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☆ India says other African cheetahs well after two deaths
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A cheetah looks on after being sedated, before being flown with eleven others from South Africa to India under an agreement between the two governments to introduce the African cats to the South Asian country over the next decade, at Rooiberg veterinary facility, Limpopo province, South Africa, February 17, 2023. The deaths raised concerns about the effort that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has championed, but that some conservationists have called a "vanity project" that overlooks the fact the African cheetah is not native to South Asia. "The other cheetahs have been closely monitored and none of them has shown any similar symptoms," the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said in a statement. The ministry said a team of experts from South Africa and India visited the park in Madhya Pradesh state on April 30 and submitted a report to it on the way ahead. "This is the first intercontinental re-introduction of a wild, large carnivore species and therefore there is no comparable historical precedent."

☆ Formula 1 Rolls Into Miami
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Andrew Das | Josh Katz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Sergio Pérez’s victory last weekend in Baku, Azerbaijan, was his second of the Formula 1 season, and it allowed him to match the victory total of his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen. The result allowed Pérez to close Verstappen’s lead in the drivers’ championship to a mere six points as the series arrived in the United States for Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix. Pérez starts Sunday with the advantage: He is on pole position, and knows a win will give him the lead in the points race. TV: The race will air on ABC in the United States, which is — DVR alert — a switch from its usual home on ESPN. A full list of Formula 1 broadcasters, wherever you are, can be found here.

The cash-strapped carrier, India's third-biggest and best known as Go First, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, blaming "faulty" Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines for the grounding of about half its fleet. IndiGo has also had to ground planes because its P&W engines faced problems, but its bigger fleet with diverse engines, and its deeper pockets, meant it could overcome the troubles better than Go First. The airline started operations in 2005 and is owned by bed sheets-to-biscuits Wadia Group, one of India's oldest conglomerates. "The Wadia Group, in particular (chairperson) Nusli Wadia, has always tried to see that the company and the airline operations go on, on a normal basis," Khona said. "There is no question of Wadia Group having any intention to exit or move out."

☆ FIFA Threatens Women’s World Cup TV Blackout in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Tariq Panja | Andrew Das | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Broadcasters also appear to be taking a cautious stance on assigning a value to Women’s World Cup rights that have never previously been on the market. This year is the first time FIFA has decoupled the women’s tournament from the men’s; previously, the women’s rights were bundled as an extra in the bidding for the men’s World Cup rights. He noted that while viewing figures for the women’s tournament are between 50 percent and 60 percent of those for the men’s World Cup, the amounts offered for the women’s games have been much lower than that: In Europe alone, he said, they were “20 to 100 times lower than for the men’s FIFA World Cup.”“Whereas broadcasters pay $100-200 million for the men’s FIFA World Cup,” Infantino said, “they offer only $1-10 million for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. This is a slap in the face of all the great FIFA Women’s World Cup players and indeed of all women worldwide.”There has been a substantial interest in women’s soccer in Britain, Europe’s biggest market, which peaked when England beat Germany to win the European championship on home soil last year. According to news media reports, the BBC and ITV — the two main British broadcasters — have offered about 9 million pounds ($11.2 million) for the World Cup rights, the highest among European broadcasters.

☆ Ferrari Looks Fast. Now It Needs to Finish.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Andrew Das | Josh Katz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Charles Leclerc has done the first part: After turning in the fastest lap in qualifying, he will start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday. Now he has to do the part that has proved problematic for him this season: Finish the race. In three starts this year, Leclerc’s Ferrari has been running at the end only once. Qualifying ahead of them was heartening. How to WatchTime: The Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday starts at 7 a.m. Eastern, which is 3 p.m. local time on the Baku City Circuit.

The World Health Organization said last year the syrups, made by Indian manufacturer Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd, contained lethal toxins ethylene glycol (EG) and diethylene glycol (DEG) – used in car brake fluid. "If you ask and you don't get informed, it's a dead end," Rutendo Kuwana, the WHO's team lead for incidents with substandard and falsified medicines, told Reuters in an interview on March 31. Drug inspectors found a dozen violations at Maiden last October related to the production of the cough syrups sold to Gambia, a government document showed. Among these, some of the COAs of raw ingredients used in making the syrups, including propylene glycol, were missing batch numbers. Kuwana said the WHO was sure of its own cough syrup test results from two separate independent laboratories, both of which showed contamination.

