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Tag: India

Best Websites For Free or Low-Cost Online Courses To Boost Your Skills

Posted on by Sudeshna Mishra

In the internet era, learning is not limited to offline. One can learn a lot from the online courses. There are many websites that provide online free as well as paid courses by experienced instructors and teachers. You can now learn a lot from the valuable videos by just sitting at home. They also provide lifetime access and certification on completion.

Let’s look at the list of best websites.


  1. Udemy

Udemy is a popular online platform that provides courses in various categories such as business, marketing, design, development, IT and software, photography, personal development, music, health fitness, and many more.

It offers more than 2 lakh online courses, both free and paid. The paid courses are budget friendly and come with a 30 days money-back guarantee. If you do not want to pay, you can still get many free courses by typing “free courses” in the search bar. All the courses available on the udemy are instructed by experts.

Link: https://www.udemy.com/


  1. Coursera

Coursera is an online learning platform that started in 2012. It provides courses from world-class universities and reputed companies. In their offer catalog, you can find free courses, paid courses, degree programmes, specialisations, professional certificates, etc. Without any hassle, you can easily find various courses that it provides in collaboration with leading universities and companies.

Some of their most popular courses are business, IT, personal development, computer science, data science, social science, health, and many more. All the courses on this platform are prerecorded video lectures.

Link: https://www.coursera.org/


  1. Skillshare

Founded in 2010, Skillshare is an online learning community where creative minds get inspired and learn new skills to make discoveries. It offers courses on photography, graphics design, video, creative writing, animation, illustration, music, freelancing, and many more. The instructors are experts and real creators. Whether you are a beginner or experienced, you can explore various topics to take your skills to the next level.

You can join courses for free and learn from any device. It also provides paid courses. You can take the benefit of a 1-month free trial to explore the courses.

Link: https://www.skillshare.com/en/


  1. LinkedIn  Learning

LinkedIn is a leading professional network that helps to connect with professionals and find jobs. This LinkedIn learning platform acts as a development tool to enhance skills. You can do various paid or free courses from LinkedIn Learning. It provides video courses taught by expert instructors on the categories like business, entrepreneurship, personal development, design, technology, data analysis, and many others.

One plus point of this platform is it gives you recommendations based on your skills. You can download exercise files to practice while you learn. After completion of a course you can, you can earn a certificate which you can use to showcase in your profile or mention in your resume.

Link: https://www.linkedin.com/


  1. Google skill shop

In the era of the internet, there is perhaps anyone who does not know or listen to the word “Google.” Every day millions of users use google to search various topics, including jobs and career courses. Many businesses are using Google to run advertisements and scale their businesses. Google has organized the world’s information and made it in the form of various useful courses.

Google Skillshop is a free learning platform that provides in-depth video lessons on numerous categories, such as Google Ads, Analytics Academy, Google My Business, and many others. You can also achieve free Google certification on completion of the course.

Link: https://skillshop.withgoogle.com/


  1. Future Learn

Future Learn provides online courses on vast categories in partnership with leading universities and organisations. You can get most of the courses freely. Some of the subjects include business and management, science, engineering and math, healthcare and medicine, nature and environment, psychology and mental health, polity and society, language, and many more. It helps to enhance your course with specialist courses.

Link: https://www.futurelearn.com/


  1. Alison

Alison is an online learning site that provides 4000 free online courses in various categories. It gives two broad courses i.e., certificate courses and diploma courses. Its free online course categories are IT, health, business, management, language, personal development, sales and marketing, engineering, teaching, and many more.

Link: https://alison.com/


  1. Edx

Edx is a free online course site that offers university-level courses in various disciplines. It contains videos on various subjects like data science, computer science, engineering, language, business management, digital marketing, and many others.

It also facilitates an online discussion forum where students can ask their questions by posting them to the teaching assistants. It also provides a certificate of completion.

Link: https://www.edx.org/


  1. Udacity

Udacity is an online teaching platform with vast categories such as business, design, development, marketing, etc. All the courses on this platform are taught by expert instructors. Learners can develop their new skills, prepare for the interview, and more with good quality courses.

