Economy

State-owned Union Bank of India has decided to quit the Antwerp diamond hub in Belgium as the branch did not generate expected business, a senior bank official said. The Finance Ministry had advised all the public sector banks to review their overseas business and close branches that are not profitable …

‘External sources key to fall in rupee’ The measures announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday to address widening current account deficit and attract inflows to stabilise the currency may not yield result immediately and the rupee could be under further pressure. The steps were primarily aimed at easing …

Spending on elections, other populist measures to blame, says ICRA Funding of farm loan waivers, poll-related spending and other populist measures are likely to ensure that States are set to miss their fiscal consolidation targets budgeted at the beginning of the year, says a report. “Given the factors such as …

India’s ‘Diamond City’ offers a lesson for the country’s ever-expanding cities on water management and the optimal use of water, which is rapidly becoming a scarce resource. Surat’s civic body is setting up state-of-the-art sewage treatment plants (STPs) to ensure every drop of waste water is treated and reused for …

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay have set the stage to possibly sniff out in about a minute early-stage lung cancer from exhaled breath. A two-member team led by Chandramouli Subramaniam from the institute’s Department of Chemistry has developed a platform that detects volatile organic compounds such …

From an average of about 18 days in the lab, the longevity of C. elegans, the popular model organism for ageing research, increased 40–60% when researchers used a mutant that lacked the function of a particular gene (flr-4) and fed them a specific bacterial diet — E. coli strain H. …

Nearly 37 lakh women have received cash incentives under the Centre’s maternity benefits programme since the launch of Matru Vandana Saptah last year, a release from the Ministry of Women and Child Development said. The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) offers pregnant women and lactating mothers Rs. 5,000 as …

This week Election Commission officials assessed the poll preparedness of Telangana after Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao dissolved the Assembly and sought a fresh election months ahead of schedule. Riding on populist measures — the government has announced more than 450 schemes in four years — Mr. Rao decided to …

The prices of petrol and diesel on Saturday touched a new high, with Mumbai recording the highest among the four big metros. Petrol cost Rs. 89.01 a litre in Mumbai and diesel Rs. 78.07, according to the daily price notification issued by state-owned oil marketing companies. In Delhi, the price …

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the “Swachhata Hi Seva” (“cleanliness is service”) campaign on Saturday, and took up a broom to clean a school named after Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar. Union Ministers and BJP leaders and workers participated in similar exercises across the country. In a nearly two-hour video interaction …