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☆ India puts military and diversity on display for Republic Day parade
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI, Jan 26 (Reuters) - India showcased its military and its cultural diversity in a colourful parade on Thursday at the revamped colonial avenue in New Delhi to mark Republic Day, the anniversary of the day the country's secular Constitution came into effect in 1950. Several thousand people watched the parade from seats around Kartavya Path - or path of duty - braving the cold on a foggy morning in New Delhi, while millions more watched on television. Accompanied by marching bands, troops from the country's military, border and police forces paced in perfect synchronisation towards the dais where President Droupadi Murmu took the salute. [1/3] A girl wearing a face mask holds the Indian national flag as she attends a flag hoisting ceremony during India's Republic Day celebrations in Ahmedabad, India, January 26, 2022. But foggy weather spoilt the spectacle, as spectators struggled to catch a glimpse of the aircraft as they roared overhead.

"If prices keep increasing, rural consumers will move towards smaller pack sizes since there's a strain on wallets," said Alok Shah, a consumer analyst at India's Ambit Capital. Shah said poorer rural consumers could move to cheaper locally-made products instead of those produced by Unilever. HUL, the biggest consumer company in India by sales, said last January that demand in rural India - where average incomes are lower than urban areas - had begun to slow as prices rose. Unilever did not respond to questions on how much of its revenues come from rural consumers. HUL Chief Executive Sanjiv Mehta said, however, the company had begun seeing signs of a pick up in rural sales as inflation eases and farm incomes rise again.

☆ I Outsourced My Memory: How to Remember Everything You Have Read Online
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Shubham Agarwal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

No matter what or how much I read online, my mind can't help but forget it shortly after. Because of this, multiple studies found that participants who read offline performed better in comprehension, concentration, and recall than participants who read online. In the three weeks I spent with the app, I found it was effective at helping me remember things, but it comes with a catch: Using a memory tool like this has the potential to make your biological memory worse over time. While Heyday's browser tool behaved like a memory assistant, its website felt like a snapshot of my online memory. But given the mounting volume of text we read online, perhaps we have already passed the point of no return.

☆ Gautam Adani, Asia's richest man, is addicted to ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Diksha Madhok | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New Delhi CNN —Asia’s richest man Gautam Adani says he is addicted to ChatGPT, the powerful new AI tool that interacts with users in an eerily convincing and conversational way. “But there can be no doubt that generative AI will have massive ramifications,” Adani wrote in his post, adding that generative AI holds the “same potential and danger” as silicon chips. Chipmaking has emerged recently as a new flashpoint in US-China tensions, with Washington blocking sales of advanced computer chips and chip-making equipment to Chinese companies. Many of Adani companies have become leading players in their respective sectors. A college dropout and a self-made industrialist, Adani is worth over $120 billion, making him the world’s third richest man, ahead of Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

☆ India says BBC documentary on India PM Modi is "propaganda"
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to his supporters as he arrives to cast his vote during the second and last phase of Gujarat state assembly elections in Ahmedabad, India, December 5, 2022. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File PhotoNEW DELHI, Jan 19 (Reuters) - India's foreign ministry on Thursday dismissed a BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi which questioned his leadership during the 2002 Gujarat riots as "propaganda". Accused of failing to stop the rioting, Modi denied the accusations and was exonerated in 2012 following an inquiry by India's top court. Terming the BBC documentary a "propaganda piece" meant to push a "discredited narrative", foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said a "bias", "lack of objectivity", and "continuing colonial mindset" is "blatantly visible" in it. "We offered the Indian Government a right to reply to the matters raised in the series – it declined to respond," a BBC spokesperson said.

☆ Meet the Indian industrialist worth almost as much as Elon Musk after getting $42 billion richer this year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Gautam Adani is worth $119 billion, just $13 billion less than Elon Musk, per Bloomberg. The Indian industrialist is now worth $119 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Adani is founder and chairman of the Adani Group, a multinational conglomerate with businesses spanning energy, mining, ports, and airports. Arnault is worth $162 billion and Musk about $132 billion. The Adani Group comprises seven listed companies that have 23,000 staff and are worth $166 billion, though that is down from $242 billion in August.