Link: https://www.udacity.com/


  1. Swayam

Swayam is an online learning platform which is an initiative by the Indian government. It provides free courses and education, but you may have to pay a very small amount for examinations and getting certificates. It coordinates with national instructors such as NCERT, IGNOU, NPTEL, AICTE, UGC, and many others to provide you with the best courses from experienced instructors. It also provides courses on regional languages.

Link: https://swayam.gov.in/

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Branded Shoes Maker Pou Chen To Invest More Than 2000 Crore In India

Posted on by Sudeshna Mishra

The world’s largest branded sports footwear producer, Pou Chen, has decided to invest Rs 2,302 crore ($280.86 million) to build a factory in Tamil Nadu.

In 2022, the Taiwanese company that manufactures shoes for companies like Adidas, Nike, New Balance, and Timberland will have produced and transported over 272 million pairs of shoes worldwide. It already has factories in Cambodia, Vietnam,  Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Cambodia.

George Liu, vice president of Pou Chen, stated in an online meeting with M.K. Stalin, chief minister of Tamil Nadu, “We hope this would be the first of many investments to come (in India).”

Based on a report from Reuters, the investment will generate roughly 20,000 employees in Tamil Nadu over the course of 12 years and comes almost a year after Taiwanese competitor Hong Fu Group decided to invest Rs 1000 crore in manufacturing shoes in the southern state.

According to a government estimate, Tamil Nadu contributed 45% of India’s footwear exports over the previous five years with several brands, including Gucci and Giorgio Armani.

Tamil Nadu has become a popular destination for foreign manufacturers such as Apple suppliers Foxconn, Salcomp, and Pegatron, looking to broaden their presence away from China and Taiwan.

Moreover, according to Reuters in February, which cited two local officials, Pou Chen planned to slash over 6,000 positions at its Ho Chi Minh City plant in Vietnam as a result of low demand.

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India Gears Up For Rupee Trade Idea In G20 Meeting

Posted on by Sudeshna Mishra

Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal on Monday said that the nation would use the G20 platform to further advance the cross-border trade settlement in rupee with the participating nations.

He further stated that the nations that are experiencing troubles with a specific currency or a basket of currencies and are trying to get out of the issues would be the focus of the discussion.

In response to a query on whether India will use the G20 platform to increase rupee trade, Barthwal remarked, “We are interested in improving the trade with respect to the currencies of the countries that are trading (with India). Definitely, we would like to see that rupee trade also happens, particularly with those countries which are facing (currency) issues.”

He addressed the media just a day before the inauguration of the Trade and Investment Working Group (TIWG) meeting of India’s G20 Presidency to be conducted in Mumbai from March 28 to 30.

The G20 Presidency is held by India from December 1, 2022, to November 30, 2023.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) built a system to settle international commerce in rupees in July of last year to support the growing interest of the world trading community in the rupee and to encourage the expansion of global trade with a focus on exports from India. On March 14, State Minister for Finance Bhagwat Karad informed Rajya Sabha that India’s central bank, i.e., RBI, had granted authorisation to domestic and foreign Authorised Dealer (AD) banks in 60 cases demanded from 18 different nations for the opening of Special Rupee Vostro Accounts of correspondent banks.

A Vostro account is one that a correspondent bank manages on another bank’s behalf.

Almost 100 delegates from G20 member nations, invitee nations, regional groups, and international organisations will participate in discussions to intensify international trade and investment at the three-day TIWG summit.

Trade financing promotes economic expansion and is essential for preserving global trade flows and reducing risks from tight liquidity. Nearly 80 percent of all global trading uses certain trade finance instruments, among these, such as supply chain financing, letter of credit, invoice discounting, and receivables financing.

The G20 members make up approximately two-thirds of the world’s population, over 75% of global trade, and about 85% of the world’s GDP.

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Air India To Reduce Flights On US Routes

Posted on by Sudeshna Mishra

Air India will bring down the frequency of flights temporarily to certain routes in the United States to address the issue of crew shortages, Air India’s Managing Director and CEO Campbell Wilson announced today. In terms of nonstop flights between India and the US, Air India is now the main provider.

