Latest news with #2029


Business Standard
16 hours ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Gravita India spurts after PAT climbs 37% YoY in Q1 FY26
Gravita India gained 3.18% to Rs 1,877.20 after the company's consolidated net profit jumped 36.9% to Rs 93.06 crore on 14.5% growth in revenue from operations to Rs 1,039.94 crore in Q1 FY26 over Q1 FY25. Profit before tax stood at Rs 115.93 crore in the June 2025 quarter, up 54.45% from Rs 75.06 crore in Q1 FY25. Total expenses rose 13.62% to Rs 954.07 crore during the quarter. The cost of materials consumed stood at Rs 838.02 crore (up 3.64% YoY), employee benefit expenses were Rs 44.51 crore (up 4.09% YoY), and finance cost stood at Rs 6.05 crore (down 53.32% YoY) during the period under review. EBITDA stood at Rs 111.70 crore in Q1 FY26, up 22.42% YoY. EBITDA margin improved 10.74% in Q1 FY26 from 10.05% in Q1 FY25. Yogesh Malhotra, whole-time director & CEO, Gravita India, said, Q1FY26 marked a strong start to the fiscal year, with Gravita delivering solid operational and financial performance across all key segments. Building on the record-setting momentum of FY25, the company remains firmly aligned with its VISION 2029 roadmapfocused on expanding the capacity across core segments (lead, aluminum, plastic, rubber, and turnkey solutions to 7LTPA+ by FY28) and scaling new verticals, including lithium-ion, paper, and steel. Gravita continues to target 25%+ volume CAGR, 35%+ profitability growth, and 25%+ ROIC, while progressively increasing the share of value-added products to over 50% and non-lead business to over 30%, all anchored by a deep commitment to ESG goals. In Q1FY26, Gravita achieved YoY growth of 12% in volumes, 15% in revenue, 22% in EBITDA, and 39% in PAT, with ROIC remaining healthy at 28%. Value-added product contribution grew by 47%, and domestic scrap sourcing also increased. Supported by regulatory catalysts, global operations, and an integrated supply chain, Gravita continues to drive forward with disciplined execution, a margin-accretive product mix, and a long-term focus on sustainable and profitable growth. Gravita India is a manufacturer of lead, lead alloys & lead products, aluminum alloys & plastic granules, and offers turnkey solutions for the recycling industry and consultancy.


Chicago Tribune
21-07-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Indiana SAT results show students vexed by math, but increase reading and writing scores
Indiana juniors who took the state-required SAT exam improved their reading and writing scores, while posting a slight improvement in math. The 2024-25 scores on the SAT taken by 81,620 juniors showed a 2.7% improvement on the evidence-based reading and writing portion, but just a slight math score improvement from last year. The Indiana State Board of Education reviewed the scores last week after their release. A state law requires students to take a national college entrance exam and receive a passing score no lower than the national cut score. This year's 'at college-ready' benchmark score for reading and writing is 480, while the math score is 530. The College Board administers the SAT. In reading and writing, 54.5% of students scored at or above the college-ready benchmark but in math, just 25.4% received passing scores, compared to 25.2% last year. The pass rate for both reading/writing and math was 24.5%. State assessment guidelines will change next year, as the state board develops a new grading system in line with the state's new diploma standards, effective for the Class of 2029, who begin ninth grade year this fall. Students can choose from a diploma that offers three readiness seals — college-bound, workforce employment, and military enlistment. Under the new model, juniors will still be required to take the SAT, but the scores will only be used toward graduation if a student chooses that option. Board member B.J. Watts said last week he wasn't too concerned about the low math scores because it's likely many of the juniors who took the exam weren't planning on going to college. 'If we only pulled out students who are college-bound, scores change drastically. 