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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.

☆ India Budget 2023: Here's what the experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +13 min

"This budget, therefore, has rewritten the rules for financilisation of savings in India, which will induce expenditures rather incentivise savings. LAKSHMI IYER, CEO-INVESTMENT ADVISORY, KOTAK INVESTMENT ADVISORS LTD"India budget 2023 has offered a multi-dimensional view. The 3 Cs which stand out are - Capex increase - consumption boost - capital gains tax status quo. Additionally, the budget has provided significant direct tax benefits to individuals which will help increase disposable income and support spending. The budget keeps in mind the needs of future India while focusing on Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.

☆ Instant View: Adani's $2.5 billion offer rides out share storm with investor backing
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

COMMENTARYAMBAREESH BALIGA, INDEPENDENT MARKET ANALYST, MUMBAI"The FPO did get subscribed, thanks to a few institutional as well as large family offices. DEEPAK JASANI, HEAD OF RETAIL RESEARCH, HDFC SECURITIES, MUMBAI"For Indian markets, one of the concern areas is out of the way for the time being as this was weighing on investor sentiment. Since the current market price is below the offer price, the retail subscription was low as investors can rather buy it from the market." That was their focus area considering the fact that there was a difference between the market price and the floor price of the FPO. It seems that retail investors did not consider the fact that there is more to rates than just the price."

☆ Analysis: India's EV dawn fans expectations fuel demand may peak early
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Mohi Narayan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Currently, around 90% of Indian petrochemical demand is met by China, he said, so a shift by Indian refiners towards domestic chemical needs could dramatically change supply dynamics. Indian refiners are investing billions of dollars to raise petrochemical capacity. Indian Oil Corp (IOC.NS), the country's top refiner, is raising petrochemical capacity at its Panipat refinery by 13% and building new plants linked to its Paradip and Gujarat refineries. India's state refiners, which dominate fuel retailers, plan to set up EV charging facilities at more than 22,000 fuel stations and highways by 2024. About 40% of India's fuel demand is for diesel, which is mostly used by trucks.

☆ Instant view: India's Adani slammed by $48 bln stock rout, clouding record share sale
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

COMMENTARYJ.P.MORGAN"While the Hindenburg report focused mainly on equity valuations within the group, we are primarily concerned about the underlying credit profiles of group companies given underlying bank exposures. Clearly given the size of the group and outstanding debt, this has also impacted the banks." So if a report comes and stocks see a sharp fall, lot of margin calls also get triggered. At least 40% of the group's debt is exposed to Indian banks, so that exposure is what people are worried about in banks. Reporting by Rama Venkat and Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'SouzaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Pernod Ricard India said it strongly denies the allegations of the directorate, adding that it "will continue to fully cooperate with the Indian authorities in this matter." Benoy Babu, head for international brands for Pernod India, was arrested in November and remains in jail over the case. He faces allegations of money laundering under Indian laws and violating Delhi's liquor policy rules, but has denied wrongdoing. Under the 2021 Delhi liquor policy, hundreds of store licences were awarded to private players as the city government exited the retail business in a move to liberalise trade and boost local government revenue. One Enforcement Directorate document dated Nov. 10 says: "The main motive of Pernod Ricard in cartel creation was to ensure that the retail shops of the cartel partners purchased higher quantity of Pernod Ricard brands ... in lieu of the financial assistance provided."

☆ Activists accuse India of lapses in genetically modified mustard approval
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Mayank Bhardwaj | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Indian authorities rushed approvals for a locally developed genetically modified (GM) mustard variety by violating environmental regulations, a group of activists opposed to GM crops said on Friday. In October, India granted environmental clearance for indigenously developed GM mustard seeds, paving the way for the commercial use of its first GM food crop. The regulator has followed every guideline for approving the GM mustard crop, it said. New Delhi approved GM mustard, part of the rapeseed family, to help cut the country's expensive cooking oil imports. In 2017, Pental's team came close to getting government approval to grow GM mustard seeds commercially, following years of field trials and the analysis of crop data.

[1/3] Drivers push auto rickshaws in a line to buy petrol from a fuel station amid Sri Lanka's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 29, 2022. India's foreign ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters on its plans and strategic aims in Sri Lanka. New Delhi has long been concerned about China's clout in its neighbourhood, including Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. "And as far as Sri Lanka is concerned, we don't want to contribute to any escalation of tension between any countries." "Sri Lanka has clearly benefited from being the closest neighbour to the most powerful country in the region.