☆ 'Death zone' queues feared on Everest as Nepal grants record climbing permits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Gopal Sharma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] A general view of the Everest base camp taken from a drone, in Nepal April 24, 2023. So far, Nepal has handed out a record 463 permits to climb Everest between March and May, beating 2021's 409. Climbing is a key earner for the poor country, where about 500,000 people are employed in tourism, including climbing, and the number of permits has been rising steadily. So far this year, Nepal has granted permits to 1,046 climbers for 24 peaks, earning the government $5.6 million, of which $5 million came from Everest alone. He said the government was considering introducing a requirement for climbers to scale at least one 6,000-metre peak in Nepal before attempting Everest.

☆ India's LTIMindtree posts Q4 profit miss as costs rise
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BENGALURU, April 27 (Reuters) - India's LTIMindtree (LTIM.NS) reported a lower-than-expected fourth quarter profit on Thursday as expenses rose and margins shrank, while the industry grappled with falling client budgets and worries of a upcoming recession in the United States. The IT services and consulting firm's consolidated net profit came in at 11.14 billion rupees ($136.18 million) for the three months ended March 31, compared to 11.09 billion rupees year ago. Analysts, on an average were expecting a profit of 11.97 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv IBES data. Bigger rival Wipro Ltd (WIPR.NS) forecast weak IT services revenue, while Tech Mahindra Ltd (TEML.NS) reported a slump in profits. Revenue from operations rose 22% to 86.91 billion rupees.

None of the agencies disputed the allegation, and each paid penalties of $5,050, the maximum state levy for a child labor violation. The U.S. and Alabama investigations began after a Reuters report last July first exposed the use of child labor at Hyundai parts makers in the state. The U.S. Department of Labor said in February the number of child labor violations in 2022 had soared by nearly 70% compared with the tally recorded in 2018. They said false documentation, even shoddy credentials like those filed by the boy's employers, makes child labor laws difficult to enforce. An Alabama labor department spokesperson told Reuters the agency is still working to determine who exactly hired the child to work at Hyundai Glovis.

☆ US Treasury's financial crimes unit hits state-chartered trust with penalty
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 26 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network on Wednesday hit a South Dakota-chartered Kingdom Trust Company with a $1.5 million civil penalty for willfully violating a law requiring banks report suspicious transactions. From February 2016 through March 2021, Kingdom Trust processed billions of transactions without proper controls aimed at preventing money laundering, FinCEN said in its consent order. The firm admitted to the willful violations in what FinCEN described in a statement as its first enforcement action against a trust company. Kingdom Trust did not respond immediately to a request for comment. "Kingdom Trust had virtually no process to identify and report suspicious transactions, resulting in it processing over $4 billion in international wires with essentially no controls," FinCEN’s acting director Himamauli Das said in the statement.

☆ Sifan Hassan Wins London Marathon in Stunning Comeback
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Andrew Das | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Sifan Hassan, an Olympic track champion from the Netherlands running her first marathon, staged a stunning comeback on Sunday to win the London Marathon in one of the most dramatic and unexpected finishes in the race’s history. In winning, Hassan showed both her stunning range as a runner — she was a triple medalist in three shorter distances on the Tokyo Olympics track two years ago and holds the world record in the mile — but also her inexperience as a marathoner. An Ethiopian-born Dutch athlete better known for her middle-distance success, Hassan fell off the pace about an hour into the race after stopping to stretch her aching left hip, dropped behind the lead group at times and pushed it at others, and even offered drinks to her rivals as they ran. And Hassan, 30, did it all despite training for the race during Ramadan, a month of fasting that left her unable to complete long runs because she could not drink or eat during the day.

☆ India court rejects Xiaomi's challenge to $676 mln asset freeze - Live Law
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

NEW DELHI, April 21 (Reuters) - A court in India's Karnataka state has rejected China-based Xiaomi Corp's (1810.HK) petition challenging the seizure of 55.51 billion rupees ($676.35 million) by the Enforcement Directorate, news website Live Law reported on Friday. India's federal financial crime agency froze Xiaomi's assets last year, alleging the company had made illegal remittances to foreign entities by passing them off as royalty payments. The company denies any wrongdoing. ($1 = 82.0725 Indian rupees)Reporting by Tanvi Mehta; Editing by Krishna N. DasOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ How to exercise when you have a chronic condition or a disability
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Melanie Radzicki Mcmanus | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Add in a disability, chronic condition or injury, and it can be even more challenging to incorporate exercise into a weekly routine. Regular exercise can also help manage the symptoms associated with some disabilities. Exercises to consider if you have limited mobilityWhich types of exercise are appropriate and helpful will depend upon your specific health situation. Examples of seated workouts include using a hand cycle and performing chair exercises with or without weights. Isometric exercises help maintain muscle strength while preventing further muscle deterioration.