In order to expand the number of pilots for its fleet of Boeing 777 aircraft, the airline would be limiting the number of flights it operates to New York’s Newark airport and San Francisco’s airport by three each per week for two to three months, Wilson told the media on the sidelines of the CAPA India Aviation Summit. Presently, Air India has 17 flights per week to San Francisco and six flights per week to Newark. The airline has 47 weekly flights to the US in total.

Air India’s flights to and from the US have occasionally experienced lengthy delays or even cancellations over the previous few months. In India, there is a relatively small pool of pilots with the Boeing 777 rating, according to Wilson. The airline expects to hire 100 pilots and 1,400 cabin crew within the next two to three months. Wilson stated that Air India does not expect a significant crew scarcity in the medium term because the airline plans to increase its crew numbers as its fleet and network grow.

Air India has been pushing to quickly put its grounded aircraft back into service, especially the wide-body aircraft since it was sold to the Tata group. Crew shortage has become an issue as several of these have resumed flight.

Air India will also replace some twin-aisle aircraft with narrow-body aircraft on some flights to Bangkok and Dubai over the next few months as part of the plan to address the issue of a crew shortage for wide-body aircraft.

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Japan PM Fumio Kishida Arrives In India For Bilateral Talks

Posted on by Sudeshna Mishra

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in New Delhi today in the early morning to discuss ways to strengthen bilateral relationships in different fields, including high technologies, trade, investment, and defence and security.

Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Fumio Kishida are scheduled to meet later in the day to discuss India’s G20 presidency and Japan’s G7 presidency.

In this visit, the Japanese prime minister is expected to reveal his idea for a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” emphasizing India’s increasingly remarkable role in the region. Furthermore, in the extensive discussions between PM Modi and PM Kishida, the changing security environment in the Indo-Pacific against the backdrop of China’s growing military aggression is also likely to come up.

The visit of the Japanese prime minister is expected to last for roughly 27 hours.

In the afternoon, he is expected to present his “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Plan for Peace”  at a prestigious think tank.

The strategy is predicted to highlight India’s importance to the Indo-Pacific region.

In his keynote address at the famous Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in June of last year, Prime Minister Kishida promised to outline the Indo-Pacific strategy in the spring.

There he had stated that By next spring, he would structure a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Plan for Peace” that would support Japan’s efforts to promote the idea of a free and open Indo-Pacific, with stress on providing patrol vessels and improving maritime law enforcement capabilities, as well as economic security, cyber security, and digital and green initiatives.

Japan’s policy and strategy towards the Indo-Pacific are expected to be covered in detail under the plan.

Almost all of the major powers have released their Indo-Pacific plans in recent years.

Japan has promoted a free and open Indo-Pacific in an effort to uphold and strengthen the rules-based international order in the area.

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Taliban To Take 4 Day Training In India

Posted on by Sudeshna Mishra

A four-day course on “Immersing with Indian thoughts” is being provided by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), in which several international delegates will participate. Taliban members will also participate in the training, which will be led by the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode.

The invitation from the External Affairs Ministry to the Taliban, who took back control of Afghanistan in 2021, is seen as a move by India to communicate with the organization without endorsing the government.

According to the course summary, India’s uniqueness lies in its unity in diversity, which makes it look like a complicated place to outsiders. This program helps foreign officials and executives better understand and appreciate India’s business environment by facilitating a deeper grasp of the latent order within the apparent chaos.

About the Course

The course, which begins today, will give attendees a chance to experience India’s economic environment, cultural heritage, societal context, and more.

According to the course description, the training gives participants a chance to experience and learn about India’s business risks, consumer mindsets, societal and historical context, cultural heritage, legal system, and regulatory ecosystem.

The course will have up to 30 participants, including a blend of government officials, company executives, business leaders, and entrepreneurs. Throughout these four days, sessions on leadership insights into Indian thought, social and historical evaluations of India, and the depth of cultural heritage will be conducted.

Does India recognize the Taliban regime?

A circular published in Dari by the Institute of Diplomacy, Afghanistan, made it revealed that members of the Taliban foreign ministry are eligible to participate in the program. Social media users shared the circular widely. It made people wonder whether the Indian government had changed its mind and is now willing to recognize the Afghan Taliban regime.