☆ Serial killer Charles ‘The Serpent' Sobhraj freed from Nepal prison
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who police say is responsible for a string of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, was released from a Nepal prison on Friday after nearly two decades behind bars. Sobhraj was driven out of Central Jail in Kathmandu by a cavalcade of police cars a little after midday, Ishwari Prasad Pandey, a jailor at the Central Jail, told Reuters. His notoriety and exploits have been the subject of several dramatizations, including a Netflix and BBC joint production released last year. Sobhraj escaped from India’s Tihar jail in 1986 after drugging prison guards with cookies and cakes laced with sleeping pills. “Jail authorities will hand him over to the department of immigration today,” Sobhraj’s lawyer, Chintan told Reuters earlier on Friday.

☆ Charles 'The Serpent' Sobhraj freed from Nepal prison
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Gopal Sharma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] Police officers escort Charles Sobhraj, a French national known as 'the Serpent', accused of killing over 20 young Western backpackers across Asia, to the Department of Immigration after he was released from prison, following an order of Nepal's Supreme Court, in Kathmandu, Nepal December 23, 2022. REUTERS/Chandra Bahadur AleKATHMANDU, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who police say is responsible for a string of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, was released from a Nepal prison on Friday after nearly two decades behind bars. Sobhraj was driven out of Central Jail in Kathmandu by a cavalcade of police cars a little after midday, Ishwari Prasad Pandey, a jailor at the Central Jail, told Reuters. Sobhraj escaped from India's Tihar jail in 1986 after drugging prison guards with cookies and cakes laced with sleeping pills. "Jail authorities will hand him over to the department of immigration today," Sobhraj's lawyer, Chintan told Reuters earlier on Friday.

☆ Killer known as ‘The Serpent’ set to be freed from Nepal prison
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who police suspect was responsible for a string of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, was due to be freed on Thursday after nearly 20 years in prison in Nepal, his lawyer said. Nepal’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered his release from prison, where he has served 19 years of his 20-year sentence, citing his age. Sobhraj denied killing the American woman and his lawyers said the charge against him was based on assumption. Sobhraj escaped from India’s Tihar jail in 1986 after drugging prison guards with cookies and cakes laced with sleeping pills. Last year, the BBC and Netflix jointly produced a TV series dramatizing his crimes called “The Serpent”.

☆ Here comes Santa Claus
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Dave Lucas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

A smoky haze hangs over India's northern plains and its capital, New Delhi, every year as winter sets in, raising fears for the health of many millions of people as authorities order fixes that do little to clear the air.

☆ Exclusive: Russian oil sold to India below price cap in buyers' market
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Nidhi Verma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Also on Dec. 5, the Group of Seven leading economies implemented a $60 price cap on Russian seaborne oil to try to limit Moscow's ability to finance its war in Ukraine. The Western actions have left Russian producers in fierce competition with each other and with suppliers from Asia, Europe and the Middle East, meaning their best hope of finding buyers is to lower prices, two traders said. Russian oil suppliers are trying to handle Urals oil transport to India themselves using their own vessels and shipping partners, which can reduce transport costs, traders said. But many oil producers still rely on trading firms, which means they have to share any profits they have. India, the second largest consumer of oil in Asia, is better located to buy Urals than China because of a shorter transport route, and its refineries are well-suited to processing Russian oil.

☆ 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."

☆ India's capital blanketed in smog; private construction banned
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW DELHI, Dec 5 (Reuters) - India's capital, New Delhi, was engulfed in thick smog early on Monday as cooler weather exacerbated pollution and the government banned private construction in and around the city to try to limit dust and emissions. Residents of New Delhi and its suburbs endure poor air every winter as colder, heavier air traps construction dust, vehicle emissions and smoke from the burning of crop stubble in the nearby states of Punjab and Haryana. The air quality index in several parts of the city was between 350 and 400 on Monday, meaning it was "very poor", according to the Central Pollution Control Board. The central government banned all private construction in the city and surrounding areas on Sunday. Authorities also sprayed water in some neighbourhoods to try to clear the air.

☆ US and Indian troops are teaming up for tough training in the Himalayas near a tense border with China
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Christopher Woody | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

US soldiers are training with Indian troops in the Himalayas this month for exercise Yudh Abhyas. This year's version of the exercise is being held near India's disputed border with China. An Indian army convoy on a highway leading to Ladakh, in Kashmir's Ganderbal district in June 2020. REUTERS/Danish Ismail"The US and India probably anticipated that conducting the exercise near the Chinese border would draw Beijing's ire. Indian soldiers during Yudh Abhyas in Alaska in October 2021.

☆ G20's criticism of Russia reflects the rise of new Asian power: India
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Rhea Mogul | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

“Today’s era must not be of war,” it said, echoing what Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian leader Vladimir Putin during a face-to-face meeting in September. “How India united G20 on PM Modi’s idea of peace,” ran a headline in the Times of India, the country’s largest English-language paper. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indonesia's President Joko Widodo hold hands during the handover ceremony at the G20 leaders' summit, in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, November 16, 2022. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi hold a bilateral meeting on November 16, 2022 in Nusa Dua, Indonesia. And while this year’s G20 was looked at through the lens of the war, India could bring its own agenda to the table next year.

