Author: Animish Murty

The World Bank on Tuesday lowered India’s economic growth forecast to 6.3 percent for the financial year 2023-24 from its earlier estimate of 6.6 percent announced last December. The international financial institution in its report attributed the downgrade to slower consumption growth and challenging external conditions. “The World Bank has revised its FY23-24 GDP forecast to 6.3 percent from 6.6 percent (December 2022). Growth is expected to be constrained by slower consumption growth and challenging external conditions,” the report said. “Rising borrowing costs and slower income growth will weigh on private consumption growth, and government consumption is projected to grow…

Three people, including a child, were killed and eight others injured after an unidentified man set a co-passenger on fire inside an express train in the southern Indian state of Kerala, officials said on Monday. The incident took place late Sunday on a train bound for Kannur district in the state. “An unidentified man allegedly set on fire a co-passenger on Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express by pouring an inflammable liquid on him when the train reached the Korapuzha railway bridge after crossing Kozhikode city. Eight other passengers were injured in the process,” said the police. “Hours later, three persons, including a…

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully conducted a reusable launch vehicle autonomous landing mission at the aeronautical test range in the Chitradurga district of Karnataka on Sunday, said a statement by ISRO. The mission was performed in collaboration with the Defence Space Research Organisation and the Indian Air Force. The test was conducted by taking an underslung load on a helicopter to a height of 4.5 km and then landing it autonomously at an airstrip in the southern state of Karnataka. With this landing experiment, “the dream of an Indian Reusable Launch Vehicle arrives one step closer to reality,”…

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of making India the world’s factory risks being held back by the country’s inability to attract bigger container ships due to inadequate port infrastructure. Most harbors along India’s coast aren’t deep enough to handle vessels like the Ever Alot, the world’s largest boxship at 400 meters long and with a capacity of more than 24,000 twenty-foot equivalent units. Neighboring Sri Lanka as well as Malaysia have in recent months received visits from the Ever Alot,which can rival the Empire State Building in length. India’s biggest state-run container handling facility, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, lacks the 17-meter draft needed for…

Japanese shipping company and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and India’s largest gas supplier GAIL have signed a time charter contract for a second newbuild LNG carrier. The 174,000 CBM vessel is under construction at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in South Korea and is planned for delivery in 2023. GAIL has a LNG portfolio of about 14 MMTPA under long and short-term contracts and is active in LNG trading. The new vessel will be MOL’s second serving GAIL after the GAIL BHUWAN, which entered service in 2021, under a charter contact signed in 2019 for the transportation of LNG from the U.S.…

The Vice President of Bulgaria, Ilijana Iotova, on Sunday called for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, after the announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia will deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, as a reaction to Great Britain’s decision to provide Ukraine with depleted uranium ammunition, reports the agency DPA. The situation is becoming “more and more dangerous and scary”, noted Ilijana Iotova, adding that for this reason the Bulgarian president Rumen Radev is constantly asking for negotiations. This is Bulgaria’s desire, as more and more weapons lead to unpredictable decisions and now the threat is real, she explained. “But…

Senior Chinese and Filipino diplomats met in Manila to review their relations amid thorny issues, including Beijing’s alarm over a Philippine decision to allow the US military to expand its presence to a northern region facing the Taiwan Strait and escalating spats in the disputed South China Sea. Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Sun Weidong and Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro led the talks aimed at assessing overall relations yesterday. The discussions would focus on the long-seething territorial spats in the disputed waterway, the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila said. The talks opened with diplomatic pleasantries and handshakes in front of…

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines and China on Friday stressed the need for diplomatic approaches to maritime issues in the South China — part of which is the West Philippine Sea — as Chinese diplomats are in Manila for a series of talks with their Filipino counterparts. The 7th meeting on the Philippines-China Bilateral Consultation Mechanism (BCM) on the South China Sea, which is an avenue for the two countries to discuss maritime issues. The first BCM was held in 2017.  “The Philippines and China are in agreement that maritime issues do not comprise the totality of bilateral relations between our…

China’s defence ministry said on Friday that it yet again had to monitor and drive away the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Milius that entered its territorial waters in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands. “We sternly demand the U.S. to immediately stop such provocative acts, otherwise it will bear the serious consequences of unforeseen incidents,” a spokesperson said in a statement from the Ministry of National Defence. The U.S. Navy said the guided-missile destroyer was asserting its navigational rights and freedoms. “Unlawful and sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea pose a serious threat to the freedom of the seas, including…

Sofia, March 23 – IA Neftegaz.RU. The technical government of Bulgaria, as an exception, allowed the nuclear power plant ( NPP ) Kozloduy to continue purchasing the necessary equipment and materials in Russia.This was announced by the Minister of Energy R. Hristov following the results of the Cabinet meeting on March 22, 2023. Minister’s theses:  Recall that earlier the Bulgarian technical government canceled the decision to limit the diversification of the supply of nuclear fuel for the Kozloduy nuclear power plant in order to provide an effective competitive environment for existing alternative fuel producers for VVER-1000 reactors. In November 2022, the National Assembly of Bulgaria…