Page 19 - India

India engages second US lobbying firm ahead of 50% export tariff hike

The move follows concerns that India was outpaced by Pakistan in influence over US policy and criticism over its continued purchase of discounted Russian crude oil

Nikki Haley urges India to take Trump's view on Russian oil seriously

India should take President Donald Trump's concerns over its procurement of Russian crude oil seriously and work with the White House to find a solution to the issue, Republican leader Nikki Haley has said. The Trump administration has been severely critical of India for its procurement of discounted crude oil from Russia. Interestingly, Washington has not been criticising China, the largest importer of Russian crude oil. Defending its purchase of Russian crude oil, India has been maintaining that its energy procurement is driven by national interest and market dynamics. Haley, the Indian-origin Republican leader, on Saturday posted on 'X' a portion of an opinion piece she wrote in the Newsweek four days back. The former South Carolina governor's social media post urging New Delhi to take President Trump's concerns over the Russian crude oil seriously came after she faced criticism within her party following the opinion piece. In the article, Haley argued that India must be treate

Snowflake ramps up India investments, targets growth across sectors: MD

AI data cloud firm Snowflake views India as a "land of opportunities" for data and AI, and is significantly increasing its investments in the country to tap into its massive potential, a top company official has said. The company is strategically expanding its presence and capabilities, aiming to grow its headcount to over 700 employees by the end of 2025. "Snowflake is doubling down on India as an investment destination. As a destination where we are heavily invested to make sure that we serve the Indian market, we serve global customers from India, and we also invest in the country in terms of AI and skill sets out there. "If you look at the world of data in India, we have a lot of headroom to expand, not only Snowflake, but most players in this space, there's a massive headroom to expand," Vijayant Rai, India MD of Snowflake, told PTI. The company has recently opened a new office in Mumbai and plans to expand its presence in Bengaluru by August 2025. These expansions will suppo

Govt commits 97% of chip manufacturing fund, scope for new projects

The government has committed around Rs 62,900 crore, or 97 per cent, of the Rs 65,000 crore fund earmarked as incentives for semiconductor production in the country, a top official said on Friday. While briefing on the Semicon India 2025 event, Electronics and IT Secretary S Krishnan said the funds left can accommodate only small projects. He said that under the Rs 76,000 crore India Semiconductor Mission, Rs 65,000 crore was allocated for chip production, Rs 10,000 crore for the modernisation of the Semiconductor Laboratory in Mohali and Rs 1,000 crore for the design-linked incentive scheme. "Out of this Rs 65,000 crore, I think we have committed close to Rs 62,900 crore or so already. We have limited funding, which we have available; we might be able to just accommodate two or three small projects," Krishnan said. Talking about the Semicon India event, he said that the three-day event will be held from September 2-4 at Yashobhoomi in the national capital, which is expected to be

WHO-WMO warn extreme heat threatens workers' health and global productivity

Analysing evidence from studies from past five decades that 'have provided conclusive evidence that workplace heat stress directly threatens workers' ability to live healthy and productive lives'

PM Modi, Prez Putin among 20 world leaders to attend SCO summit: China

China on Friday said the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit to be held in Tianjin later this month will be the largest in the bloc's history, with 20 world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attending it. The Tianjin meeting of the 10-member grouping from Aug 31-Sept 1 is the fifth summit being hosted by China. It will be the largest in SCO history, China's Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Bin told a media briefing here. Besides Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the summit will be attended by PM Modi and a host of world leaders, Liu said. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh are other prominent leaders to attend the summit, he said. From the subcontinent, Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif, Nepal's Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli and Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu will attend the summit, Liu ...

72% of employers plan workforce expansion via new job creation: Report

India's white-collar job market is likely to witness a surge in the latter half of 2025, with nearly 72 per cent of employers interviewed planning workforce expansion through net new job creation, a report said on Friday. According to Naukri's bi-annual 'Hiring Outlook' report, the white-collar job market is expected to maintain strong hiring momentum, with 94 per cent of employers planning to hire during the second half of the current fiscal. The report is based on input from 1,300 employers across the sectors in India. Among these employers, nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) indicated they expect new job creation, the report said. Even as there is an ongoing buzz around job losses due to artificial intelligence (AI), 87 per cent of employers do not foresee any significant impact on overall employment. Instead, it revealed that 13 per cent of them expect AI to act as a catalyst for job creation, particularly in emerging roles. Sectors most likely to benefit include IT (42 per

