India

NEW DELHI (AP) — President Joe Biden opened his visit to India on Friday by meeting privately with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Indian leader’s home in a session the White House said was marked by “undeniable warmth and confidence” in one another going into the annual Group of 20 summit where climate, economic security and more will dominate the weekend’s talks.

NEW DELHI, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Invites sent by Indian President Droupadi Murmu calling herself "President of Bharat" for a dinner on the sidelines of the G20 summit have stirred speculation that the government may be about to change the country's name.

WHAT IS THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT INDIA'S NAME?

By convention, invitations issued by Indian constitutional bodies have always mentioned the name India when the text is in English, and the name Bharat when the text is in Hindi.

NEW DELHI, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Indian President Droupadi Murmu's reference to herself as the "President of Bharat" in a dinner invitation, instead of "President of India", sparked controversy on Tuesday, with critics saying the name of the country is being distorted.

Murmu is hosting a reception for G20 leaders during the group's summit on Saturday and invitations were sent from her office.

India is also called Bharat, Bharata, Hindustan - its pre-colonial names - in Indian languages and these are used interchangeably by the public and officially.

NEW DELHI, Sept 3 (NNN-PTI) – Two people were killed, and five others injured, early today after a two-story building collapsed in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, officials said.

The building collapsed on Darga Road in Bhiwandi area of Thane district, about 37 km north-east of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra.

NEW DELHI, Sept 3 (NNN-Bernama) — Chinese petroleum company Sinopec will submit a request for proposal (RFP) document to set up a new refinery in Sri Lanka’s south, said Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera on Sunday.

The Sri Lankan minister said this after a meeting with Sinopec officials in Colombo.

“Sinopec Refinery officials assured their commitment to establish a new refinery in Hambantota and that they will submit the RFP before the deadline next week,” Wijesekera said.

NEW DELHI, Sept 3 (Reuters) - India switched off its moon rover, the first craft to reach the lunar south pole, after it completed its two-week assignment conducting experiments, the country's space agency said.

The Pragyan rover from the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was "set into Sleep mode" but with batteries charged and receiver on, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, late on Saturday.

NEW DELHI, Sept 2 (NNN-Bernama) — India’s fair competition panel has approved the merger of Vistara airline with Air India.

The merger creates a larger Tata Group airline to take on domestic market leader IndiGo.

Vistara is the brand name of Tata SIA Airlines Limited, which is 49 per cent owned by Singapore Airlines.

Sept 2 (Reuters) - An Indian court on Saturday decided that Jet Airways (JET.NS) founder Naresh Goyal will remain in India's financial crime agency's custody until Sept. 11, the agency said in a press statement.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which investigates financial crimes in India, arrested Goyal late on Friday.

Jet Airways did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Goyal hasn't commented publicly on the case in the past.

NEW DELHI (AP) — India launched its first space mission to study the sun on Saturday, less than two weeks after a successful uncrewed landing near the south polar region of the moon.

The Aditya-L1 spacecraft took off on board a satellite launch vehicle from the Sriharikota space center in southern India on a quest to study the sun from a point about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth. The point, known as L1, affords an uninterrupted view of the sun.

BENGALURU, Aug 30 (Reuters) - The Bank of Canada is expected to hold its key interest rate steady at 5.00% on Sept. 6 and stay at that level through at least the end of March 2024, according to a majority of economists in a Reuters poll, with a small but growing minority expecting one more rate rise.

Inflation, which the Canadian central bank targets at 2%, rose more than expected to 3.3% in July, and further price rises continue to be the upside risk to expectations the BoC has already reached its terminal rate.