of a uniform charging port for wearable devices like earphones and smart watches, the government said. The statement did not name any companies that attended the meeting or agreed to the proposal of a phased roll-out. The government would conduct a study to assess the environmental impact of switching to a uniform charging port, it said.

☆ India's population growth slows as world reaches 8 billion
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Krishna N. Das | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW DELHI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - As the global population reaches 8 billion, India, formerly a powerful driver of the number of people on the planet, is experiencing a marked slowdown. The world's population is estimated by the United Nations to have hit 8 billion on Nov. 15, with China and India accounting for more than a third of the total. India estimates its population at 1.38 billion, slightly lower than the 1.4 billion that the World Bank estimates for China. But India's annual population growth has averaged 1.2% since 2011, compared with 1.7% in the 10 years previously, government figures show. That indicated that India's national population policies and health systems were working, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said in comments shared with Reuters.

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