India energy giants back nuclear power to boost clean electricity output

Atomic power is witnessing a revival globally due to its ability to deliver low-emissions energy

Indian envoy, US lawmakers discuss trade, energy security amid tariff row

Indian envoy Vinay Mohan Kwatra on Friday discussed mutually beneficial trade engagement and energy security with US lawmakers amid tariff tensions between Washington and New Delhi. The Indian ambassador met Senator Bill Hagerty and thanked him for consistent and strong support to the India-US partnership. Briefed him on continuing bilateral discussions for fair, balanced and mutually beneficial trade engagement, the Indian envoy posted on social media. He also shared perspectives on India's energy security and the growing trade between India and the US in hydrocarbons with Senator Hagerty. Kwatra also held a productive conversation with Congressman Greg Landsman and briefed him on developments in bilateral trade engagement. Briefed him on recent developments in bilateral trade engagement and energy security, and the growing hydrocarbon partnership between our countries, he posted on social media. Earlier, Kwatra met with Rep Josh Gottheimer, Ranking Member of the National Securi

India leads global malware attacks as AI fuels ransomware surge: Acronis

India has emerged as the most-targeted nation for malware attacks, topping global charts, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) fuelling a surge in ransomware, a new report by cybersecurity firm Acronis has said. The biannual report covers the global threat landscape as encountered by the Acronis Threat Research Unit (TRU) and Acronis sensors on Windows endpoints from January through June 2025. Based on signals from over one million unique endpoints distributed around the world, the report also incorporates statistics focused on threats targeting Windows operating systems, given their prevalence as compared to macOS and Linux. India emerged as the most targeted country globally, with 12.4 per cent of monitored endpoints affected, highlighting the nation's growing vulnerability to sophisticated threats such as AI-powered phishing and impersonation attacks, according to Acronis. "Ransomware remains the major threat for large and medium-sized businesses, with new groups increasingly ...

Kyndryl to invest $2.25 billion in India over the next three years

As part of the investment, the company will also establish an AI lab in the country, in addition to focusing on talent development

China opposes US plan to impose up to 50% tariffs on India: Amb. Feihong

China fully opposes the US move of imposing tariffs of up to 50 per cent on India and Washington's threat to increase it, Chinese envoy Xu Feihong said here on Thursday. In his address at an event here, Feihong also said that tariff and trade "wars" were disrupting the global economic and trade system. The Chinese envoy's remark assumes significance as it comes amid a thaw in Sino-India ties. India and China on Tuesday unveiled a series of measures for a "stable, cooperative and forward-looking" relationship that included jointly maintaining peace along the frontier, reopening border trade, promoting investment flows, and resuming direct flight connectivity at the earliest. The announcements aimed at realising the "full" development potential of the two Asian giants came amid growing estrangement in ties between India and the US over President Donald Trump's policies on trade and tariffs. India and China listed the measures in a joint document after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Y

Yakult sees India becoming one of its top 10 global markets in future

Japanese probiotic fermented milk major Yakult is betting on the potential of India, which it believes could break into its top ten global markets in the future, driven by a growing middle class, a senior company official said on Thursday. The company, which operates in India as a 50:50 joint venture between Yakult Honsha, Japan, and Groupe Danone, France -- two global probiotic leaders, is seeking to expand in the mass segment and has roped in Bollywood Actor Taapsee Pannu, as its new brand ambassador. "The growth (expectation in India) is double-digit growth for this year and the next year also," Yakult Danone India Pvt Ltd Managing Director Eiji Amano told PTI here. On the road ahead for the company in India, he said the target would be to achieve double-digit growth every year until 2030, reflecting the growing demand for probiotics and the confidence it has in the Indian market. After the COVID-19 pandemic, Yakult has witnessed accelerated growth, he said, adding that the ...

