Business

15 Mar 2021; MEMO: Saudi Arabia yesterday began the implementation of the new kafala "sponsorship" system, which aims to improve the contractual relationship between local employers and foreign workers.

New Delhi, Mar 15 (PTI) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said India is fully cognizant of the employment concerns of people working abroad and expects governments in the Gulf to be helpful in facilitating the early return of those compelled to return home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Allahabad, Mar 14 (PTI) The Bhartiya Kisan Union-led farmer agitation against the three central farm laws may continue till December this year, the outfit's national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait said here on Sunday.

Tikait made the statement while talking to reporters here after his recent visit to the poll-bound West Bengal.

New Delhi, Mar 15 (PTI) Banking operations including cheque clearance across the country got affected on Monday as bankers under the aegis of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) have gone on a nationwide strike to protest against the proposed privatisation of two state-owned lenders.

UFBU, an umbrella body of nine unions, had given a strike call for March 15 and 16, and claimed that about 10 lakh bank employees and officers of the banks will participate in the strike

13 Mar 2021; MEMO: Popular protests have renewed in several Lebanese cities complaining of the aggravated economic crisis amid the worst wave of price hikes to have ever hit the country, Anadolu Agency reported on Friday.

13 Mar 2021; MEMO: According to Sudanese officials, Saudi Arabia has committed to pay $1.5 billion to Sudan as part of the economic aid package it approved for the country in 2019.

On Thursday, the Sudanese News Agency (SUNA) quoted officials stating: "An amount of $750 million had been deposited in the Sudanese government account," explainingthat: "$500 million of the amount will be allocated to help solve the crisis of wheat, medicine, oil and some other commodities.

13 Mar 2021; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced yesterday that it was setting up a $10 billion investment fund aimed at strategic sectors in Israel. The two countries normalised relations last year in what was seen as a major triumph of the former US President Donald Trump.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and three of its closest Indo-Pacific partners committed to supplying up to a billion coronavirus vaccine doses across Asia by the end of 2022 at a summit on Friday carefully choreographed to counter China’s growing influence.

11 Mar 2021; MEMO: Qatar exported its first shipment of oil to a neighboring country in the Arab Gulf since Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain imposed an economic embargo in 2017, Bloomberg reports.

According to the news site, tanker tracking data appears to show Qatar, a small oil producer, shipped some 700,000 barrels of oil to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in early March.

Washington, Mar 12 (PTI) US President Joe Biden has announced that all adult Americans will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination by May 1 with an aim to get the country, worst-hit by the pandemic, closer to normal by July 4th, Independence Day.

In his first prime-time address to the nation on Thursday since assuming office in January, Biden also announced the deployment of more than 4,000 active-duty troops to support vaccination efforts, bringing the total to over 6,000.