New Delhi, Jan 24 (IANS) India’s QR‑code payment network, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), is expanding beyond its borders, with Japan among countries trialling the system to serve growing numbers of Indian tourists, a report has said.The report from Nikkei Asia said that Japanese IT services company NTT Data is partnering with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to run a trial in Japan in FY26 that would let Indian tourists pay with UPI and have their Indian bank accounts deb…
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New Delhi, Jan 23 (IANS) India’s foreign exchange reserves witnessed a massive surge of $14.167 billion to reach $701.36 billion in the week ended January 16, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed on Friday.In the preceding week that ended January 9, the country’s foreign exchange reserves had increased by $392 million.The largest component of the foreign exchange reserves, Foreign Currency Assets (FCA), increased by $9.65 billion in the week ended January 16, reaching $560.51 billion.FCA …
New Delhi, Jan 21 (IANS) The current set of rulers in Pakistan has more autocratic powers than all set-ups after Gen Pervez Musharraf’s, but these only help it to survive; its ability to use them to usher progress is weak, as per a Pakistani media report.Painful IMF medicine was unleashed as well. It lowered inflation, but undercut growth. A recent national household survey shows that to recover from the cost of past inflation, strong growth is needed, which the IMF says may remain elusive even …
New Delhi, Jan 21 (IANS) Experts in Pakistan have slammed the expansion of corporate farming and land acquisition, lamenting that such government schemes are displacing farmers and privatising land and water resources, particularly in Punjab and Sindh.A report in viacampesina.org detailed the outcome of the Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee (PKRC) meeting in Lahore which announced nationwide mobilisation against corporate farming, land grabbing, and the deepening agrarian crisis.Around 170 delega…
Davos, Jan 21 (IANS) India clearly belongs to the first group of AI nations as AI architecture comprises five layers — application, model, chip, infrastructure, and energy — and we are actively working across all five, Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, has said.Outlining India’s approach to Artificial Intelligence (AI) the minister emphasised large-scale AI diffusion, economic viability, and techno-legal governance, during a panel discussion at the World Economic Foru…
Mumbai, Jan 20 (IANS) The Indian benchmark indices continued their losses on Tuesday, tracking weak global cues and the US administration’s escalation of tariff tensions with European countries.Persistent selling by foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) also weighed on the market sentiment.Around 9.30 am, Sensex lost 275 points, or 0.33 per cent to reach 82,971 and Nifty declined 91 points, or 0.36 per cent to 25,494.Main broadcap indices performed in line with benchmark indices, with the Nifty…
New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS) The privatisation of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in 2025 halted the airline’s daily operational haemorrhaging but at a high moral and fiscal cost, a report has said, adding that it has come at the expense of the taxpayer.According to a report in The Express tribune, the official announcement that the “Arif Habib-led consortium won a 75 percent stake in PIA with a bid of PKR 135 billion, is misleading, and deceptive”.Dr Mohammad Zubair Khan, former Pakistan …
New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS) While Pakistan has rich deposits of copper, gold, antimony and rare earth elements, it has not been able to tap these resources for economic growth as the economic decision making authority is fragmented, decisions are reversible, and accountability is absent, according to an article in The News International.The article highlights that despite the abundance of these expensive minerals Pakistan has not been able to exploit them as there is no single authority that can gi…
Washington, Jan 19 (IANS) The global economy has shown “notable resilience” despite significant US-led trade disruptions and heightened uncertainty, with growth projected to hold steady at 3.3 per cent in 2026, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Monday.In a blog published alongside its January 2026 World Economic Outlook Update, the IMF stated global growth has remained broadly unchanged from a year earlier, as the world economy “shakes off the immediate impact of the tariff sho…
New Delhi, Jan 16 (IANS) India’s foreign exchange reserves increased by $392 million to $687 billion in the week ending January 9, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced on Friday.The Central Bank said the value of gold reserves, a key component of the foreign exchange reserves, also increased by $1.56 billion to $112.83 billion in the week ending January 9.A key reason for the increase in gold reserves is the sharp rise in gold prices. The price of gold in international markets has increased…