Page 32 - Britain

Britain's food industry thinks worst inflation is over as costs stabilise

Britain's overall rate of inflation has remained stubbornly high this year. Economists expect it to dip to 8.2% on Wednesday

We are working with various countries, including UK on IP rights: Goyal

There is work ongoing with a number of economies, including the UK, on intellectual property (IP) rights and modernisation in an effort to improve Indian protocols, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal has said. Responding to questions from a gathering of Indian-origin chartered accountants (CAs) from the UK Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) at the conclusion of his London visit on Wednesday evening, the minister a qualified CA covered a range of topics including IP rights and corporation tax to environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG). He said the process to harmonise with international standards is high on the government's agenda because integrating with world thinking on standards and IP is important for the fast-paced growth of the Indian economy. With the UK we are working on IP rights or IP modernisation. Our effort is to improve the Indian protocols around intellectual property rights and areas associated with it, b

Microsoft's $69 billion Activision deal likely to face fresh UK probe

That pause gives the firms a chance to suggest potential fixes aimed at easing UK concerns that the takeover would stymie competition

UK wage growth remains strong, highest since 2001 amid high inflation

Wages in the UK are still rising at record highs, official figures showed Tuesday, as inflation remains stubbornly high. The Office for National Statistics said that wages, excluding bonus payments, rose by 7.3% in the three months to May, unchanged over the previous three-month period and matching the highest rate since records began in 2001. The agency's director of economic statistics Darren Morgan said that due to high inflation "the real value of weekly earnings are still falling, although now at its slowest rate since the end of 2021. Though inflation has fallen from its peak of over 10% at the end of last year, it remains elevated at 8.7%. The failure of inflation to fall as anticipated has stoked concerns that the Bank of England will continue to raise interest rates in the coming months rather than take a pause. The central bank lifted its main interest rate to a 15-year high of 5% last month, which has led to a sharp increase in mortgage rates. Elsewhere, the statistics

Biden kicks-off three-nation visit ahead of Nato summit in Lithuania

The US president will hold a meeting with King Charles of the UK on Monday for the first time since his coronation, according to the White House, to discuss environmental issues

Privatised debt load in the Britain now a major government problem

UK companies are the biggest issuers of inflation-linked debt in the developed world, with more than £40 billion ($51 billion) worth of the securities currently outstanding

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NSA Ajit Doval likely to meet UK counterpart Tim Barrow in Delhi today

This meeting between the two is the second for this year as earlier the two had an informal meeting on March 30

Nine British banks sign up to Mastercard's new AI tool for tackling scams

Nine of the UK's biggest banks, including Lloyds Banking Group Plc, Natwest Group Plc and Bank of Scotland Plc, have signed up to use the Consumer Fraud Risk system, Mastercard

UK calls for UN reform with permanent Security Council seat for India

The UK government has reiterated its call for reform of the United Nations as one of its top transnational priorities and supported India's bid for permanent membership of the powerful Security Council. India has been at the forefront of the years-long efforts to reform the UN Security Council (UNSC), saying it rightly deserved a place as a permanent member of the United Nations. Currently, the UNSC has five permanent members - China, France, Russia, the UK and the US. Only a permanent member has the power to veto any substantive resolution. In a speech at a conference at the Chatham House think tank in London on Thursday, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly called for a reinvigorated multilateral system that is more reflective of the times. He pointed out that the world's economic centre of gravity is shifting away from the Euro-Atlantic and towards the Indo-Pacific but the multilateral institutions are yet to catch up. I have five transnational priorities. First, reform of the .

UK PM Sunak honours Sikh World War II veteran with Points of Light award

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has honoured Rajindar Singh Dhatt, one of the last surviving Sikh soldiers who fought in the Second World War with a Points of Light honour at a UK-India Week reception at 10 Downing Street. Dhatt, 101, was recognised on Wednesday for his service and his work running the "Undivided Indian Ex-Servicemen's Association" to help bring together British Indian war veterans. Dhatt, based in Hounslow in southwest London since 1963, was born in pre-Partition India in 1921 and fought with the Allied forces during the British colonial period. It is an immense honour to receive this recognition from the Prime Minister, to whom I would like to extend my deepest appreciation for acknowledging the importance and impact of the 'Undivided Indian Ex-Servicemen's Association'," said Dhatt. The journey of establishing this organisation was driven by a deep sense of duty as an ex-serviceman and the vision of fostering unity, support, and camaraderie. This award serves

