Business

New Delhi, Sep 8 (PTI) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused the Modi government of selling the country's assets to recover its economic losses and described as "shameful" reports of the sale of stake in Life Insurance Corporation (LIC).

"Modi ji is running the 'Sell Government Companies' campaign. The country's assets are being sold one by one to make up for their own economic mess," he said in a tweet in Hindi.

08 Sep 2020; MEMO: Emirates airline revealed on Monday that it has refunded more than $1.4 billion to customers after cancelling their flights during the coronavirus crisis.

The Dubai-based national carrier said that it had settled more than 1.4 million refund claims since March, accounting for 90 per cent of all such claims. “The refunds include all requests from customers around the world until the end of June, save for some cases that require further manual review,” it added.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan wants to reach broad consensus with the United Kingdom on trade this week, a Japanese government official said, signalling Tokyo’s desire to make progress on the bilateral trade deal before a change in government.

Japan’s ruling party will choose a new leader next week to take over from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has decided to step down for health reasons. His successor will become the next premier and form a new cabinet.

New York, Sep 8 (AP/PTI) Samsung Electronics Co. will develop 5G network infrastructure for Verizon Communications under a USD 6.65 billion deal announced Monday.

The contract runs through 2025, according to a Samsung corporate filing.

Samsung and Verizon have worked together before. In 2018, for example, Samsung technology was behind a 5G home service that Verizon offered to some customers in California, Texas and Indiana.

New Delhi, Sep 8 (PTI) Fitch Ratings on Tuesday projected a massive 10.5 per cent contraction of India's economy in the current financial year.

India recorded one of the sharpest gross domestic product (GDP) contractions in the world in April-June.

New Delhi, Sep 8 (PTI) India is witnessing the weakest hiring sentiment in 15 years with just 3 per cent companies planning to add staff in the next three months, a survey of over 800 employers said on Tuesday.

According to the ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, that covered 813 firms across India, Indian employers report cautious hiring plans for the final quarter of 2020.

Washington, Sep 8 (PTI) India, a global hub for generic drugs, has launched a new scheme to boost production of active pharmaceutical ingredients that are greatly dependent on the Chinese supply chain, according to NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.

Speaking at the 14th Annual BioPharma and Healthcare Summit, he said India is now gearing up for innovation in its pharmaceutical ecosystem focusing on speedy and scaled up delivery of new vaccines and personalised medicines.

Brussels, Sep 8 (AP/PTI) The European Union's executive commission is proposing its experienced Latvian vice president, Valdis Dombrovskis, to take over the post as trade chief of the bloc following the resignation of Ireland's Phil Hogan.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the announcement as she named European Parliament heavyweight Mairead McGuinness as the new financial services commissioner to fill Ireland's seat at the table.

Lucknow, Sep 8 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday revoked its order of mandatory closure of markets on Sunday, reverting to the pre-coronavirus lockdown arrangement.

According to a statement, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said in a review meeting that markets will now close as per their earlier schedule instead of the weekly closure on Sunday.

He said except containment zones, hotels and restaurants should be made operational in all areas and it should be ensured that all safety measures are followed.

07 Sep 2020; MEMO: Iran now produces between 250 and 300 kilogrammes of enriched uranium per month; the same amount produced before the 2015 nuclear deal, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) said.

Behrouz Kamalvandi said in an interview with Iran’s ISNA news agency that despite the political pressures and American sanctions, Tehran has no restrictions on the production of nuclear materials, research and development, and construction of nuclear power plants to generate electricity,