'Students may not see their place in that test,' he said. Lake Central High School, one of the largest traditional public schools in Northwest Indiana, with nearly 3,000 students, had the most students passing both portions of the SAT at 51.1%. Its students also had the top math pass rate at 52.8%. Among charter schools, the Hammond Academy for Science and Technology (HAST) had the highest pass rate for both subjects at 21.3%. Among private schools, Illiana Christian had the top pass rate for both subjects at 57.6%, including 59.25% of juniors passing the math portionEBRW Math Both State 54.5% 25.4% 24.4% Lake County Calumet New Tech 23.6% 4.9% 2.1% Crown Point 72% 39.9% 38.7% East Chicago 31% 5% 4.2% Gary West Side 20.5% 9.1% 3.8% Griffith 54.8% 11.5% 11.5% Hammond Central 23.8% 2.6% 2.6% Hammond Morton 22.5% 1.7% 1.7% Hanover Central 69.4% 31.6% 30.1% Highland 59.4% 21.2% 20.3% Hobart 53.8% 19% 17.7% Lake Central 73.9% 52.8% 51.1% Lake Station 31.3% 2.5% 1.3% Lowell 56.3% 21.6% 21.2% Merrillville 37.4% 13.1% 12% Munster 83.1% 46.6% 46.4% Whiting 37.5% 18.2% 14.8% Porter County Boone Grove 71% 35.5% 34.4% Chesterton 69.1% 39.5% 38.9% Hebron 53.3% 16.1% 14.9% Kouts 56.4% 27.3% 25.5% Morgan 71% 38.7% 38.7% NWI Online School (Duneland) 33.3% 4.8% 4.8% Portage 43.4% 16% 14.2% Valparaiso 70.9% 38.9% 38.1% Washington Twp. 81.5% 29.2% 27.7% Wheeler 60.7% 39.3% 35.7% Charter schools 21st Century Charter 25.7% 2.7% 2.7% Gary Lighthouse 10.2% 3.7% 1.9% Gary Middle College 5.3% 0% 0% HAST (Hammond) 56.3% 21.3% 21.3% Neighbors New Vistas 20.8% 4.2% 4.2% Steel City Academy 54.2% 0% 0% Thea Bowman 26.5% 0% 0% Private schools Andrean 81.7% 40.9% 39.1% Bishop Noll 69.7% 22.9% 22.3% Calumet Christian 87.5% 18.8% 18.8% Hammond Baptist 74.2% 29% 29% Illiana Christian 84.8% 59.2% 57.6% Marquette 77.8% 47.6% 44.4% Portage Christian 63.6% 27.3% 22.7% Victory Christian 79.2% 29.2% 29.2% *Indiana Department of Education


The Guardian
16-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Can Australia reach its 2029 housing construction target? Data shows we're already falling behind
Australia will have to build housing at a significantly faster rate than it has in the last couple of decades to meet the government's target of 1.2m new homes between June 2024 and 2029. To hit the target we need about 240,000 new dwellings every year, and new data shows we are already falling behind. The most recent State of the Housing System report predicts we will fall short of the target by more than 260,000 homes, an even bigger miss than was predicted the year before. For decades, Australia built approximately 700,000 to 800,000 new dwellings every five years on average. This increased in the past decade – to more than 1m new dwellings constructed in 2014-2019, and just under 900,000 in 2019-2024. But to meet the 1.2m target, Australia would have to construct 20% more than in either of these five-year windows. There are ups and downs in housing construction for many reasons. But Prof Christian Nygaard from Swinburne University notes that Australia has built at a fairly consistent rate of about 25,000 detached houses and 10,000-15,000 dwellings of other types (apartments etc) a quarter since the 1980s, despite huge changes and economic disruptions. These include big swings in interest rates, the mining boom, introduction of the GST, changes to capital gains and negative gearing, the global financial crisis and even the Covid-19 pandemic. One reason these haven't had huge impacts is because housing construction is determined by the business models and needs of developers, landowners and other stakeholders, who aren't always responsive to price signals. 'If we ignore the internal logic of developers' business models/plans we end up quite substantially overestimating what can be achieved with planning reform and cutting red tape,' Nygaard says. Nygaard also questions whether the 1.2m dwellings target will significantly impact affordability. 'The housing affordability challenges is the greatest for young and newly establishing households, for migrants, low and moderate income households, and First Nations Australians. 'These are also the households that are least likely to be able to compete for new supply.'