☆ Oakland Athletics Say They Will Move to Las Vegas by 2027
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Benjamin Hoffman | Andrew Das | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Oakland Athletics have reached an agreement to acquire land near the Las Vegas Strip and said Wednesday that they hoped to be playing games in a new, billion-dollar retractable roof stadium on the site by 2027. The agreement on the 49-acre site in Nevada, which the team’s president, Dave Kaval, confirmed to The Las Vegas Review-Journal on Wednesday night, will seemingly end years of tense negotiations for a new stadium in the Bay Area, an investment the team said it needed to remain financially viable and competitive with its peers in Major League Baseball. “It’s obviously a very big milestone for us,” Kaval said of the potential move to Las Vegas, which would be the first relocation of a major league franchise in two decades. “We spent almost two years working in Las Vegas to try to determine a location that works for a long-term home. To identify a site and have a purchase agreement is a big step.”

Apple mainly assembles iPhones in India through Taiwan contract manufacturers but plans to expand into iPads and AirPods, as it looks to cut reliance on China. His comments came after a meeting on Wednesday with Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook in the capital, New Delhi. He inaugurated an Apple store in New Delhi on Thursday two days after opening its first outlet in Mumbai, the commercial capital. "We've come here only to see Tim Cook," said Manika Mehta, 32, an Android phone user who queued at the Delhi store. I'm drawn to Tim Cook, seeing the man he is and the journey."

☆ India monetary tightening cycle not over, inflation remains a concern -MPC minutes
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Swati Bhat | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MUMBAI, April 20 (Reuters) - India's current rate tightening cycle may not be over as more hikes could be warranted to align inflation towards the central bank's medium term target of 4%, minutes of this month's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting showed on Thursday. "It is clear that the war against inflation has not yet been won, and it would be premature to declare an end to this tightening cycle," MPC member Jayant Varma wrote. Most members appeared more concerned about inflation than in their commentary after the previous policy meeting in February when the bank raised rates by 25 bps. The decision by OPEC+ to cut crude output and the possibility of weak monsoon rains could both push up inflation in India and necessitate a monetary policy response, Varma said. In the current situation of high inflation, monetary policy does not have the luxury of responding to these growth headwinds."

☆ Soaring temperatures bring school closures in parts of India
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KOLKATA, April 18 (Reuters) - Authorities in parts of India have shut schools for a week after they recorded sweltering temperatures of more than 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). At least two states, Tripura in the northeast and West Bengal in the east, ordered schools to shut this week, as temperatures rose more than 5 Celsius above normal, state governments said. India is likely to experience heat waves between March and May, the national weather office said in February. Average maximum temperature in February across India was 29.54C 85.1F) the highest since 1901, when the IMD started keeping weather records. Reporting by Subrata Nag Choudhary Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Is Alvin Bragg’s Case Against Trump Constitutional?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( David B. Rivkin Jr. | Kristin A. Shapiro | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg ’s indictment of Donald Trump could mean trouble down the road for Joe Biden. “I think our Republican AGs and DAs”—attorneys general and district attorneys—“should get creative,” Mike Davis , a Republican former Senate staffer, told the New York Post. But under the Trump precedent, what’s to stop an ambitious Republican prosecutor somewhere from bringing dubious state charges against him before a hostile jury after he leaves office? Every four to eight years, prosecutors would order up a presidential ham sandwich. Presidents might end up having to flee the country when they leave office.