Officials have clarified that the invitation does not signify a shift in New Delhi’s policy on the situation in Kabul. It moreover stated that The IIM is conducting the entire training online. It is not that anyone will be traveling to India for it. The people observed that even after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in the middle of 2021, ITEC programs for Afghanistan, which have helped thousands of people over the years, continued.

After the Taliban took control in July 2022, India sent what it referred to as a “technical team” to reopen its embassy in Kabul. This was done, according to the Ministry of External Affairs, to “closely monitor and coordinate” humanitarian assistance.

MEA will provide training to the officers

The Indian embassy announced that the IIM would host a “short-term online training program for the members of the ministry of foreign affairs” through a note verbale or unsigned diplomatic correspondence, according to the letter written in Dari issued by Mufti Nurullah Azzam, who is a director general of the Institute of Diplomacy under the Taliban foreign ministry.

An English translation of the letter, which was distributed to all internal and provincial offices of the Taliban foreign ministry, states that the training program’s focus is “Immersing with India Thoughts.” The letter moreover mentioned that after the completion of the program, each participant must submit a brief report to the Institute of Diploma on the subjects and their learning.

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India Received NISAR Satellite For Space Mission

Posted on by Sudeshna Mishra

On Wednesday, March 8, the United States Air Force handed over the NISAR satellite to the Indian space agency. The US Air Force C-17 aircraft brought an Earth observation satellite known as NISAR and landed in Bengaluru to hand over to India Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The US Consulate General Chennai tweeted, “Touchdown in Bengaluru!”  to inform that ISRO received NISAR.

See the Tweet here.

The satellite  NASA-ISRO synthetic aperture radar (NISAR) is a project collaboratively developed by NASA and ISRO. This was envisioned eight years ago in 2014 by NASA and ISRO to launch dual frequency synthetic aperture radar on an Earth observation satellite.

NISAR will be the first dual frequency radar imaging satellite that uses two different frequencies (L-band and S-band). According to the NISAR’s official website, it is designed with a Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that can produce fine-resolution images even from a resolution-limited radar system.

The NISAR mission is planned to launch in January 2024 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, into a near-polar orbit. It will operate for at least three years, map the globe in 12 days, and send consistent data to study in detail Earth’s dynamic land and ice surfaces.

The NISAR will be used for various purposes by ISRO. It will provide a bunch of data and information that helps to measure the changes on the planet’s surface, such as melting glaciers, changes in carbon storage, sea level rise, depletion in groundwater levels, and examining the impact of global warming.

It will also help to manage natural hazards such as tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions to assess and manage the risk better by making response times faster.

Moreover, it will help to improve agriculture, such as crop growth, and detect the early signs of drought by measuring soil moisture and wildfires.

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Daily UPI Transactions Across The Country Exceeded 36 Crore In One Year

Posted on by Sudeshna Mishra

The RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Monday announced that daily UPI (unified payment interface) transactions across the country surpassed 36 crores in one year, a 50 percent jump from 24 crores in February 2022.

In terms of value, these transactions are worth ₹6.27 lakh crore, which is registering a growth of 17 percent from ₹5.36 lakh crore in February 2022. At the RBI headquarters, While launching Digital Payments Awareness Week, the governor discloses this data to the reporters. He also said that the total digital payment transactions crossed over Rs 1,000 crore each month during the last three months.

He also said that the success story of India’s payment systems tempts several other countries to adopt them. They have shown their interest in replicating this system. It’s a matter of pride. Since December 2022, India’s payment systems have a record of over 1000 crore transactions per month. This shows its acceptance by consumers due to its robustness to payment systems. According to the recent report of a pan-India digital payments survey, out of 90,000 respondents, 42 percent of respondents are using digital payments.

In volume terms, in January 2023, the number of UPI transactions crossed 800 crores, while NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) saw a daily volume of 3.18 crore transactions on 28 February.

Since the launch of UPI in 2016, it has appeared as the most popular and preferred payment mode, leading person-to-person and person-to-merchant transactions accounting for 75 percent of total digital payments.

