CROATIA-ZAGREB-INDIA-PM-VISIT
(250618) -- ZAGREB, June 18, 2025 (Xinhua) -- Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic (R) shakes hands with his visiting Indian counterpart Narendra Modi during their meeting in Zagreb, Croatia, on June 18, 2025. Four agreements were signed to enhance the cooperation between Croatia and India, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Wednesday. (Josip Regovic/PIXSELL via Xinhua)
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New Indian Express
32 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Nuts about cashews! India emerges largest consumer globally
KOCHI: Indians are munching on cashew nuts like never before. Now, India accounts for more than 30% of the world's processed nuts or kernel consumption. And the demand for nuts, whole or broken, is surging at a phenomenal pace, driven largely by the bakery and snacking industry. According to the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council (INC), the country's insatiable appetite for cashews touched 3.76 lakh tonnes in 2024, and shows no signs of slowing down. For good measure, the projected annual growth in demand stands at 8%. 'The world now looks to India for growth in the nuts and dry fruits market,' INC director Pratap Nair told TNIE. He says the Indian middle class has developed a taste for cashew nuts, not just as a snack but also as an ingredient in baked goods and other food items. 'Take Kaju Kathli, for instance: it has become one of the most popular sweets in the country, both as a gift and for personal consumption, and the demand for roasted cashews to make it is skyrocketing,' said Pratap, who is also a representative of Vijayalaxmi Cashew Company (VLC), one of India's oldest and largest cashew exporters. He noted that post-pandemic, Indians have developed a voracious appetite for snacking on cashews despite their premium price tag of around Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,500 per kilogram for whole nuts. According to INC data, India accounted for 13.5% of global raw cashew production, 36.5% of global processing share, and a staggering 30.5% of total global cashew consumption in 2024. 'The domestic demand for cashews has exploded with the growth of the bakery and snacking industries,' said Hari Nair, of Western India Cashew Company. 'Cashews are an integral part of namkeens (savouries), sweets, and even temple offerings. In fact, the Tirupati temple alone is one of the largest consumers of cashews, using them to make laddoos that are in huge demand among devotees.' Burgeoning domestic consumption has also led to a change in the dynamics of the industry, which was once clustered around Kollam, known as the cashew capital of the world. Swaminathan, a native of Tamil Nadu, established the first cashew processing unit in 1925.
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First Post
34 minutes ago
- First Post
Canadian intelligence report confirms Khalistanis using country as base to promote violence in India
The report acknowledges that Khalistani elements seek to use 'violent means' to establish an independent nation-state in India read more Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands before posing for a photo during the G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis, in Alberta, Canada, June 17, 2025. Reuters Canada's intelligence agency, CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service), has finally acknowledged India's concerns regarding activities of the extremist Khalistani group on Canadian soil. In an annual threat assessment report released Wednesday (June 18), the CSIS noted that violent elements linked to the Khalistan movement remain active in Canada. 'Khalistani extremists continue to use Canada as a base for the promotion, fundraising or planning of violence primarily in India," the report notes. The report acknowledges that these elements seek to use 'violent means' to establish an independent nation-state—Khalistan—largely within India's Punjab region. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD However, the report also warned that India continued to be a 'foreign interference concern' and that Ottawa needed to remain 'cautious'. The report was published as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Canada after a decade to attend the G7 Summit at the invitation of his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney. The report stated that these Khalistani groups were planning to stage massive protests in the wake of PM Modi's arrival in Canada. This development raised concerns among Indian authorities. According to reports, the Indian intelligence agencies had warned their Canadian counterparts of these potential threats and had asked for stringent security measures for the Indian delegation. Modi-Carney meet In a major sign of thaw in bilateral ties, PM Modi on Wednesday met with Carney on the sidelines of the G-7 Summit. The meeting paved the way for the improvement of diplomatic ties between the two nations. Both nations also announced to fully restore their diplomatic relations and appoint new high commissioners. In 2024, former Canada PM Justin Trudeau made damning allegations against Indian diplomats, accusing them of backing criminal harassment and violence against Canadians. Trudeau also accused the Indian government of orchestrating the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist, on Canadian soil. 'It is obvious that the government of India made a fundamental error in thinking that they could engage in supporting criminal activity against Canadians here on Canadian soil, whether it be murders or extortion or other violent acts,' Trudeau had announced. PM Modi's visit to Canada has now laid the ground for a reset in ties as both nations seek to repair relations. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD After meeting with the Canada PM, PM Modi said the discussions were 'excellent' and stressed that India and Canada are connected by a strong belief in democracy, freedom and rule of law." PM Carney, meanwhile, said it was his 'great honour' to welcome Modi at the G7 Summit. 'It's a testament to the importance of your country, to your leadership, and to the importance of the issues that we look to tackle together- from energy security and AI to the fight against transnational repression and terrorism," Mark Carney said.