The free food programme, however, cost the government around $47 billion, worsened the fiscal deficit and reduced wheat stocks in government warehouses to multi-year lows. The government expects to save nearly $20 billion a year by ending the COVID free food scheme. MODI TRUSTED BY VOTERSSome economists had wanted the food programme gone months ago as COVID curbs eased. Had the trust not been there, and for any other leader, it would have been difficult to end such a food programme ahead of elections." But senior BJP leader and former minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the decision to reduce food aid should not be linked to elections or politics.

☆ India's Mamaearth parent files for IPO - draft prospectus
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Indian skincare startup Mamaearth's products are on display for sale at a wholesale shop in Ahmedabad, India, June 22, 2022. REUTERS/Amit DaveBENGALURU, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Parent of Indian personal care products startup Mamaearth, Honasa Consumer Ltd, on Thursday filed for an initial public offering (IPO), according to draft papers submitted to the market regulator. The Sequoia- and Sofina-backed company's IPO will comprise of a fresh issue of shares worth 4 billion rupees ($48.30 million) and an offer for sale of 46.8 million shares. Reuters had reported in June that Mamaearth was in talks to raise at least $300 million for the IPO scheduled for 2023. Honasa said it would use about 1.86 billion rupees from the IPO for advertising expenses.

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.

Exports, which constitute about 22% of the industry, have fallen for five months in a row - declining over 15% year-on-year in November to $3.1 billion. Domestic sales are sluggish despite strong growth in the overall economy because of high costs and cheap imported garments, manufacturers say. Reuters GraphicsIn the textile industry, manufacturers say higher domestic cotton prices and other costs have hit profit margins, while overseas orders for next summer are down by about one-third and domestic demand remains weak. "The government needs to scrap the 11% import duty on cotton so local textile mills can have a level playing field," Ganatra said. Reuters GraphicsFEAR OF JOB CUTSMany textile manufacturers, who have frozen hiring of workers, have warned of jobs cuts if the government fails to provide relief soon.

☆ Modi's party set for landslide election win in India's Gujarat state
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Sumit Khanna | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to his supporters as he arrives to cast his vote during the second and last phase of Gujarat state assembly elections in Ahmedabad, India, December 5, 2022. The western industrial state is a bastion of the BJP, which has not lost state assembly elections there since 1995. Modi was Gujarat's chief minister for 13 years before becoming prime minister in 2014. The party was also set to surpass its best results in Gujarat when it won 127 seats in 2002. He is eyeing a third term as prime minister in 2024 and campaigned extensively across the state in the run up to the Gujarat vote.

☆ Modi's home state Gujarat votes, seen as easy mid-term test for India's leader
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Sumit Khanna | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Opinion polls conducted in the lead-up to the Gujarat polls projected the BJP to comfortably retain power in the state. In the last state election five years ago, the BJP won 99 seats in the 182-member assembly while Congress got 77. The BJP is expected to win between 131 to 139 seats this time, ABP-CVoter projected in November. Congress could win 31 to 39 seats while the Aam Aadmi Party could bag up to 15. According to India TV-Matrize opinion poll, also conducted in November, the BJP may win up to 119 seats.

☆ Ela Bhatt, Organizer of India’s Women Workers, Dies at 89
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Krishna Pokharel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Ela Bhatt was a lawyer for an Indian textile union in the early 1970s when she decided to help other types of workers, ones who were harder to organize and often barely noticed: women balancing heavy loads of fabric, often perched precariously atop their heads, to make deliveries to markets. She founded the Self-Employed Women’s Association, known as SEWA, in 1972 in her hometown of Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat. It became one of the country’s strongest advocates for India’s millions of women working informally in many kinds of low-paid positions, including maids, vegetable sellers, street food vendors, seamstresses and cigarette rollers. They often kept their families afloat by patching together work of all kinds—yet weren’t even recognized as workers in India’s official census data.

