Singapore is open to the possibility of importing electricity from countries in the region, including India, said a report quoting the Energy Market Authority (EMA) on August 13. The EMA, a statutory board under the Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry, has welcomed proposals to import as much as 4 GW of electricity, added the news report. The body is seeking bids till December 29 and will choose and appoint companies to import the electricity. Previously, India and Singapore had accelerated plans to set up a connection between their power grids through an undersea cable via the And
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has announced that the tourists who were forced to leave the island of Rhodes after recent wildfires will be given a free one-week holiday there. In a TV interview on August 2, Mitsotakis said the tourists could take up the offer in the spring or autumn of 2024. Not a single human life was lost in Rhodes, and no injuries were reported in the wildfires, he added. Local people and travellers were forced to flee their homes and hotels during the wildfires that destroyed the island in July. About 20,000 tourists were rescued from the wildfires, makin
Inflation in Sri Lanka dropped to 6.3% in July from 12% in June, said the Census and Statistics Office of the Sri Lankan government on July 31. The country saw a single-digit figure for the first time in two years. The drop in headline inflation is according to the disinflation path predicted by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) in July 2023. A statement from the Census and Statistics Office said that the decrease in the cost of food commodities led to the decline in inflation. Based on the Colombo Consumer Price Index, food prices fell by 1.4% over the past 12 months in the island coun
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has released its media rights tender for the Indian team’s bilateral matches in the country. The tender document is available for purchase until August 25. The Invitation To Tender (ITT) can be purchased upon submission of a non-refundable fee of Rs 15 lakh. In the ITT, BCCI has reduced the overall base price to Rs 45 crore per match for the forthcoming media rights cycle. In the recent cycle, the base price stood at Rs 61 crore per match for Disney-Star. The base price is for TV and digital, and for all the formats of international cricke
The Government of India is in talks with the Bhutanese regime over the rail link between Bhutan and Assam, informed External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar on August 7. The union minister added that Bhutan is keen to open up more places for tourists and that the rail link is advantageous for Assam as well. To be completed by 2026, the 57-km railway line will be the first railway connection between India and Bhutan. The Indian government will fund the project. Bhutan’s Foreign Minister Dr Tandi Dorji said in April that the Bhutan government will first work on this project, and later loo
Israel will build a 100 billion shekel ($27 billion) rail expansion that will connect its remote areas to the city of Tel Aviv and could provide overland links to Saudi Arabia in years to come, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on July 30. The announcement came after a visit of top US officials to Saudi Arabia in July to advance a possible forging of formal relations between the Kingdom and Israel. In a weekly Israeli cabinet meeting, Netanyahu promoted infrastructure initiatives, including the “One Israel Project.” The Prime Minister of Israel said the project is designed t
The gross domestic product of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia grew by 1.1% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022 due to non-oil activities that increased by 5.5% annually in the quarter. The non-oil sector is a focus area under Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, as the Kingdom aspires to steadily diversify its economy that has been dependent on oil for several decades. According to General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT), government services activities increased by 2.7% in the second quarter, while oil activities dipped by 4.2% on an annual basis. The fall
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that it would “encourage” India to remove restrictions on export of a certain category of rice. The restrictions could exacerbate food price inflation and should be reversed, said the International Monetary Fund Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas in Washington on July 25. On July 20, The Government of India had banned the export of non-basmati white rice to boost domestic supply and keep retail prices under check during the upcoming festive season. This type of rice constitutes about 25 percent of the total rice exported from India.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Oman Investment Authority (OIA) and plans investments worth $5 billion in Oman. The MoU aims at expanding cooperation and investment between the two investment entities, enabling new and promising investments in Oman’s rapidly growing economy. It follows the establishment of the Saudi Omani Investment Company, to allocate $5 billion for investments across various promising sectors in Oman. In addition, the PIF’s investment portfolio will be expanded in the Omani market, to stimulate in
The Government of India has launched the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS)-Sahara Refund Portal to refund the hard-earned money of crores of depositors in four cooperative societies of Sahara Group in about 45 days. Calling the portal a historic moment, Cooperation Minister of India Amit Shah on July 18 said that this is the first time when depositors are getting refunds in a case where multiple government agencies are involved and each one has done a seizure. On March 29, the Government of India had said that money will be returned to 10 crore investors of the four coop