India will respond decisively whenever terrorism threatens citizens: Govt

Anticipating future warfare scenarios through "predictive technologies" and creating precise, targeted systems for counter-action are among the three-fold goals when it comes to India's futuristic defence programme, Sudarshan Chakra Mission, the government said on Wednesday. In a broad synopsis of the country's security scenario, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) on Wednesday shared some data and a summary of various defence-related developments in the past 11 years, titled 'Transformation of India's Defence and Internal Security Posture'. "Unlike in the past, India under the present government has become a global force to reckon with, a nation that speaks on issues from a position of strength," it says. The government said India has adopted a "firm and clear approach towards cross-border terrorism", adding that the pattern of action over the last decade reflects this policy. The most recent and defining operation came in May 2025 with Operation Sindoor. In response to the killing

India, Saudi Arabia set up joint group to boost maritime cooperation

India and Saudi Arabia have agreed to deepen bilateral maritime relations, an official statement said on Wednesday. Both countries have formed a Joint Working Group (JWG) on maritime cooperation in the shipping and logistics sectors, marking a new chapter in the strategic partnership, the statement said. This decision was taken during a high-level virtual meeting between Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal and Saudi Arabia's Minister of Transport and Logistic Services Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasser. According to the statement, Sonowal underscored the historic and growing relationship between the two nations. India and Saudi Arabia share centuries-old economic and socio-cultural ties, he said. The establishment of the strategic partnership council, co-chaired by the leaders of both countries, has elevated bilateral cooperation to new heights. Sonowal pointed to recent developments, including the launch of the JeddahMundra/Nhava Sheva route by Saudi Arabia

FS Vikram Misri concludes two-day visit to Nepal, meets top leaders

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Monday wrapped up his two-day visit to Nepal during which he met the country's top leadership and discussed progress in different areas of bilateral cooperation. Misri, who arrived here at the invitation of his Nepalese counterpart Amrit Bahadur Rai, called on President Ramchandra Paudel, Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli and Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba during his visit. "He conveyed to them greetings from the leadership in India and briefed them on the progress being made in various aspects of the mutually-beneficial bilateral cooperation between the two countries," the Indian Embassy said in a press release on Monday. Misri also handed over a formal invitation to Prime Minister Oli from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit India on mutually convenient dates, it said. He also held wide-ranging discussions with Rai on Sunday and reviewed the progress made in various bilateral initiatives and discussed opportunities for further collaboration, ...

S Jaishankar urges border peace in talks with Chinese foreign minister Wang

It is also important for the two countries to pull back their troops amassed along their disputed border in the western Himalayas since a deadly border clash in 2020, Jaishankar said

Make in India must not become make all India needs: Former RBI Guv Subbarao

Sounding a note of caution, former RBI Governor D Subbarao on Monday said that 'Make in India' should not transform into 'Make all that India needs' as it would hurt investments in the country and impact productivity. Subbarao further said the punitive 50 per cent tariffs on Indian exports imposed by the US will raise the costs of Indian goods in the most important overseas market, which is America. "If 'Make in India' degenerates into 'Make all that India needs', we risk losing the chance to attract investment away from China. "The tariffs remind us that openness, not isolation, is the path to sustainable growth," he told PTI in an interview. Subbarao said the success of 'Make in India' hinges on competitiveness, not protectionism. "Atmanirbhar Bharat, an aspiration that the Prime Minister reiterated in his Independence Day speech, must mean strategic self-reliance in sensitive areas like defence and energy, not blanket self-sufficiency," he said. According to him, 'Make in Indi

FM Wang's Delhi visit aims to advance key bilateral agreements, says China

China on Monday said Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to India was aimed at working with New Delhi to deliver on important understandings reached between the leaders of the two sides and decisions taken during the previous round of border talks. Wang is on a two-day visit to India from Monday to participate in the 24th round of Special Representatives (SRs) talks on the border issue with NSA Ajit Doval. Doval travelled to China in December and held the 23rd round of talks with Wang, weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping decided to revive various dialogue mechanisms between the two sides at their meeting in the Russian city of Kazan on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in October. Through Wang's visit, China hopes to work with India to deliver on the important common understandings reached between the leaders, maintain high-level exchanges, enhance political trust, promote practical cooperation, properly handle differences, and promote the sustaine

Govt confident of meeting fiscal deficit target despite planned tax cuts

In the biggest tax overhaul since 2017, PM Modi on Saturday announced sweeping changes to the complex goods and services tax (GST) regime which will make daily essentials and electronics cheaper