Page 3 - London

Nirmala Sitharaman arrives in London at start of six-day Europe tour

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrived in London on Monday evening at the start of a six-day official tour of Europe from April 8-13, which will also cover Austria. The Ministry of Finance announced her arrival with a social media post after the Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Vikram Doraiswami, received the minister at Heathrow Airport. Sitharaman is scheduled to kick-start her UK visit with an in-conversation session at the High Commission of India in London in partnership with the London School of Economics (LSE) on Tuesday. This will be followed by the 13th Ministerial Round of the India-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) with her UK counterpart, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, on Wednesday. Both leaders are expected to announce and launch various reports and new initiatives for further bilateral collaborations, according to an official pre-visit Indian government statement. The 13th EFD is a significant bilateral platform between the two countries that offers ...

London's Canary Wharf office vacancies hit record high amid tenant exodus

London's Canary Wharf struggles to recover from pandemic-era demand slump, even as central city areas and global hubs like New York and Paris show signs of commercial property rebound

Sitharaman to visit London from Apr 8-10; FTA talks may figure in meetings

Issues pertaining to the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) and bilateral investment treaty between India and the UK are expected to figure during the three-day visit of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to London from April 8-10, official sources said. The minister would be attending a host of meetings, including India-United Kingdom Economic and Financial Dialogue, in London. Sitharaman is likely to hold a bilateral meeting with UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves and other British ministers. "Issues pertaining to the trade agreement and bilateral investment treaty (BIT) may also come up for discussions between the two," the official said. On February 24, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds announced resumption of negotiations for the proposed FTA between the two countries. The India-UK negotiations are resuming after a gap of over eight months. The talks were launched on January 13, 2022. S

Heathrow Airport shuts down for 24 hrs after fire sparks major power outage

London's Heathrow Airport has been shut down for 24 hours after fire at electrical substation causes major power outage; all flights cancelled, 120 arrivals diverted

London's Heathrow Airport to remain shut today due to power outage

Heathrow, the home of airlines including IAG SA's British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, handles more than 1,400 flights and 200,000 passengers a day

Bank of England holds interest rate at 4.5% as inflation remains high

Minutes from the meeting showed that eight members voted to keep policy unchanged, with one backing a quarter-point reduction

Hiring in the AI Era: What Companies Look for in Leaders

Kester Scrope, Global CEO of Odgers Berndtson, shares leadership insights, hiring trends, and tips for Indian professionals in top multinational roles. A must-watch for aspiring leaders!

Goldman Sachs gives managers a choice: Dallas, Salt Lake City or leave

The bank is trying to send more managers to locales outside its main hubs in an initiative dubbed informally by some as 'Project Voyage'

Khalistani extremists attempt to breach Jaishankar's security in London

Khalistani extremists disrupted External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's London visit, breaching security as a protester tore the Indian flag near his convoy before being detained by police

South Asian-origin men guilty of one of UK's largest money laundering plots

Four British men, including two of South Asian heritage who ran jewellery businesses, were on Tuesday convicted in one of the UK's largest money laundering prosecutions worth an estimated GBP 266 million following a complex eight-year investigation. Arjun Babber, 32, and Haroon Rashid, 53, were found guilty alongside Gregory Frankel and Daniel Rawson, both 46, at Leeds Cloth Hall Nightingale Crown Court in northern England over large amounts of unexplained cash passing through their businesses. Babber ran Goldsteel Limited and is said to have started laundering cash for others through Fowler Oldfield Limited in 2015. According to the UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Babber's family members ran RPS Jewellers Limited, a well-known and reputable gold and jewellery business based in west London and Hatton Garden. Meanwhile, Rashid was the sole director of Rashid Jewellers Ltd and was a frequent visitor to the premises of Fowler Oldfield and had access to its computers. This case is

White House row with Ukraine heightens stakes for European summit in London

It was supposed to cap a week of whirlwind diplomacy advancing the prospect of peace in Ukraine. But a summit of European leaders on Sunday has been overshadowed by the extraordinary scolding by US President Donald Trump of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday for being ungrateful for US support. The London meeting has now taken on greater importance in defending the war-torn ally and shoring up the continent's defences. There's a real problem for European leaders to pick up the pieces and try and move forward, Peter Ricketts, the former British national security adviser, told BBC radio on Saturday. "It's going to be a damage limitation exercise. It's going to have to be an exercise in where do we go from here? The meeting at Lancaster House, a 200-year-old elegant mansion near Buckingham Palace, follows a charm offensive last week to engage with Trump at the White House to put Ukraine at the center of negotiations and tilt his allegiances toward ..

