Latest news with #NewDelhi
Reuters
15 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
India's Russian oil imports up slightly in January-June, data shows
NEW DELHI, July 16 (Reuters) - India's oil imports from Russia rose marginally in the first half of this year, with private refiners Reliance Industries Ltd ( opens new tab and Nayara Energy making almost half of the overall purchases from Moscow, according to data provided by sources. India, the world's third-largest oil importer and consumer, received about 1.75 million barrels per day of Russian oil in January-June this year, up 1% from a year ago, the data showed. The two private refiners have term deals to buy Russian oil, while state companies rely on purchases from the spot market. India's purchases of Russian oil sold at discounted rates surged after Western nations imposed sanctions and stopped buying oil from Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened sanctions on buyers of Russian exports unless Moscow agrees a peace deal within 50 days. Indian refiners expect that any move by Trump is unlikely to disrupt oil supplies but could wipe out the thinning discount on Russian crude, as traditional and new suppliers ramp up output, refinery officials told Reuters. In January-June, Russia continued to be the top supplier to India, accounting for about 35% of India's overall supplies, followed by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. The United States was the fifth-largest oil supplier to India, up from the sixth position it held a year earlier, the data showed. India plans to raise energy imports from the U.S. as it prepares for a trade deal with Washington to avoid stiff U.S. import tariffs. Overall, India's oil imports in January-June rose by 4.3% to about 5.2 million bpd, the data showed. In June, India's Russian oil imports rose 17.4% to about 2 million bpd from the previous month, dragging down the share of Middle Eastern producers and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Malay Mail
15 hours ago
- General
- Malay Mail
Risking it all in the holy river: India's scrap divers search for fortune beneath filth
NEW DELHI, July 16 — At the crack of dawn, Ramu Gupta slings a blue bag onto his shoulder and heads to the Yamuna River in the Indian capital in search of his fortune. The 67-year-old is one of hundreds of gotakhors, or divers, who go to the river to hunt for coins, trinkets, discarded bottles and shards of metal and wood that can be sold in Delhi's booming scrap market. 'I earn approximately 5,000 Indian rupees (RM250) in a month from this,' said Gupta, who spends his days working as a toilet cleaner near the shack where he lives. He saves the extra income for his two grandchildren, hoping to split it between them when they grow up. Items collected by people, who go to the river to hunt for coins and other valuables from the waters of river Yamuna, are kept in a container in New Delhi, India, June 26, 2025. — Reuters pic Hindus consider rivers as holy and pilgrims toss offerings including coins, coconuts and flowers into the water for the 'river goddess' who sustains lives by giving water for drinking and irrigation. They regard the Yamuna River, which originates in the Himalayas, as one of the most sacred in India, cremating the dead on its banks and throwing their most precious possessions, including jewellery, into the waters along with their loved ones' ashes. Gupta and his fellow divers swim beneath the polluted waters, often risking their health in their search for riches. He is at the river in the morning and evening seven days a week, and goes to his regular work during the day — a routine that he has followed for 35 years. Arvind Kumar, 29, has been working on the river full time for nearly 12 years. 'There is no fixed income from this kind of work,' said Kumar, who earns up to 600 Indian rupees per day on average, below the government's minimum daily wage of 710 Indian rupees for an unskilled worker. Pappi, who goes only by the first name, uses a container as he searches for coins and other valuable items thrown by Hindu devotees as religious offerings in the waters of river Yamuna in New Delhi, India, June 26, 2025. — Reuters pic Mostly, the divers collect coins, bottles and plastics. Occasionally they might discover some slivers of gold. More rarely, gold rings and necklaces. Sometimes, they also find bodies, and then the police might call on them to help retrieve them. If they see people carried away by the currents, they might try to rescue them. This makes the divers 'happier than the person rescued,' Gupta said. A devout Hindu, Gupta said he was not afraid of the river because he had the protection of 'Mata Rani', the Hindu mother goddess. 'So why be scared?' he asked. 'If she wants, I will die, if she wants me to live, she'll save me.' — Reuters
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Scripted clip falsely presented as 'theft by Bangladeshi refugee'
"These Bangladeshi/Rohingyas live in huts near the railway tracks and indulge in acts of snatching and robbery," reads the Hindi-language caption of a Facebook video posted on July 7, 2025. The video -- viewed more than 20,000 times -- shows a man using a stick to knock a mobile phone out of the hands of a person filming from a fast-moving train. The man then grabs the phone, which has fallen near the tracks, and celebrates. The same video also surfaced in similar Facebook and X posts after India deported hundreds of people to Bangladesh without trial, drawing condemnation from activists and lawyers who called the expulsions illegal and based on ethnic profiling (archived link). New Delhi says the people deported are undocumented migrants. Bangladesh, largely encircled by land by India, has seen relations with New Delhi turn icy since a mass uprising in 2024 toppled Dhaka's government, a former friend of India. India has also been accused of forcibly deporting Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, with navy ships dropping them off the coast of the war-torn nation. The video circulating online, however, was scripted. A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to a higher-quality Facebook reel posted on July 1 (archived link). The false posts use a horizontally flipped version of the video. "Do not keep your mobile phone and hands outside while travelling," reads its Bengali-language caption, alongside hashtags for "funny reels" and "comedy". The video was shared on the Facebook page of Md Rota Mia, a user based in Bangladesh who describes themselves as a comedian. The page also features similarly staged clips (archived link). AFP has previously debunked other posts misrepresenting scripted videos.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
