Sri Lanka will proceed with the billion-dollar sale of a deep sea port to China despite protests in an effort to slash its foreign debt.
The Hambantota Port straddles the world’s busiest east-west shipping route and several countries, including neighbouring India, had raised concerns that China could use it for its own military needs.
The government would sign off on the $1.12 billion deal with China Merchants Port Holdings to jointly manage the facility. Cash from the firm’s majority stake will be used to repay part of the island nation’s huge foreign debt.
Pakistan’s Next PM as Nawaz Sharif Quits
Pakistan's Supreme Court unanimously disqualified Nawaz Sharif from the Prime Minister's office after a damning corruption investigation into his family wealth.
As per reports, Nawaz Sharif's brother and Pak's Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif is likely to take over as the next Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Shehbaz’s name was announced during a high-level PML-N meeting.
The younger brother is not a member of the National Assembly or Senate, and will have to get elected to the Senate to be Prime Minister.
The party will have to propose a name for interim Prime Minister, to fill the 45 day vacuum until Shehbaz Sharif gets elected to the Parliament.
Russia Hits Back Over Sanctions
Russia told the United States that some of its diplomats had to leave the country in just over a month and that Russia was seizing some US diplomatic property as retaliation for what it said were proposed illegal US sanctions.
President Vladimir Putin had warned that Russia had so far exercised restraint, but would have to retaliate against what he described as boorish and unreasonable U.S. behaviour.
IL&FS Transportation emerged as the lowest bidder for the Rs. 4,899-crore Zojila Pass tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir. Last year, the Road Transport and Highways Ministry had ordered rebidding for the project awarded to IRB Infrastructure.
The project aims at providing all-weather connectivity between Kashmir valley and Ladakh, which remains cut off from the rest of the world during winters due to heavy snowfall.
ITC to Foray into Perishables
According to Chairman Y.C. Deveshwar, ITC will foray into fruits, vegetables and other perishables segment.
Investments are under way to create climate-controlled infrastructure for an efficient supply-chain.
This would help create jobs in the manufacturing sector while preventing agriculture waste. Investments had also been made in farming for aromatic and medicinal plants in line with ITC’s focus on agri-based health and wellness products.
L&T Q1 Profit Rises
Better performance of its infrastructure and financial services businesses helped Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) report 46% growth in consolidated net profit for the first quarter ending June 30, 2017.
During the period, gross revenue rose 10%. International revenue constituted 34% of the total revenue.
Apple is set to begin testing its 5G technology after the US Federal Communications Commission approved its application to work towards bringing the technology to masses.
Apple is targeting millimetre-wave broadband at higher frequency and smaller wavelength bands.
Millimetre-wave technology helps in larger data transmission at faster speed. But to allow such larger data transmission to go through, a direct line of sight is needed.
Facebook, Google, Samsung and Starry have been already working on this technology for a while.
Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah, Union Minister Smriti Irani and Balwantsinh Rajput filed their nomination papers for Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat.
Amit Shah, who was elected as an MLA from Sarkhej in four consecutive elections in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2007 was instrumental in scripting BJP's victory in 2014 Assembly elections.