Author: Farid Salagame

BMC Commissioner and administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal told The Indian Express that the proposal came from the guardian minister’s office requesting a cabin at the civic body HQ. In an unprecedented move, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has allotted an office to Mumbai’s guardian minister inside the BMC headquarters building. BMC Commissioner and administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal told The Indian Express that the proposal came from the guardian minister’s office requesting a cabin at the civic body HQ. With no elected BMC representatives currently in place since the last body’s term ended in March 2022, the civic polls are still…

Traders say the prices have zoomed due to supply constraints caused by heavy rains in various parts of the country Tomato prices have skyrocketed to ₹160 per kg in Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) along with various other parts of the country. The retail price of the vegetable across Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad and Greater Noida is hovering in the range of ₹140 – ₹160 per kg depending upon the location and distance from the nearest wholesale market. The majority of other regions in the country have also witnessed a steep spike in tomato prices including Mumbai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad,…

The accident took place at around 8.40 am opposite the Everard Nagar Bus Stop as the cement mixer truck driver was northbound from Mumbai to Vashi. One person was killed and two others were injured on Sunday after the driver of a cement mixer truck lost control and hit a scooter passing by and a stationary PUC van on the Eastern Express Highway at Chunabhatti. According to the police, the accident took place at around 8.40 am opposite the Everard Nagar Bus Stop as the cement mixer truck driver was northbound from Mumbai to Vashi. The operator of the stationary…

Rescuers try to evacuate passengers from a car stuck in an underpass waterlogged due to heavy rainfall in Bengaluru, India, May 21, 2023. (Str/Xinhua) Passenger vehicles are stuck in an underpass waterlogged due to heavy rainfall in Bengaluru, India, May 21, 2023. (Str/Xinhua) Rescue work is carried out after passenger vehicles were stuck in an underpass waterlogged due to heavy rainfall in Bengaluru, India, May 21, 2023. (Str/Xinhua) Rescue work is carried out after passenger vehicles were stuck in an underpass waterlogged due to heavy rainfall in Bengaluru, India, May 21, 2023. (Str/Xinhua)

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is heading to the US on Sunday to meet President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as the three nations unveil the next phase of the AUKUS nuclear submarine program, a security partnership meant to counter China. The decision on how to move ahead will be announced Monday when the three leaders meet in San Diego. The plan will take years to produce its first vessel, probably necessitating stopgap measures, according to people familiar with the discussions. The US may base nuclear submarines in Australia or sell the country Virginia-class submarines in the interim. Australia’s…

An oil tanker seized by Iran last Thursday was carrying Kuwaiti crude and had a crew of 24 Indians, according to the operator. The US has demanded the immediate release of the the Marshall Islands-flagged Advantage Sweet, which was travelling in international waters and near the Gulf of Oman when the incident happened, according to the US military. The ship was heading to the US, a spokesperson for Advantage Tankers, the vessel’s Turkey-based operator, said to Bloomberg on Friday. It was carrying oil and was chartered by Chevron Corp., the spokesperson confirmed. The seizure underscores continued tensions in a vital corridor for oil…

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.…

India’s oil refiners are looking to pick up a bit more Russian crude in last-minute purchases just weeks before new sanctions take effect. At least four companies are seeking Russian cargoes that can load by Dec. 5 and discharge before Jan. 19, according to people familiar with the matter. That timeframe fits with a grace period being granted on oil purchases under a US-led measure to cap the price of Moscow’s sales. The price cap is scheduled to be implemented alongside European Union sanctions on Russian seaborne imports on Dec. 5, and is designed to keep crude flowing but crimp the Kremlin’s…

At least two people were killed and 10 others injured, some of them critically, Wednesday after firecrackers triggered a fire and cylinder blast during a political party meeting in the southern Indian state of Telangana, police said. The accident took place at Cheemalapadu village in Khammam district, about 274 km east of Hyderabad, the capital city of Telangana. Police said the firecrackers were set off in honor of a lawmaker of Bharat Rashtra Samiti or BRS (India Nation Council) political party. Accidentally some of them landed on a hut, triggering a fire and blast of a Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG)…