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The Independent
09-07-2025
- Science
- The Independent
How Earth's rotation is making today feel like the shortest day ever
Earth 's rotation has recently accelerated, making some summer days fractionally shorter by milliseconds. This phenomenon, though unnoticeable in daily life, significantly impacts high-precision timekeeping systems like atomic clocks and GPS. Scientists at the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service suggest the acceleration is due to a subtle shift in the Moon 's orbital alignment, reducing 'tidal braking'. However, other experts, such as Moscow State University astronomer Leonid Zotov, state the cause remains unexplained, possibly originating from within the Earth. The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service is considering implementing a 'negative leap second' for the first time, potentially around 2029, to resynchronize global time.
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Congress Throws More Money at Removing Immigrants than Most Countries Spend on Their Armies
It's hard to convey just how big the new budget makes the country's immigration enforcement infrastructure. The Bureau of Prisons? Bigger than that. The FBI? Bigger. The Marine Corps? Bigger even than that, by some estimates. All in all, the bill directs around $170 billion through 2029 to various forms of immigration enforcement, according to an analysis by the American Immigration Council and TPM's own read of the legislation. ICE, responsible for enforcement, detentions, and removals, will oversee much of the spending. The picture is not so much of an expanded immigration enforcement system, but of an entirely new one. 'It's going to get really scary,' Adriel Orozco, senior policy counsel for the American Immigration Council, told TPM. 'I do think that we are in a place where the Trump administration is centering a lot of the law enforcement authority of the federal government into the Department of Homeland Security.' Take this example of how the legislation ranks which parts of the immigration system are important. The bill gives ICE $29.8 billion to hire new staff and conduct deportations. That will lead to a hiring spurt of deportation officers; an additional $4.1 billion bump goes to Customs and Border Protection for new personnel. For immigration detention, also overseen by ICE, the bill allocates a whopping $45 billion. If that's not enough, there's more: Remember the wall? It was Trump's big immigration-related promise during the 2016 campaign. It didn't get built during his first term (and Mexico never paid for it, as Trump promised). Congress allocated $46.5 billion for its construction in this legislation. (A Senate source tells TPM that this, too, was drafted in such a way as to be fungible, so it could be used for building detention facilities as well.) It's a headspinning increase from ICE's 2024 funding, that, per a recent CRS report, stood at $9.9 billion. At the same time, the bill adds only a modest number of immigration judges, capping the number at 800 starting in November 2028 — an increase from the current approximately 700. Tom Homan, Trump's border czar, cast the funding surge last week in the administration's favored light: a means of evicting criminal aliens from the country. The operation that the numbers envision goes far beyond that; Homan complained that, at current funding levels, the country only has between five and six thousand deportation officers. 'More agents means more bad guys arrested, taken off the streets of this country every single day,' he said of the new funding. 'Every day we arrest a public safety threat or national security threat, that makes this country much safer. Who the hell would be against that?' To Homan, the Trump administration, and its allies in the right-wing media, every undocumented immigrant apprehended and removed is a criminal alien. It's how they cast the Alien Enemies Act removals, even though a 60 Minutes analysis found that around three-quarters of those removed had no documented criminal background. The point is mostly to justify the massive scale of the resources now being marshaled to detain and eject immigrants. This is all new money to be added on top of that which Congress has already marked for immigration enforcement. Under this legislation, ICE will receive a budget for detention alone that's more than two-thirds larger than that of the federal prison system. The bill also makes a $10 billion slush fund available to the Secretary of Homeland Security, currently Kristi Noem, for reimbursing 'costs incurred in undertaking activities in support of the Department of Homeland Security's mission to safeguard the borders of the United States.' Absent the constant claim, expressed by Homan and others, that undocumented immigrants present a criminal threat beyond the administrative violation of crossing the border, there's little argument for this level of spending. Orozco, the Immigration Council attorney, said that more than half of those currently in immigration detention had no criminal record. 'It's a lie that they're trying to use these resources just for folks with, with serious criminal histories,' he said. For the past five months, immigration enforcement has been the focus of the Trump administration's most egregious abuses of civil liberties. Removing people to El Salvador's CECOT without a hearing; using the military to intimidate anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles. It's the tipping point of the spear for much of the current administration's authoritarian impulses. Because of this, that's about to get a lot bigger.