Leading Indian-origin hotelier Joginder Sanger passes away in London

Joginder Sanger, a leading British Indian hotelier, has passed away in London, family sources said. He was 82. Sanger is said to have died surrounded by family on Friday night after being hospitalised due to a stroke. The Jalandhar-born entrepreneur began his journey in the UK with a travel agency and exclusive Air India contract before going on to set up a range of popular London hotels, including the Washington Mayfair Hotel, Courthouse Hotels in Soho and Shoreditch, and the luxury boutique hotel Bentley in Kensington. These hotels have been frequented by prominent Indian celebrities and politicians over the years, including former prime ministers, ministers and Bollywood stars. He was a dear friend of mine since the 1950s; I will miss him terribly, said NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul, 94. Like me, Joginder was also born in Jalandhar, and we shared so many experiences together. He will be missed by the Indian community in Britain, to which he has made immense contributions, he

Shein reports 2 child labour cases in 2024 as it increased supplier audits

The disclosure by Shein, which is planning an initial public offering in London, was in a February 7 response to questions from a British parliamentary committee

British MP slams Bengali signage at London station, Elon Musk backs stance

Rupert Lowe, MP for Great Yarmouth and a member of Reform UK, shared a photograph of the sign featuring both English and Bengali on his official X account

Proposed obesity benchmark adds organ health, daily functionality metrics

The recommendation signals a long-awaited shift from a single imperfect metric toward a more personalised diagnosis

B'desh's ex-PM Khaleda Zia in London for treatment, meets son after 7 years

Bangladesh's former prime minister Khaleda Zia was admitted to a specialised hospital in London on Wednesday for advanced treatment, her party said. Earlier, the 79-year-old chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) had an emotional reunion with her eldest son, Tarique Rahman, at the Heathrow International Airport after more than seven years of separation. Begum Khaleda Zia was admitted to the London Clinic under Professor Patrick Kennedy at 6.30 pm (BST), BNP Media Cell member Shairul Kabir Khan quoted Khaleda Zia's personal physician Professor AZM Zahid Hossain as saying. Zia was driven to the London Clinic directly from Heathrow Airport by her son and BNP acting chairman Rahman. Rahman's wife Dr Zubaida Rahman accompanied them. Bangladeshi physicians, who accompanied the former premier to London, handed over treatment related documents to the doctors of the London Clinic, state-run news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) said. Later, the physicians of the clin

Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal acquires London's iconic Riverside studio

The founder and chairman of Vedanta Group Anil Agarwal is the new owner of the iconic Riverside Studio in London, announced a press release on Wednesday. The 100-year-old studio, which is a renowned global centre for arts and located on the north bank of the river Thames in the centre of London, will now operate under the name Anil Agarwal Riverside Studios Trust', it informed. "I have always believed that art has the power to transcend boundaries, unite people, and elevate human experience. Riverside Studios will become a premier global destination for showcasing Indian and global arts and culture. "I invite Indian artists and the film fraternity to showcase their artistic talent and cinematic depth at this world-renowned venue for a truly enriching experience. Global leaders from various spheres now have an opportunity to enthral the audience with their real-life experiences and journey, here," said Agarwal, who turned a tiny scrap metal business into London-headquartered Vedanta

B'desh's ex-PM Khaleda Zia leaves country to undergo treatment in London

Bangladesh's ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia left the nation's capital for London on Tuesday for medical treatment, said one of her advisers. Zahiruddin Swapan, an adviser to Zia, told The Associated Press by phone that the three-time former premier and also the head of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport late Tuesday on an air ambulance. Our senior leaders left the airport seeing her off, Swapan said. Zia's motorcade took nearly three hours to cross about a 10-kilometer stretch of road to get to the airport from her residence in Dhaka's Gulshan area as thousands of her desperate supporters greeted her on the way, creating traffic chaos. Her hours-long journey to the airport was broadcast live by television stations. An interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus is running the country and plans to hold elections in December this year or in the first half of 2026. Zia was sentenced to 17 years in jail und

UK minister Tulip Siddiq under scrutiny over ties to former Bangladeshi PM

The filings show that the apartment was registered to Abdul Motalif, a developer linked to the Awami League, the political party led by Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh's former PM and Siddiq's aunt

Elon Musk grooming attacks 'misjudged and misinformed': UK Health Secretary

A senior British politician pushed back Friday on Elon Musk's criticism of the government's handling of a historic child grooming scandal. In recent days, Musk has shared and reacted to posts on his X platform that have been critical of the British government after it rejected a call for a public inquiry into the grooming scandal in the north of England town of Oldham. Though Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Musk's views were was "misjudged and certainly misinformed, he urged the world's richest man and close confidant of US President-elect Donald Trump to work with the government on tackling the issue of child sexual exploitation. The government has argued that Oldham must follow in the footsteps of other towns and commission its own inquiry into the historical abuse of mainly girls. A 2022 report into safeguarding measures in Oldham between 2011 and 2014 found that children were failed by local agencies, but that there was no cover-up despite legitimate concerns that the ...