On the tokenization exercise, he said that RBI had tokenized over 48 crore cards, which managed over 86 crore transactions, which makes it the world’s largest tokenization exercise. The tokenized transactions have grown from 35 percent initially to 62 percent.

The acceptance of digital payments infrastructure has increased from 170 million touch points to 260 million touch points, which shows a growth of 53 percent.

The governor also launched the ‘Har Payment Digital’ mission which aims to strengthen the RBI’s commitment to deepening digital payments in the country.

While UPI has allowed the digital payments facility to retail outlets, kiranas, street vendors, small or large business people, etc., Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) has ensured the shift of bill payments from cash/cheque to digital mode and National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) ) system has focused on shifting the toll payment to digital mode.

The governor further said that the RBI has decided to adopt 75 villages to mark 75 years of independence. Under this program, Payment System Operators (PSOs) will choose 75 villages and convert them into digital payment-enabled villages.

The RBI Deputy Governor Rabi Shankar said that the financial formalization of the economy is essential as money is at the core of any economy. He added that RBI’s Digital Vision 2025 is to make digital payments available everywhere and every time so that everyone can make digital payments. In the last five years, digital payments have grown 15 percent annually, he said.

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Banks May Remained Shut On Every Saturday

Posted on by Sudeshna Mishra

In India, every first and third Saturdays in the bank are open for Indians who are still visiting on the weekend in the digital age. But now the weekend visits to the local branch may not be possible due to the bank holiday on all Saturdays. Employees may work for five days a week. It is a long pending demand of the bank employees.

The Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), in discussion with the United Forum of Bank Employees, has agreed to declare all Saturdays as a holiday, but the employees will have to work more hours per day.

But to implement this new rule, the Indian government, along with the Reserve Bank of India, will also have to accept this five-day week in exchange for longer hours before deciding on a new timing. The deal regarding working days was negotiated separately from wages when a senior union official was absent.

According to reports, 40 minutes will be added to bank employees’ per day working hours in lieu of two additional days off. The decision was taken after LIC’s acceptance of a five-day working week, and stock market plans to align trading with western economies. Bankers acknowledge that even though ATMs and e-banking provide primary services to customers, many people still visit their local branches.

Moreover, cash deposit machines and passbook printing devices have also been set up along with ATMs so people can take advantage of it as a self-service.

After accepting this demand, employees must work daily from 9:45 am to 5:30 pm.

Even though the banks will remain closed in the coming days, people will not face any hassle related to bank operations such as ATMs, cash deposits, online banking, and mobile banking services.

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RVNL Consortium May Manufacture 200 Vande Bharat Trains

Posted on by Sudeshna Mishra

The next phase of manufacturing 200 semi-high-speed Vande Bharat trains will begin with Russia’s CJSC Transmashholding and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (TMH-RVNL) consortium after they have signed a contract of Rs 58,000 crore for the construction and maintenance of trains after being emerged as the lowest bidder, the officials said.

The second-lowest bidder after the CJSC-RVNL consortium was the state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) and Titagarh Wagons consortium. It has given the lowest bid to win a part of the tender. As per the tender document, the selected bidder will manufacture sleeper versions of 16 coaches for each 200 train sets at the railway factory at Latur in Maharashtra and ICF in Chennai.

According to the conditions, 120 trains will be manufactured, supplied, and maintained by the lowest bidder (L1). These will be manufactured at the Latur facility of the Indian Railways.

The remaining 80 trains will be manufactured at the Chennai facility and given to the second lowest (L2) bidder, subject to matching the price offered by L1.

Sources told news agency PTI that a consortium of TMH and RVNL has bid at ₹120 crores per train set, which is lower than the ₹128 crores per set cost of the last Vande Bharat trains built by ICF-Chennai.

TMH-RVNL outbid BHEL-Titagarh wagons, who had quoted ₹140 crores per train set, they said, signaling that the Russian company is enthusiastic about entering the Indian market and, thus, bided less.

French railway major Alstom, Swiss railway rolling stock maker Stadler Rail, and Medha-Stadler consortium between Hyderabad-based Media Servo Drives and Siemens, along with BEML, were the other contenders in the fray for the tender.

