Business

Mumbai, Jul 23 (PTI) Budget carrier SpiceJet on Thursday said it has been designated as the "Indian scheduled carrier," to operate flights to the US.

SpiceJet would be the first Indian budget carrier to operate services to the United States.

Currently, only the national carrier Air India is operating flights on India-US routes.

In a regulatory filing SpiceJet said it has been designated as an Indian scheduled carrier to operate on agreed services between between the two countries.

22 July 2020; MEMO: The World Bank has announced that Tunisia will this year be given a finance package of up to $700 million from several international institutions. The package will be within the framework of a reform programme to help the government respond to the effects of the coronavirus crisis.

22 July 2020; MEMO: Egypt’s economic growth will slow to 3.1 per cent in the 2020/2021 fiscal year, according to a Reuters poll.

Growth is down due to the country’s coronavirus pandemic, which has negatively affected tourism revenues.

As the price of gas has fallen, expat Egyptians living in the oil rich Gulf states have sent fewer remittances back home.

22 July 2020; MEMO: American Defence Department announced on Monday that it would buy the eight F-35A fighter jets which had been intended for Turkey as the US ousted Ankara from the joint strike fighter program last year, Defence News reported.

The Hague, Jul 21 (AP/PTI) A Dutch government auction of frequencies that can be used by mobile telecom companies to provide new, high-speed 5G communications raised 1.23 billion euros (USD 1.4 billion), the minister responsible for the sale said Tuesday.

Three companies, KPN, T-Mobile and VodafoneZiggo, bought bandwidth, said State Secretary for Economic Affairs Mona Keijzer said.

BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States has told the Chinese consulate in Houston to shut down in three days, citing a need to protect American intellectual property and information, amid a sharp deterioration in relations between the two countries.

Beijing condemned the order and threatened retaliation. A source said China was considering closing the U.S. consulate in the city of Wuhan.

Ties between the United States and China have become increasingly tense since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan at the beginning of the year.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democratic candidate Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by 8 percentage points in support among registered voters, and the former vice president appears to have a significant advantage among voters who are undecided, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll.

The July 15-21 poll found that 46% of registered voters said they would back Biden in the Nov. 3 election, while 38% would vote for Republican Trump. The remaining 16% are either undecided, plan to support a third-party candidate or may not vote.

Brussels, Jul 21 (AP/PTI) Weary European Union leaders finally clinched an unprecedented 1.82 trillion euro (USD 2.1 trillion) budget and coronavirus recovery fund early Tuesday, somehow finding unity after four days and as many nights of fighting and wrangling over money and power in one of their longest summits ever.

To confront the biggest recession in its history, officials said the EU had a consensus on a 750 billion euro coronavirus fund to be sent as loans and grants to the countries hit hardest by the virus.

WASHINGTON, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The resurgence of COVID-19 cases across the United States is raising the risk of a double-dip recession if the country is unable to reign in the pandemic, economists have warned.

A total of 34 U.S. states have seen increasing rates of COVID-19 infection since the Memorial Day weekend in late May, with the majority of new infections occurring in the south and southwest, said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at accounting and consulting firm RSM US LLP.

Kolkata, Jul 20 (PTI) With several weddings and religious functions being put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many Hindu priests in Kolkata and its vicinity are in dire straits, some even looking for an alternative source of income to make ends meet.

Sushanta Chakraborty, a priest in Agarpara on the northern outskirts of the city, is selling vegetables in his locality, something that he said his "ancestors couldn't have thought of, no matter what the circumstances".