The non-convertible green municipal bonds of Indore Municipal Corporation were oversubscribed by 5.90 times after raising about Rs 720 crore till the last date for application for the bonds. The issue opened on February 10 and closed on February 14. Indore is India’s first urban body to introduce green bonds, seeking to raise Rs 244 crore to install and operate the plant of 60 megawatts in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone district. It is expected to be the largest solar plant meant for pumping and supplying water from river Narmada. In response, the Indore Municipal Corporation raised Rs 661.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first phase of the 1380-km, eight-lane Delhi-Mumbai expressway on February 12. The 246-km Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot section will be open to the public, reducing the travel time from the national capital to Jaipur from five hours to about three hours. The expressway passing through Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat will reduce travel time between Delhi and Mumbai from over a day to just 12 hours. The expressway is also set to benefit various cities along the way, cutting down travel times between them as well. The Minister of Road Tr
India has called on Group of 20 (G20) nations to adopt ‘3S’ strategy, i.e., 'smart' and 'sustainable' agriculture which should 'serve' all, to address global food security concerns. Speaking on the sidelines of the first G20 Agriculture Deputies’ Meeting in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, on February 14, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that agriculture for India has always been a priority, and for the world it has fully come to the fore now. For smart agriculture, he emphasised on adopting drones and other new technologies for increasing the crop yield. For sustainable agriculture,
Air India on February 14 announced its plans to acquire 470 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing in deals potentially worth tens of billions of dollars. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have hailed Air India's multi-billion dollar deal to buy planes from Airbus and Boeing. During the video call with Macron, Modi described the agreement with Airbus as an important achievement for the bilateral strategic partnership and said, “Today, the India-France partnership is playing a direct role in ensuring internati
India has regained the fifth place among the world’s top equity markets by value after being briefly taken over by France. India’s market capitalisation stood at $3.15 trillion on February 10, making France and the UK the world’s sixth and seventh largest markets by value, respectively, says the data compiled by Bloomberg that shows the combined value of companies with a primary listing in each country. The outlook for earnings growth helped revitalise the appeal of India’s equities that have outperformed most global contemporaries for the last two years. Nevertheless, the total va
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that increased metal recycling can bring down the cost of auto components by 30 per cent and automatically increase the industry’s export competitiveness. Addressing the three-day conference of the Material Recycling Association of India on material recycling on February 3 through videoconferencing, the minister said the government has set a target of doubling the size of the automobile sector to Rs 15 lakh crore and creating an additional 5 crore jobs. India overtook Japan to become the world’s third largest automobile market in 2022. The inter
Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Parkash has said that over ₹477 crore have been approved to 133 incubators under Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) as of December 31, 2022. Of the approved amount, around ₹211 crore has been disbursed. Among Indian states, Maharashtra-based incubators were allocated the highest amount at ₹74.5 crore, said the government data. The Government with an intent to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation, startups and encouraging private investments in the startup ecosystem of the country launched Startup India initiative on 16t
India is playing an increasingly important role in global oil markets by buying cheap Russian oil and refining it into fuel for Europe and the US, said a Bloomberg report on February 5. India shipped about 89,000 barrels a day of gasoline and diesel to New York last month, the most in nearly four years, said data intelligence company Kpler. The country supplied 1,72,000 barrels of low-sulfur diesel to Europe daily in January. Under EU guidelines, India is likely operating within the rules. When Russian crude is processed into fuels in a country outside of the bloc such as India, the ref
Foreign Minister of South Africa, Naledi Pandor has said that many nations across the globe are showing interest in joining the BRICS. Pandor, the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, said this, while addressing delegates at the first BRICS Sherpa and Sous-Sherpa meeting of 2023 in Bela Bela, Limpopo province in South Africa. “The significant interest in joining BRICS by many is a clear sign that BRICS has remained true to its values of strengthening multilateralism, driving reform as well as boosting global economic growth and stability,” Pandor said. BRICS, an econ
The foreign exchange reserves of India rose above a six-month high of $576.76 billion in the week through January 27, said the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) statistical supplement on February 3. According to the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by the RBI, forex reserves rose by $3.03 billion during the week ending January 27. This is the third consecutive week that the country’s reserves have risen. In the week to January 20, the reserves stood at $573.73 billion. The uptick in the foreign exchange reserves is a result of the rise in the Foreign Currency Assets (FCA), which is