Time of India
43 minutes ago
- Time of India
India a great place to invest; it is expensive because you are paying for long-term growth: Deepak Shenoy
Deepak Shenoy , Founder, Capital Mind , says India remains a promising long-term investment destination due to its robust economy, outperforming many global counterparts. While some markets may offer temporary gains, India's current valuation reflects its sustained growth potential. Despite recent crude oil price fluctuations, India's OMCs are managing, though refining margins may experience volatility, impacting their overall valuation. Is the consolidation that we are seeing in the market a temporary pause before we start moving higher? The macros look very ripe for the Indian market, the rate cut has come through, the dollar index is cooling off, and with the hope of the earnings improving going ahead in the second half, do you see the markets go higher from here on after a phase of consolidation? And when do you see this consolidative phase getting over? Deepak Shenoy: We are fund managers, we always like the markets to be going up. So we will always have this optimistic view that in general, the markets should go up. But it is very difficult to predict the short term, so we are not really keen on saying no, no it is going to happen three months and six months and all that, but in general there is a lot of uncertainty in the near term, and that near-term uncertainty causes markets to be both volatile upside and downside. There's not much point predicting or trying to do anything about that. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Kulkas yang belum Terjual dengan Harga Termurah (Lihat harga) Cari Sekarang Undo If you look at the longer-term sentiment around 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, – those are a little more understandable from the perspective of the macro. The macro says that India is relatively less leveraged, the government does not have as much debt to GDP as otherwise, our interest rates are much more controllable because inflation is low, we have corporate capex that probably has a lot of room for it to grow because corporate balance sheets are strong. Domestic consumption in terms of retail loans has not picked up meaningfully in the last year or so and I hope that will change. But by and large, those have been the breaking down factors saying we are not growing meaningfully largely right now, but longer term we will do well. Whether this phase is a consolidation phase or before a breakout or whether it will before a breakdown I am not sure, but my feeling is if you are in this for the long term, India is a great place to invest; we have a strong economy, relatively better than perhaps a lot of other countries around the globe. The markets may reward some other pockets basically because they have either been beaten down too much or have a temporary upsurge, but relatively speaking, we are expensive but we are also growing. So, we are paying for long-term growth. If you are in this market, you should not think of the next three or six months as your target territory. You are thinking of five years, I think you have a better chance at making a reasonable return. Live Events You Might Also Like: Iran-Israel Conflict: A Middle East flashpoint that Indian economy can't ignore We can definitely understand your optimism towards the market, that being a fund manager you are always optimistic and you want the markets to go; but the fact of the matter is that there is a rise in the geopolitical tensions and that is impacting crude which is not good for the Indian market. So, give us some sense about how you see the crude movement? Do you believe that such elevated levels are sustainable or could there be a cool off anytime soon? Is it a good time to look out for some OMCs which are any ways cheaper. Deepak Shenoy: OMCs have always been cheap. For one, they are cheap because they do not have any meaningful pricing power. The last few years have been good for them because they have been able to buy crude at whatever price and their retail prices to you and me have been the same more or less for the last three years. We have had no real meaningful inflation or deflation in the fuel prices at the pump for three years now. The crude itself was at $140 in 2008. It is at $70 now, half that price. We are talking of an increase from some $60 odd to some $70 odd, which is not meaningful. From a perspective of whether India can handle this? It is fine. We are okay with everything. What will happen is margins will change for even the OMCs. The overall margins from the refining end will go down a little bit. They get expanded margins or contracted margins on the retail front. So, they are very volatile from that perspective and nobody values them meaningfully. The problem really is that we have great RoEs at certain times, but terrible RoEs at times when we cannot control the prices and the government wants us to take the hit rather than reducing excise duties when crude prices go up. So, I would not meaningfully try to bet long-term on any of these stocks right now, other than short-term momentum bursts. I do not meaningfully see this as a long-term kind of growth-oriented strategy. However, crude prices at an absolute level, are not meaningfully high and most Indian inflation that is imported from the crude basket is slowly starting to change because our mix of vehicles is starting to change, our domestic petrol and diesel prices are more or less stable. Even with geopolitical tension, we have not had any meaningful change in input prices for a lot of raw materials that are based on crude as well. So, I do not see this as a huge thing. Of course, if the prices go beyond $100, $120, then we have bigger problems. You Might Also Like: ICRA forecasts small dip in GDP growth at 6.2 per cent in 2025-26