China's insertion into India-Pakistan waters dispute adds a further ripple in South Asia
With the future of a crucial water-sharing treaty between India and Pakistan up in the air, one outside party is looking on with keen interest: China. For 65 years, the Indus Waters Treaty has seen the two South Asian rivals share access and use of the Indus Basin, a vast area covered by the Indus River and its tributaries that also stretches into Afghanistan and China. For much of that history, there has been widespread praise for the agreement as a successful demonstration of cooperation between adversarial states over a key shared resource. But experts have noted the treaty has long held the potential for conflict. Drafters failed to factor in the effects of climate change, and the Himalayan glaciers that feed the rivers are now melting at record rates, ultimately putting at risk the long-term sustainability of water supply. Meanwhile, the ongoing conflict over Kashmir, where much of the basin is situated, puts cooperation at risk. That latest provocation threatening the treaty was a terrorist attack in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, 2025. In response to that attack, which India blamed on Pakistan and precipitated a four-day confrontation, New Delhi temporarily suspended the treaty. But even before that attack, India and Pakistan had been locked in negotiation over the future of the treaty – the status of which has been in the hands of international arbitrators since 2016. In the latest development, on June 27, 2025, the Permanent Court of Arbitration issued a supplementary award in favor of Pakistan, arguing that India's holding of the treaty in abeyance did not affect its jurisdiction over the case. Moreover, the treaty does not allow for either party to unilaterally suspend the treaty, the ruling suggested. Amid the wrangling over the treaty's future, Pakistan has turned to China for diplomatic and strategic support. Such support was evident during the conflict that took place following April's terrorist attack, during which Pakistan employed Chinese-made fighter jets and other military equipment against its neighbor. Meanwhile, in an apparent move to counter India's suspension of the treaty, China and Pakistan have ramped up construction of a major dam project that would provide water supply and electricity to parts of Pakistan. So, why is China getting involved? In part, it reflects the strong relationship between Pakistan and China, developed over six decades. But as an expert in hydro politics, I believe Beijing's involvement raises concerns: China is not a neutral observer in the dispute. Rather, Beijing has long harbored a desire to increase its influence in the region and to counter an India long seen as a rival. Given the at-times fraught relationship between China and India – the two countries went to war in 1962 and continue to engage in sporadic border skirmishes – there are concerns in New Delhi that Beijing may respond by disrupting the flow of rivers in its territory that feed into India. In short, any intervention by Beijing over the Indus Waters Treaty risks stirring up regional tensions. The Indus Waters Treaty has already endured three armed conflicts between Pakistan and India, and until recently it served as an exemplar of how to forge a successful bilateral agreement between two rival neighbors. Under the initial terms of the treaty, which each country signed in 1960, India was granted control over three eastern rivers the countries share – Ravi, Beas and Satluj – with an average annual flow of 40.4 billion cubic meters. Meanwhile, Pakistan was given access to almost 167.2 billion cubic meters of water from the western rivers – Indus, Jhelum and Chenab. In India, the relatively smaller distribution has long been the source of contention, with many believing the treaty's terms are overly generous to Pakistan. India's initial demand was for 25% of the Indus waters. For Pakistan, the terms of the division of the Indus Waters Treaty are painful because they concretized unresolved land disputes tied to the partition of India in 1947. In particular, the division of the rivers is framed within the broader political context of Kashmir. The three major rivers – Indus, Jhelum and Chenab – flow through Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir before entering the Pakistan-controlled western part of the Kashmir region. But the instability of the Kashmir region – disputes around the Line of Control separating the Indian- and Pakistan-controlled areas are common – underscores Pakistan's water vulnerability. Nearly 65% of Pakistanis live in the Indus Basin region, compared with 14% for India. It is therefore not surprising that Pakistan has warned that any attempt to cut off the water supply, as India has threatened, would be considered an act of war. It also helps to explain Pakistan's desire to develop hydropower on the rivers it controls. One-fifth of Pakistan's electricity comes from hydropower, and nearly 21 hydroelectric power plants are located in the Indus Basin region. Since Pakistan's economy relies