Morbi, India CNN —A marigold garland hangs across a photo frame with the faces of 12 members of the Bodha family who died when a bridge collapsed beneath them during a family outing in Gujarat, eastern India. In the days since the tragedy, few answers have emerged as to why the colonial-era suspension bridge appeared to snap, spilling dozens of people into the Machchhu River. Police investigating the case have suggested the company tasked with maintaining the bridge, Oreva, failed to conduct the appropriate repairs or tests to ensure the bridge was safe for pedestrians. Courtesy Prabhulal BodhaDiwali holidays turn deadlyThe suspension bridge has hung across the Machchhu River for as long as anyone can remember. Gujarat authorities estimate some 200 people were on the bridge when it collapsed – much more than the capacity allowed, they said.

☆ Analysis: Wanted: an oxygen monitor reliable for all races
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Nancy Lapid | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Expert advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration met virtually on Tuesday to discuss improvements in standards for pulse oximeters. Imarc Group market research firm forecast the global pulse oximeter market reaching $3.25 billion by 2027. Pulse oximeter problems "suddenly became enormous" during the pandemic, said Dr. Philip Bickler, director of the University of California, San Francisco's (UCSF) Hypoxia Research & Pulse Oximeter Test Facility. Current rules require that pulse oximeters be tested in a minimum of just 10 subjects, only two of whom must be "darkly-pigmented." While the devices are still useful, UCSF's Bickler said, doctors "should not base patient care only on pulse oximeter findings."

CNN —More than 50 children are among 135 people killed in Sunday’s bridge collapse in India’s Gujarat state, according to a list of victims published by state authorities on Wednesday. Rescue workers conduct search operations after a bridge across the river Machchhu collapsed at Morbi in India's Gujarat state on October 31, 2022. A shoe lies near a damaged suspension bridge in Morbi, India, November 1, 2022. Mourners take part in a funeral procession while carrying the coffins of victims who died after a bridge across the river Machchhu collapsed at Morbi in India's Gujarat state on October 31, 2022. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the site of the deadly bridge collapse in western India on Tuesday.

☆ Death toll from India bridge collapse rises to 132, search on for missing
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Sumit Khanna | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/3] Rescuers search for survivors after a suspension bridge collapsed in Morbi town in the western state of Gujarat, India, October 31, 2022. REUTERS/StringerAHMEDABAD, India, Oct 31 (Reuters) - The death toll from a bridge collapse in Gujarat in India rose to 132, a local government official told Reuters on Monday. read more"The death toll in the bridge collapse incident has gone up to 132. The search and rescue operations are continuing," said the senior official, NK Muchhar, adding that the toll could rise further. Authorities said more than 400 people were on and around the colonial-era suspension bridge at the time of the collapse.

☆ Seven members of same family killed in Indian bridge collapse
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Sumit Khanna | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

AHMEDABAD, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Seven members of the Jadeja family were returning from a temple in the Indian town of Morbi on Sunday when the children asked to be taken to a suspension bridge, a local tourist attraction that had reopened after repairs. The Jadejas were among at least 134 people killed in the accident, one of India's deadliest bridge collapses, a relative and a family friend said. "They were on the bridge when it collapsed," said Kanaksinh Jadeja, a cousin of the two Jadeja brothers - Pratapsinh and Pradyumansinh - who lost their mother, wives and four children. An Oreva spokesperson did not answer calls and text messages from Reuters. The Indian Express newspaper quoted an Oreva spokesperson as saying: "... the bridge collapsed as too many people in the mid-section of the bridge were trying to sway it from one way to the other."

☆ Factbox: Century-old India hanging bridge collapses days after repair
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Here are some details about the bridge:* It was built in 1877 in the town of Morbi in Gujarat state when the British ruled India. * Local authorities call the bridge an "engineering marvel" that was "built to give a unique identity to Morbi using the latest technology available in those days, in Europe". * Local authorities said the Oreva group, maker of Ajanta clocks and electrical products, was this year awarded a contract to maintain and manage the bridge for 15 years. * The bridge was earlier maintained by the local municipality, which used to limit the number of people on the bridge at one time to 20. Reporting by Sumit Khanna; Writing by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Tom HogueOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Suspension bridge collapses in India, hundreds fall in river - officials
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Sumit Khanna | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

AHMEDABAD, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people fell into a river when a suspension bridge in India's western Gujarat state collapsed on Sunday and a number of them have been hurt, officials said. More than 400 people were on the bridge in the town of Morbi at the time and were plunged into the Machchu River, local TV channel Zee News said. "People fell in the river and there are casualties. Footage broadcast by the TV channel showed dozens of people clinging onto the cables of the collapsed bridge as emergency teams sought to rescue them. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in his home state Gujarat for a three-day visit, said he has directed the state chief minister to mobilise teams urgently for the rescue operation.

Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty ImagesThe recommendation to free the men was made by an advisory panel appointed by the Gujarat government, led by Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Some lawmakers and activists have petitioned the Supreme Court for the men to be rearrested. Some saw the assailants’ release as a deliberate pitch for votes from BJP supporters ahead of the Gujarat state election. The couple want the decision reversed, as do those who have filed petitions with the Supreme Court. “We strongly believe that what happened with Bilkis was wrong and the convicts should be sent back to jail,” he said.

☆ India festival spending booms despite inflation worries, global slowdown
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Manoj Kumar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

The sales would include nearly $15.2 billion offline sales, compared to about $8.5 billion in 2019, according to the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT). read moreBut economists said the sense in India was that inflation has peaked while economic activity was picking up. The bump in consumer demand is expected to support economic growth of around 6.5% in the fiscal year ending March 2023, the highest among the world's major economies. Credit demand increases Credit demand increasesThe retail boom is also a boon for the government - goods and services tax collections, a barometer of consumer demand, rose 26% year-on-year in September, data showed. "After two consecutive downbeat festive seasons, consumer sentiment and spending appear to have rebounded this year... which may boost economic growth in the current quarter, but may not sustain thereafter."

☆ Indian billionaire Gautam Adani was a college dropout. Now he may be too big to fail
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Diksha Madhok | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate had just launched a hostile bid to take over an influential broadcaster in the capital. Rupak De Chowdhuri/ReutersMuch of his fortune is tied up in the sprawling Adani Group, which he founded over 30 years ago. Most of the companies in the Adani empire are held closely by the billionaire, his family and associated firms, including nearly 75% stakes in AEL, Adani Power, and Adani Transmissions. Yet, the Adani Group has continued to raise billions from Indian and foreign banks. CreditSights, a research firm owned by Fitch Group, in August published a report about Adani Group titled “Deeply Overleveraged” in which it expressed strong concerns.

Indian consultancy Coalmint expects September thermal coal imports from Russia to decline 30% from August to 1.4 million tonnes, it said in a note to clients. London-based analytics firm DBX Commodities estimates Indian shipments of the power generation fuel to fall to 1.5 million tonnes this month from 1.9 million tonnes in August, Chief Executive Alexandre Claude told Reuters on Thursday. Coal shipments from Russia had risen in July and August despite a decline in overall Indian imports of the fuel, making Russia India's third largest coal supplier. DBX expects India's total thermal coal imports to fall to about 13 million tonnes from 15 million tonnes in August, Claude said. "(Overall Indian) thermal coal imports have been declining since June as the heatwave then started to recede and the economy started to falter," he said.

☆ India's Adani pledges shares of ACC, Ambuja Cements worth about $12.5 billion
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/Amit DaveBENGALURU, Sept 20 (Reuters) - India's Adani Group has pledged shares worth about $12.5 billion in two cement units, days after the conglomerate controlled by billionaire Gautam Adani completed the purchase of stakes in those businesses from Switzerland's Holcim (HOLN.S). The pledged shares of ACC and Ambuja were worth around 989.46 billion rupees based on Monday's closing prices and accounted for a 57% stake in ACC (ACC.NS) and a 63% stake in Ambuja Cements (ABUJ.NS). (https://bityl.co/EZE6) (https://bityl.co/EZEE)Deutsche Bank AG's Hong Kong branch, which is the agent for the pledged shares in ACC and Ambuja, made the disclosure in filings to India's stock exchanges. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterThe group in May announced the acquisition of Holcim's cement businesses in India for $10.5 billion to become the country's No. read more($1 = 79.7210 Indian rupees)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'SilvaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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