☆ India opens new investigation into BBC in widening crackdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Aftab Ahmed | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI, April 13 (Reuters) - India's financial crime-fighting agency has opened an investigation into alleged violations of foreign exchange rules by the BBC, a source told Reuters on Thursday, months after tax officials searched the broadcaster's Mumbai and Delhi offices. The latest investigation is being conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under India's Foreign Exchange Management Act. British Foreign Minister James Cleverly, during a visit to New Delhi in March, raised the BBC tax searches with his Indian counterpart. The British government said this week they were working to "review security and make changes to ensure the safety of its staff". Reporting by Aftab Ahmed, writing by Sakshi Dayal Editing by Krishna N. DasOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Fortune teller sees bleak future as Sri Lankans celebrate new year
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Uditha Jayasinghe | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

About 85% of Sri Lanka's 22 million population celebrate the New Year on April 14, observing auspicious times and visiting family. Sri Lanka's economic meltdown, triggered by a severe foreign exchange shortage, low tax revenues and high debt, has seen the cost of living soar. Sri Lanka secured an IMF bailout last month but is still ironing out how to restructure debt owed to bilateral creditors and bondholders. His power bill has jumped 29,000 rupees per month to 105,578 now after big increases in tariffs. Fortune teller Chandani hopes things will improve in the new year.

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File PhotoApril 11 (Reuters) - Investors are finally set to gain access to more than $33 billion of ether this week under a planned revamp of the blockchain. A new software upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain, dubbed Shapella, will let market players redeem their "staked ether" - coins they have deposited and locked up on the network over the past three years in return for interest. About 15% of all ether is staked, totaling $33.73 billion in market value, according to data from Dune Analytics. "It seems unlikely, therefore, that much of the staked ether will be sold," Rangar added. Following the upgrade, staked ether will no longer be locked up on the blockchain, so investors may be more willing to stake coins.

☆ India's JSW One Platforms raises $25 million from Mitsui & Co in series A round
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BENGALURU, April 10 (Reuters) - India's JSW One Platforms, a unit of conglomerate JSW Group, on Monday, said it raised 2.05 billion rupees ($25.02 million) from Japan's Mitsui & Co Ltd (8031.T) in its series A funding round. The funding will strengthen its market presence and further enhance tech capabilities, JSW One Platforms said in a statement, adding that the investment values the company at over 27.50 billion rupees. The business-to-business e-commerce firm, rolled out by JSW Group in 2021, services the supply chain needs of industrial and construction companies in the micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) space. Mitsui, in the same statement, said it believes the investment will lead to a restructuring of the supply chain in India. JSW One Platforms added that it will use the funds to strengthen its market presence and enhance tech capabilities.

☆ The Clash of Civilizations That Heralded a Rocky Relationship
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Abhishek Kaicker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Das, a professor of English at Oxford University, is the rare scholar who combines a sensitivity to the literature of Jacobean England with a sympathetic and nuanced understanding of the Mughal empire. In Das’s telling, Roe was not a herald of the Company Raj to come as much as a product of 17th-century England, an island nation whose commercial ambitions were beginning to overshadow its royal court. Conflicts over precedence did nothing to advance his mission of securing trade rights, which was the real reason Roe had been sent across the Indian Ocean. The Mughal emperor Jahangir suffered neither James I’s financial embarrassments nor accorded much privilege to traders. Indeed, the court’s sumptuous ceremonies led “mogul” to become a byword for fantastical wealth and overwhelming power.

The central bank said its policy stance remains focused on "withdrawal of accommodation", signalling it could consider further rate hikes if necessary. The monetary policy committee (MPC), comprising three members from the central bank and three external members, retained the key lending rate or the repo rate (INREPO=ECI) at 6.50%. Most analysts had expected one final 25 basis point hike in the RBI's current tightening cycle, which has seen it raise the repo rate by a total 250 bps since May last year. The central bank sees inflation at 5.2% in 2023-24, and GDP growth is seen at 6.5% in the financial year beginning April 1. Reuters GraphicsFinancial stability concerns appear to have prompted the pause in rate hikes, said Aditi Nayar, chief economist at rating agency ICRA.

☆ Instant View: Here’s what experts think of India's surprise rate decision
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +16 min

The monetary policy committee (MPC) retained the key lending rate or the repo rate (INREPO=ECI) at 6.50% in a unanimous decision. With the likely softening of CPI to the low- to mid-5% levels in the coming month, the current repo rate of 6.5% implies that India’s real policy rate will hover around 1% during 2023-24, while maintaining a policy rate differential of about 1.5% with the US. Room for additional rate hikes has been retained with MPC’s policy stance continuing to remain unchanged at ‘withdrawal of accommodation’. We believe the bar for future rate hikes has increased, especially since near-term prints of CPI will be sub 6%. Scope for further hikes is limited given our growth-inflation outlook and impact of the past rate hikes on the same.

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