The contract of Rs 58,000 crore is alloted to manufacture 200 Vande Bharat trains and maintain them for the next 35 years.

Senior officials said that whoever emerges as the new manufacturer will produce trains using current technology developed by the railways, railway employees, and its factories.

If the L2 bidder declines to take up the contract, it will be offered to the third lowest bidder. However, if none of the bidders is willing to match the bid formed by the L1 bidder, the whole contract will be awarded to them.

The document also states that the supplied trains will be maintained at six to eight train depots in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Jodhpur, Hyderabad, and Kolkata.

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Gates Visited India To Hold a Discussion With RBI Governor

Posted on by Sudeshna Mishra

Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates visited the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) office in Mumbai on Tuesday and met Governor Shaktikanta Das. The Central Bank tweeted that Gates visited the RBI office and held extensive discussions with Das.

Gates comes to India to explore business opportunities in various sectors, such as education, health, and other fields in India. Last week in his blog, “Gates notes,” he said that India shows the light of hope for the future and proved it could solve major issues at once, even when the world is facing several crises.

In his note, he wrote that he is coming to India next week. Although he had spent a lot of time here over the years—doing various things from checking out toilets to visiting villages. He had visited the home of one of the poorest, most underserved castes in India also.

Moreover, he expressed his interest in conducting trade and other activities in India.

Gates on Monday tweeted that, similar to every other country on the earth, India also has limited resources. But it has shown others how the world can still progress despite that constraint.”

Through his blog, he also praised India’s health initiatives and wrote that India gives him hope for the future. It is about to become the most populous country in the world, which means one can not solve most problems there without solving them at scale. Still, India has proven it can tackle any challenges. The country has successfully eradicated polio, lowered HIV transmission, reduced poverty, reduced infant mortality and increased access to sanitation and financial services.

In addition to his health initiative, he also wants to focus on changing the climate and urges governments and businesses to take rapid action to reduce the effects of climate change. In India, he wants to discuss ways in which the country can accelerate its infection to clean energy and reduce its carbon footprint.

The Gates Foundation has joined hands with the public sector and CGIAR institutions in India to support the work of researchers who are at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI).

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Adani dropped out of world’s 25 richest list

Posted on by Sudeshna Mishra

Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, is no longer among the list of the world’s 25 wealthiest billionaires, according to Forbes and Bloomberg indices, after his net worth dropped to $43.4 billion on February 22. The decline comes over a month after US short-seller Hindenburg Research, the Gujarat-based conglomerate, was implicated in stock manipulation and accounting fraud.

Adani, who grabbed the title of Asia’s richest person and the world’s third-richest person till now, recently faced a drop in his net worth, making him the 30th richest billionaire according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

However, according to Forbes’s rich list, Adani carried the 38th position, which is far behind the third position.

Adani begins the year with a $121 billion net worth that makes him the third wealthiest person in the world. He was assumed to overtake Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and inch toward the top two. However, according to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaire List for 2023, on February 1, Adani slipped to the 10th spot as his net worth slipped below Reliance Industries tycoon Mukesh Ambani, who was the world’s richest Indian.

On February 3, Adani was out of the top 20 list as his net worth fell further to $58 billion. However, earlier this week, another round of market volatility pushed Adani to the 25th spot on the Forbes and Bloomberg Real-Time Billionaires list.

Adani has acquired the position of India’s richest person since February 2022. He saw an increase in wealth during the COVID-19 pandemic with an upsurge of $42.7 billion in assets, making it the fifth largest wealth increase in the world according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He was the second richest person on the planet, with a net worth of $156.3 billion in September 2022.

The downgrade comes aftermath of the Hindenburg Report, published on January 24, which claimed the group manipulated stocks and improperly used tax havens. Adani repeatedly rebuffed the report’s allegations and threatened legal action against the short seller. But market confidence remains low due to concerns about the speed of growth and ability to finance debt. According to Bloomberg, the market capitalization of the Adani group has lost over $135 billion since January 24.

