Business

Mumbai, Dec 31 (PTI) India's current account slipped into a deficit of USD 9.6 billion or 1.3 per cent of GDP in the September quarter, the Reserve Bank said on Friday.

The current account, which records the value of exports and imports of both goods and services along with international transfers of capital, was in a surplus mode both in the quarter-ago and year-ago periods.

New Delhi, Jan 1 (PTI) GST revenue collected in December 2021 was over Rs 1.29 lakh crore, 13 per cent higher than the same month last year, the Finance Ministry said on Saturday.

Though the collection was lower than Rs 1.31 lakh crore mopped up in November, December is the sixth month in a row when revenue from goods sold and services rendered stood at over Rs 1 lakh crore.

30 Dec 2021; MEMO: Iran's lead nuclear negotiator has noted "good progress" in the eighth round of talks with world powers in Vienna, focusing primarily on the removal of sanctions, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Speaking to reporters after the latest round was adjourned on Thursday due to the New Year holidays, Ali Bagheri said negotiations were held at various levels since Monday, and relatively good progress was made.

New Delhi, Dec 31 (PTI) Heeding to demands made by several states, the GST Council on Friday put on hold a decision to hike the tax rate on textiles to 12 per cent from 5 per cent, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

The panel, the highest decision-making body for indirect taxes, met under emergency provisions after states made a request for deferring the January 1 hike in GST tax rates on textiles.

Sitharaman said a similar demand for footwear was not agreed to.

New Delhi, Dec 31 (PTI) Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday announced the buyout of British battery maker Faradion Ltd for an enterprise value of GBP 100 million, as the oil-to-retail conglomerate continued with the acquisition of end-to-end technology for its multi-billion-dollar clean energy portfolio.

ENIWA, Japan (AP) — The dozens of Type 90, or “Kyumaru,” tanks rumbling through recent shooting drills on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido exemplify the challenge its arms makers face both at home and overseas as the country fortifies its defenses against strategic threats.

The Self Defense Force needs the more advanced aircraft and weaponry sold by U.S. arms manufacturers as Japan’s strategic focus shifts from Russia in the north to the south, where it faces incursions by Chinese fighter jets and naval vessels and North Korean missile launches.

SYDNEY, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Australia recorded another record surge in COVID-19 infections on Tuesday as an outbreak of the highly infectious Omicron variant disrupted reopening of the economy, while state leaders argued over domestic border controls.

The country reported 11,264 new cases of the coronavirus in the previous day, according to a Reuters calculation of state figures, once again surpassing its peak of a day earlier, as it grapples with a planned reopening while the new variant rages.

XI'AN, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- A train set off from Hanzhong City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on Sunday bound for Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, marking the launch of a new China-Europe freight train service from the city.

The train by way of the provincial capital of Xi'an carried 767 tonnes of merchandise including baby carriages, clothes, stationery, ceramic tea sets and sanitary wares. It is expected to leave China via the land port of Horgos in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region en route to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said Monday the nation should consider a vaccination mandate for domestic air travel, signaling a potential embrace of an idea the Biden administration has previously eschewed, as COVID-19 cases spike.

Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief science adviser on the pandemic response, said such a mandate might drive up the nation’s lagging vaccination rate as well as confer stronger protection on flights, for which federal regulations require all those age 2 and older to wear a mask.

NEW YORK (AP) — Flight cancellations that disrupted holiday travel, stretched into Monday as airlines called off more than 1,000 U.S. flights because crews were sick with COVID-19 during one of the year’s busiest travel periods, and storm fronts added to the havoc.