Business

Beijing, Mar 5 (PTI) China on Tuesday increased its defence budget by 7.2 per cent to USD 232 billion as it continues with the massive modernisation of its military amid prevailing tensions over Taiwan, the South China Sea, border frictions with India and increasing rivalry with the US.

Seoul, Mar 5 (PTI) The era when a few powers exercised "disproportionate influence" over the reshaping of the global order is a thing of the past so India and South Korea have a growing responsibility to actively contribute to the process, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, Jaishankar who is here on a two-day visit, said India’s partnership with the Republic of Korea is acquiring a greater salience in a more uncertain and volatile world.

Chandigarh, Mar 5 (PTI) Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Tuesday presented the state's budget for the financial year 2024-25 envisaging total outlay of over Rs 2 lakh crore, providing special focus on health and education.

While presenting the budget in the state assembly, he also announced several new initiatives, while earmarking Rs 575 crore for various crop diversification schemes for farmers.

New Delhi, Mar 5 (PTI) Google has agreed to reinstate all the delisted apps of Indian companies on its Play Store after a government intervention got the two sides talking to resolve a dispute over service fee payments.

Telecom and Information & Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who got Google and the startups to the negotiating table, said the US tech giant has been supporting India's technology development journey.

BRUSSELS, March 4 (Reuters) - The European Commission will propose on Tuesday ways for the European Union to boost its arms industry so it can shift to "war economy mode" in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Thierry Breton, the European industry commissioner, will lay out proposals to encourage EU countries to buy more weapons together from European companies, and to help such firms increase production capacity, according to EU officials.

BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- China seeks to achieve a GDP growth rate of around 5 percent for 2024, the latest signal that the world's second-largest economy is committed to high-quality development despite uncertainties at home and abroad.

The projected goal, which remains unchanged from the previous year's growth target, is one of the key development objectives unveiled in the government work report delivered by Premier Li Qiang to the national legislature, which began its annual session Tuesday.

URUMQI, March 5 (Xinhua) -- China has achieved a significant breakthrough in deep-Earth exploration with the drilling of a superdeep borehole in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region exceeding the 10,000-meter mark, making it the deepest vertical well in Asia, even though the project as a whole is not yet completed.

BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- China targets economic growth of around 5 percent in 2024, according to a government work report submitted Tuesday to the national legislature for deliberation.

The country expects to create over 12 million jobs in urban areas and keep the surveyed urban unemployment rate at around 5.5 percent this year, according to the report.

BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- In an effort to promote industrial upgrading, China's centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) should put strategic emerging industries and future-oriented industries in a prominent position, an official with the country's top state-asset regulator said Tuesday.

Investment by central SOEs in strategic emerging industries increased 32.1 percent year on year in 2023, Zhang Yuzhuo, chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council, said on the sidelines of the ongoing "two sessions."

BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- China will strive to modernize the industrial system and develop new quality productive forces at a faster pace, according to a government work report submitted Tuesday to the national legislature for deliberation.