On February 22, Adani flagship Adani Enterprises plunged 10.4% on the BSE following reports that an employee manipulated information on Wikipedia about the Adani Group.

The combined value of 10 Adani Group companies, including Adani Green Energy and Power, and Adani Ports, fell below the $100 billion mark earlier this week.

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Adani Seeks $400 Million Debt Against Australian Coal Port 

Posted on by Sudeshna Mishra

Adani Group is in conversation with global credit funds to seek up to $400 million in loans against some of its properties in Australia, as the group’s shares are continuously decreasing.

From ports to power operator, the Indian conglomerate operates the Carmichael coal mine, North Queensland Export Terminal (NXQT), along with a solar farm in Australia.

The major port, NXQT, is controlled by the Adani family trust for Queensland coal exports and is now considering raising funds to pay off promoter debt.

As of Monday, the group led by billionaire Gautam Adani has wiped off about $147 billion in market value after Hindenburg Research accused it of illicit use of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation on January 24.

The group has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

Adani Enterprises, a flagship firm of the Adani Group, fell as much as 8.5% on Monday and has lost nearly 65% since the Hindenburg report.

Earlier this month, Australia’s corporate regulator said it would review the report, which raised various concerns about the group led by billionaire Gautam.

The Indian group is in discussions with several significant high-yielding global credit funds and has so far received two indicative term sheets from potential lenders, including hedge fund Farallon Capital Management.

However, Farallon Capital refused to comment.

Meanwhile,  Gautam Adani is holding fixed-income campaigns in Asia this week as the conglomerate tries to boost investor confidence.

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WhatsApp To Launch New Feature Soon To Edit Message

Posted on by Tanmaya Dev

After Twitter and Telegram already have enabled the edit feature for sent messages, WhatsApp is now preparing to launch a similar feature for its iOS and Android users. The famous chatting app company is continuously working on a new feature that will facilitate users to edit their messages after they are sent.

This feature is currently under development for beta versions of WhatsApp for Android and desktop. According to WaBetaInfo’s latest report, the iOS version also gets the same treatment.

The report said that the new feature allows users only 15 minutes to edit their messages after they are sent. Edited messages will be marked with an “Edited” label within the chat bubble. Initially, the feature will be available only for text messages, but an improved version is expected to support editing options for documents, images, and videos.

The feature is highly expected by WhatsApp users, who have been requesting the ability to edit messages for a long time. Currently, the only way to correct an error in a sent message is to choose the “Delete for Everyone” option. Actually, there is no message editing option now. With the launching of the new editing feature, users can quickly and easily fix typos and errors in their messages.

Along with making the app more functional for users, the new edit feature is also expected to make WhatsApp more competitive with other messaging apps that already have this feature, such as Telegram and iMessage.

The release date of this feature for the public is unknown. However, it is under testing.

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Reliance In Partnership With Gap Inc. Opens First Retail Store

Posted on by Tanmaya Dev

Reliance Retail on Friday unveil the first freestanding Gap store in partnership with Gap Inc. in Mumbai. In a press release, the company declare that it is the official retailer of Gap across all channels in India.

Since last year Reliance Retail has opened more than 50 Gap shop-in-shops. The opening of the new Gap store at Infiniti Mall in Mumbai marks the launch of the second Phase of the Reliance-GAP partnership.

According to a press release, the extension of Gap’s India presence will incorporate opening a series of freestanding stores across the nation in the coming months. The Gap store at Infiniti Mall will include denim, logo products, khakis, and trendy essentials for men, women, kids, and babies.

President and CEO of Fashion & Lifestyle, Reliance Retail Ltd., Akhilesh Prasad, said about the opening of GAP’s first store in India that in the new iconic GAP store, customers will find not only a brand new retail identity but also a tech-enabled shopping experience such as smart trial rooms, express check-out and many more, along with the better value of the product.

Managing Director of International, Global Licensing and Wholesale at Gap Inc., Adrienne Gernand, said, “We are excited to partner with Reliance Retail to continue expanding our presence in India through our partner-based model.”