Promising signals of further decline in UK inflation: BoE's Dhingra

Dhingra is one of two members of the BoE's nine-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) who have consistently voted against the central bank's interest rate rises since December

New voter ID law stopped thousands from casting ballots: UK polls watchdog

Britain's electoral watchdog said on Friday that about 14,000 people were prevented from voting in last month's local elections because of a new law requiring voters to show photo identification. The Electoral Commission said 0.25 per cent of people who went to polling stations were unable to cast ballots because they didn't have the right ID, and significantly more than that likely did not show up at all. Craig Westwood, the commission's communications director, said there was concerning evidence that disabled and unemployed people were more likely than other groups to give a reason related to ID for not voting. We don't want to see a single voter lose the opportunity to have their say, he said. We are working to understand the challenges people faced, and will make recommendations that, with the engagement of government and wider electoral community, will support the participation of all voters. The government says ID is required to vote in many democracies, and the move will he

Bank of England hikes rates to 5% to tackle inflation, highest since 2008

MPC members Silvana Tenreyro and Swati Dhingra opposed the rate rise - as they have all others this year - saying that much of the impact of past tightening had yet to be felt

Britain's debt exceeds 100% of GDP for the first time in 62 years

Inflation stays higher than expected, raising pressure for higher rates

India, UK conclude another round of talks on free trade agreement: Official

Technical discussions were held across 10 policy areas in over 50 separate sessions, according to statement

UK's duty benefit scheme withdrawal may impact Indian goods' exporters

The UK's decision to withdraw duty benefit scheme GSP may impact Indian exporters from certain labour-intensive sectors such as leather and textiles as they were the major beneficiaries, according to experts and traders. The UK is replacing the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) with a new Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) from June 19. Labour intensive sectors, including certain textile items, leather goods, carpets, iron & steel goods and chemicals may get impacted due to this. Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said the US, European Union (EU), Australia, Japan and many other developed countries grant unilateral import duty concessions to developing countries under their GSP schemes. "As the UK has come out of the EU, it has designed its own GSP scheme. Each country sets a product-wise threshold limit, if a country's exports cross the limit, the GSP concessions stop. The UK withdrawing GSP concessions on labour intensive products was expected as the two ...

Britain witnesses recession and flood of job losses if rates hit 6%

The UK has so far weathered the cost of living crisis without falling into recession

UK removes countervailing tariff on steel bar, rod imports from India

The UK government has announced the removal of an up to 4 per cent countervailing tariff on stainless steel bars and rods imported from India due to a perceived low impact on local suppliers. The UK's Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) said on Thursday that its recommendation that the countervailing measure on imports of stainless steel bars and rods from India be revoked has been agreed by the government. Countervailing measures are put in place to offset imports being sold at unfair prices due to government subsidies in their country of origin. They are one of three types of trade remedies that are allowed under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. The TRA concluded that although subsidised imports would continue from India if the countervailing measure were no longer applied, it is unlikely that the UK industry would be injured if the measure was no longer in place. Trade association UK Steel said there is minimal supply to the UK market of stainless bars and rods by UK producers

Amazon's $1.7 bn deal to buy Roomba maker iRobot gets UK approval

British antitrust regulators cleared Amazon's purchase of robot vacuum maker iRobot on Friday, but the USD 1.7 billion deal still faces scrutiny in the United States and Europe. The Competition and Markets Authority said it decided not to escalate its initial investigation because it concluded that the deal would not result in a substantial lessening of competition within the United Kingdom. Amazon said it was pleased with the result. We look forward to similar decisions from other regulators soon, the company said in a statement. Consumer groups have voiced concerns that Amazon's purchase of Bedford, Massachusetts-based iRobot, which makes the popular Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners, would widen the e-commerce giant's dominance in the smart home market. The acquisition is still facing a review in the US by the Federal Trade Commission amid worries about Amazon's growing market power. It's also under scrutiny by the European Union's executive arm, which opened a review of the deal