☆ New Delhi’s air pollution leaves residents gasping for breath
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Gafira Qadir | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

By the first week of November, New Delhi’s air quality index was 472, high enough to affect healthy people while having a serious impact on those with existing conditions. In some areas of the city, the reading exceeded 800, according to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, a regulatory body. Experts say exposure to low air quality levels increases the risk of respiratory infections, heart disease and lung cancer. In response to the poor air quality, Delhi officials ordered the closure of primary schools and reduced outdoor activities for older students from Nov. 4 to 9. A government vehicle sprinkles water to control air pollution in New Delhi last month.

☆ Six dead after earthquake of magnitude 6.6 strikes Nepal
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 9 (Reuters) - An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 struck Nepal early Wednesday, killing at least six people and destroying multiple houses in the district of Doti, officials said. Nepal's seismological centre set the earthquake at a magnitude of 6.6. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) had pegged the earthquake at a magnitude of 5.6. India's National Center for Seismology marked the quake at a magnitude of 6.3. Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler and Gerry DoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ New Delhi wrestles with 'hazardous' air pollution, primary schools shut
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Tanvi Mehta | Ian Ransom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW DELHI, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Authorities in New Delhi ordered primary schools to shut from Saturday, and told schools to stop outdoor activities for older children as air in the world's most polluted capital had become a severe risk to health. The chart below shows the daily maximum PM 2.5 concentration at the U.S. Embassy New Delhi since 2015. Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai said going forward 50% of Delhi government employees would be told to work from home, and he urged private firms to take similar steps. School girls walk towards a school as they reopened after remaining closed for nearly 15 days due to a spike in air pollution, on a smoggy morning in New Delhi, India, November 29, 2021. According to data compiled by the Swiss group IQAir, New Delhi has been the world's most polluted capital for the past four years.

Seattle and Portland, Oregon, were first and second, respectively, in the global ranking of places with the poorest air quality, according to IQAir, a Swiss company that measures air pollution. Air quality issues have persisted for about a month because of the prolonged fires burning west of the Cascades. That’s what’s been contributing to the persistent air quality issues we’ve had." Sports and other outdoor activities in the Pacific Northwest have been called off due to the poor air quality. The problem is worst in the West, where rising air pollution levels due to smoke have reversed decades of improvements in overall air quality.

India has long grappled with an epidemic of violence against women and girls in the deeply patriarchal country. And campaigners say the alleged involvement of a woman in this latest case demonstrates the scale of internalized misogyny in society. ‘Loopholes in every corner’Dixit, the police official, said the alleged rape took place around three months ago in Mainpuri – about 270 kilometers (167 miles) southeast of India’s capital, New Delhi. But activists say in the seven years since its implementation, little has been done to empower women and girls, and violent crimes against women persist. Those beliefs appear to have played out in this case too, as the girl did not report her alleged rape for three months, according to Dixit.

☆ India’s words are anti-war, but New Delhi’s actions are propping up Putin’s regime
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-03 | by ( Rhea Mogul | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

New Delhi has repeatedly abstained from votes condemning Russia at the United Nations – providing Moscow with a veneer of international legitimacy. And in August, India participated in Russia’s large-scale Vostok military exercises alongside China, Belarus, Mongolia and Tajikistan – where Moscow paraded its vast arsenal. “There’s a feeling that Putin is pushing India’s limits because in some ways, it’s put itself out on a limb. Mikhail Svetlov/Getty ImagesSuperficially at least, India and China also appear to have similar positions on the Ukraine war. But despite India’s increasing closeness with the West, it is prioritizing the dangers in its own backyard, analysts say.

☆ 'India has a big role to play': New Delhi is trying to turn the country into a chip powerhouse
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Foundries are facilities that manufacture chips that other companies design. So there aren't many giant Indian chip firms and certainly no leading-edge manufacturing companies. "I have no doubt that India has a big role to play," Kotasthane said. Semiconductor design requires large numbers of skilled engineers and this is where India's strength lies," he added. So now, the next step is the effort to build an ecosystem where there is some Indian IP (intellectual property) by Indian companies," Kotasthane said.

A summit in Central Asia last week served as a public stage for Moscow’s biggest backers to express misgivings about the Ukraine war, with Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledging that China had concerns and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying, “Today’s era is not an era for war.”Despite those public expressions of doubt, China is staying the course in its relationship with Russia and even seeking to deepen the economic ties between the two countries, said Chinese officials familiar with Beijing’s thinking. For its part, although India is growing increasingly frustrated with the impact the war is having on the economy and developing world, New Delhi hasn’t altered its close ties with Moscow, Indian officials said.

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