He also added, “Growing Gap’s brick-and-mortar business through the launch of freestanding stores and multi-brand store expressions has enabled us to enhance our reach for Indian customers and meet where they are shopping. “

Reliance Retail Ltd., a subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd., holds all retail businesses under Reliance Industries. On the other side, Gap is a famous apparel company in America that owns multi brands such as Athleta, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Gap.

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After Singapore, UPI May Extend To Other Nations

Posted on by Sudeshna Mishra

Following Singapore, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is in talks with several nations, including United Arab Emirates(UAE), Indonesia, and Mauritius, to establish a direct digital payment link of India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with these countries. This will allow the citizens of those countries to make cheaper and quicker fund transfers using mobile phones.

According to a senior RBI officer, some Latin American nations have shown their interest.

The central bank is publicizing UPI and the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), also known as the digital rupee, to the attendees at the event and also permits foreigners to use UPI.

The regulator and the government are willing to expand UPI payment links to facilitate fund transfers, eliminating the high costs charged by banks and reducing the processing time. This decision is thought to be beneficial, especially for the Indian diaspora.

Additionally, the RBI said that the usage of UPI for non-resident Indians (NRI) would also become operational in the coming month, enabling them to use the tool through international phone numbers.

Due to technical issues, the tool could not be used though being enabled.

When asked about the central bank’s digital currency, the RBI stated that they are trying continuously to ramp up the pilot to cover as many as possible in a closed user group.

The RBI is now looking to extend to more areas and includes more banks on the retail side, where pilots are already going on in a number of cities.

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Air India Emergency Landing In Stockholm, Passengers To Reach Delhi On Friday

Posted on by Sudeshna Mishra

An Air India flight (AI106) from Newark (US) to Delhi, carrying around 300 passengers, faced a technical problem on Wednesday and made an emergency landing in Stockholm, Sweden. The Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft landed safely, and all the passengers were secure.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) senior official said that an oil leak was spotted from one of the engines, so the engine was shut down, and the aircraft had to make an immediate emergency landing.

An Air India spokesperson, in the late evening, said that the airline official is in talks with Swedish authority to seek urgent approval for immigration clearance for those passengers who are still at the airport.

Later, Air India said that the stranded passengers were given Schengen visas and shifted to a hotel. It has arranged hotel accommodations and meals for all guests.

The airline also said the ferry flight would leave Mumbai on Thursday at 2 pm to reach Stockholm at 11 pm (local) to pick up the passengers. At 1 pm, the aircraft will take off from there to reach Delhi at 0800 hrs (IST) tomorrow.

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India Singapore Link Digital Payment Systems For Cross-Border Remittances

Posted on by Sudeshna Mishra

India and Singapore on Tuesday launched the linkage between Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and Singapore’s PayNow to enable cost-efficient, fast, and safe transfer of cross-border remittances. PM Narendra Modi and Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong virtually witnessed the launch of cross-border connectivity. According to official information, the link was launched during the virtual ceremony by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das and Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), by symbolically transferring funds to each other from the mobile phones.

For India, the connection between UPI and PayNow is the first cross-border person-to-person (P2P) payment link and the second for Singapore.

PM Narendra Modi said that the connection between UPI and PayNow is a gift to the citizens of both countries with a cheaper and real-time facility for remittances. This facility will benefit our overseas brothers and sisters, students, professionals, and their families. With this linkage, a new chapter opens in cross-border fintech connectivity.

Now, citizens can send and receive funds between bank accounts or e-wallets in real time by using their UPI ID, mobile phone number, or virtual payment address (VPA).

The banks participating from the Indian side are ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, DBS India, Indian Bank, State Bank of India, and Indian Overseas Bank. From the Singapore side, the participants are Liquid Group and DBS.

Through the new link, Indians can transfer upto a maximum of  Rs. 60,000 a day, and Singapore’s DBS allows its selected customers to transfer up to 200 per transaction. By the 31st of March, DBS allows all its customers to transfer upto SGD1000.

Deputy Governor of RBI, T Rabi Shankar, said that linking the payment networks across borders was a part of the G20 agenda to minimize the costs of cross-border remittances. He also added that currently, transfers happen through banks but attract a certain cost and time as India is a country with capital controls.

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