heavily on agriculture and the water needed to maintain agricultural land, the fate of the Indus Waters Treaty is of the utmost importance to Pakistan's leaders. Such conditions have driven Islamabad to be a willing partner with China in a bid to shore up its water supply. China provides technical expertise and financial support to Pakistan for numerous hydropower projects in Pakistan, including the Diamer Bhasha Dam and Kohala Hydropower Project. These projects play a significant role in addressing Pakistan's energy requirements and have been a key aspect of the transboundary water relationship between the two nations. With it's rivalry with India and its desire to simultaneously work with Pakistan on numerous issues, China increasingly sees itself as a stakeholder in the Indus Waters Treaty, too. Chinese media narratives have framed India as the aggressor in the dispute, warning of the danger of using 'water as a weapon' and noting that the source of the Indus River lies in China's Western Tibet region. Doing so fits Beijing' s greater strategic presence in South Asian politics. After the terrorist attack, China Foreign Minister Wang Yi reaffirmed China's support for Pakistan, showcasing the relationship as an 'all-weather strategic' partnership and referring to Pakistan as an 'ironclad friend.' And in response to India's suspension of the treaty, China announced it was to accelerate work on the significant Mohmand hydropower project on the tributary of the Indus River in Pakistan. Chinese investment in Pakistan's hydropower sector presents substantial opportunities for both countries in regards to energy security and promoting economic growth. The Indus cascade project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor initiative, for example, promises to provide cumulative hydropower generation capacity of around 22,000 megawatts. Yet the fact that project broke ground in Gilgit-Baltistan, a disputed area in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, underscores the delicacy of the situation. Beijing's backing of Pakistan is largely motivated by a mix of economic and geopolitical interests, particularly in legitimizing the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. But it comes at the cost of stirring up regional tensions. As such, the alignment of Chinese and Pakistani interests in developing hydro projects can pose a further challenge to the stability of South Asia's water-sharing agreements, especially in the Indus Basin. Recently, the chief minister of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which borders China, warned that Beijing's hydro projects in the Western Tibet region amount to a ticking 'water bomb.' To diffuse such tensions – and to get the Indus Waters Treaty back on track – it behooves India, China and Pakistan to engage in diplomacy and dialogue. Such engagement is, I believe, essential in addressing the ongoing water-related challenges in South Asia. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Pintu Kumar Mahla, University of Arizona Read more: Tensions over Kashmir and a warming planet have placed the Indus Waters Treaty on life support India and Pakistan tension escalates with suspension of historic water treaty China's 'nightmare' youth revolution was lit by its neurotic authoritarian leader, Mao Zedong. What can we learn from it? Pintu Kumar Mahla is affiliated with the Water Resources Research Center, the University of Arizona. He is also a member of the International Association of Water Law (AIDA). Pintu Kumar Mahla has not received funding related to this article.
Times of Oman
a day ago
- Business
- Times of Oman
India: Despite slowdown in consumption, office spaces continued to be major attraction for developers
New Delhi: Despite the slowdown in consumption trends, the office space segment remains a major attraction for real estate developers. The growth of retail consumption has slowed down due to a shift in consumption trends toward travel and high inflation in the mid-segment, according to a report by HDFC Securities. The organised retail continues to maintain high occupancy levels, above 90 per cent in Tier 1 cities, due to stable demand from the fashion, food & beverage, and electronics categories. The shift in consumer spending toward travel and experiences, along with inflation pressures on mid-segment consumers, is contributing to a more cautious outlook in this space, the report added. The first quarter of Financial Year 2026 is shaping up as a strong quarter for India's annuity-focused real estate segment, with office spaces showing marked resilience compared to a cooling retail environment. The sector continues to exhibit robust structural demand during Q1FY26, although Q4FY25 saw a decline due to approval delays and weaker EOI-to-sales conversion headwinds. Events like trade wars and market corrections impacted sentiment. However, Q1FY26 begins on a stronger footing. Gross office leasing is steadily increasing, and vacancy levels are trending downward, driven by robust demand from Global Capability Centres (GCCs), the BFSI sector, and flex-space operators. Prime business districts--especially in Bengaluru, Pune, and Hyderabad--are witnessing annual rental growth of 5-7 per cent, signalling sustained occupier confidence. The tightening vacancy rates in these micro-markets reflect a return of corporate demand and growing acceptance of hybrid office formats. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)-compliant assets are also gaining traction, aligning with occupier preferences for sustainable real estate. Developers with large annuity portfolios are positioned strongly, as they are likely to benefit from a mid-to-long-term consumption revival, despite current headwinds in the retail segment. On the other hand, the residential segment experienced a strong rebound in Q1 FY26, driven by robust sales and resilient demand across mid-premium and luxury categories.
