India doubled the import tax on more than 300 textile products to 20 percent on Tuesday as the world's biggest producer of cotton tries to curb rising imports from China.

It was the second tax hike on textiles in as many months after an increase on other products including fibre and apparels last month.

The moves are expected to provide relief to the domestic textile industry, which has been hit by cheaper imports. India's total textile imports jumped by 16 percent to a record $7 billion in the fiscal year to March 2018. Of this, about $3 billion were from China.

Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp reported a 49 percent jump in quarterly profit on Monday, boosted by the sale of its stake in Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart in the first public divestment by the conglomerate’s massive Vision Fund.SoftBank, which is planning to list its domestic telecoms business, also said profit was bolstered by the sale of most of the Chinese operations of chip design unit ARM Holdings.The sales are the first signs of SoftBank monetizing its investments after pumping billions of dollars into technology companies around the world yet taking little profit.

Its Vision Fund is the world’s largest private equity fund, raising over $93 billion at its first major close in May last year. The fund, which is yet to complete its final close, had invested $27.1 billion in 29 firms as at June-end, SoftBank said on Monday.

Its investments are now worth $32.5 billion on the rising value of its various stakes such as in shared office space company WeWork Cos. SoftBank has around 1,700 of its own staff currently using some of WeWork Japan’s 6,250 seats.

“We are considering moving all of SoftBank’s headquarters into WeWork (offices) in the near future,” Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said on Monday.

Son has previously said a second Vision Fund is being planned, but on Monday declined to comment on timing or size.

Donald Trump  has warned America’s trading partners that anyone who does business with Iran will not be doing business with the US, after his administration reimposed blanket sanctions.

The US president described the new sanctions, which hit Iran’s access to dollars, gold and precious metals, as “the most biting ever imposed”.

“In November they ratchet up to yet another level,” he tweeted. “Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States. I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!”

Within hours of the sanctions taking effect, the German carmaker Daimler, which announced a joint venture in Iran last year, said it was halting its business activities in the country.

The punitive measures came into force in the early hours of Tuesday, and follow Trump’s decision in May to renege on the landmark 2015 deal to curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The sanctions also target a range of industries, including Iran’s carmaking sector, and will be followed by a set of additional and even more stringent measures by 4 November, including an embargo on the import of Iranian oil and sanctions on its banking sector.

Trump’s latest comments appear aimed at the EU, which is attempting to protect European businesses from the sanctions and has vowed to safeguard firms.

The nominating committee of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has selected Ajay Data, Founder & CEO of Data XGen Plus and a global leader in email linguistic services, as a new council member of Country Code Supporting Organisation (ccNSO).

Ajay Data is the first Indian to have been selected as a member of ccNSO and will be representing India at a global level. He will be the custodian of Asia, Australia and Pacific Islands as a member of ccNSO.

Data has got a two-year term and will take up the position during ICANN 63 Meet in Spain in October 2018. The members of ccNSO, which is ICANN’s policy development body for ccTLD (country code top-level domains) issues, are all country code top level domain operators from around the world.

Amaravati: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will unveil the world's first-ever thermal battery in his Andhra Pradesh state on Monday.

Manufactured by the Bharat Energy Storage Technology Private Limited (BEST), the first-of-its-kind cell is aimed at boosting up renewable sources of energy production, instead of non-renewable fossil fuel-based energy generation.

The technology, which will help in mitigating carbon emissions, is best suited for grid balancing and stabilisations. It will also be used to store energy for telecommunication, commercial establishments, electric vehicles and highway charging stations. It can also be effectively used in remote locations, such as hilly terrains and islands.

The BEST also aims to set up a Greenfield Project in India, at an estimated cost of Rs. 660 crores, through which nearly 3000 jobs are expected to be created within three years' time.

The Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Shri Nitin Gadkari launched Bidder Information Management System (BIMS) and Bhoomi Rashi and PFMS linkage - two IT initiatives of the Road Transport & Highways Ministry that are aimed at expediting pre construction processes relating to bidding and land acquisition respectively. The Minister also announced institution of Annual Awards for Excellence in National Highways Projects from this year onwards.

BIMS is aimed at streamlining the process of pre-qualification of bidders for EPC Mode of contracts for National Highway works with enhanced transparency and objectivity. The portal will work as a data base of information about bidders, covering basic details, civil works experience, cash accruals and network, annual turnover etc. The pre-qualification of bidders can be assessed from data already stored in the portal, so that technical evaluation can be carried out much faster. BIMS will be used by all the project implementation agencies of the Ministry for maintenance of technical information of civil works of contractors/ concessionaires, and for online technical evaluation of civil works bids. The bidders would be responsible for ensuring that their latest details are available on the BIMS portal. These details will be used by bidders to apply for any RFP for civil works on EPC mode that has been floated by the Ministry and its implementation agencies on the Central Public Procurement Portal (CPPP). The BIMS portal will be operated in conjunction with the CPPP portal for invitation of bids for civil works for EPC mode. It is estimated that BIMS portal will significantly reduce the procurement time for projects through an objective and transparent online evaluation system thereby leading to accelerated project implementation.

Italian motorcycle-maker Benelli today signed an MoU with Telangana government and Adishwar Auto Ride International (AARI), a subsidiary of Mahavir Group, for setting a manufacturing facility here.

The group company would initially start assembling CKD (completely knocked down) kits of the bike here for Benelli and the partnership entitles Adishwar to assemble, manufacture bikes and import exclusive range of the bikes from Italy and SouthEast Asian regions, managing director of Benelli India Vikas Jhabakh said in a press conference.

Established in 1911, Benelli is one of the oldest Italian motorcycle-manufacturer and has presence in over 60 countries such as America, Africa, Europe and Asia Pacific regions.

"In 2005, Benelli became part of Qjian Jiang Group, China. As of now, we are selling about 2,500 bikes in India. We aim to assemble 10,000 units in the first phase. Once we reach that figure, we aim to go in for production here," he said.

Manama: Saudi Arabia said it was freezing all new trade and investment relations with Canada and declared the Canadian ambassador to Riyadh as persona non grata, giving him 24 hours to leave the kingdom, in response to Canada’s call for the release of anti-government activist Samar Badawi.
Riyadh also recalled its ambassador to Canada for consultations and stressed it retained its right to take further action, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Monday morning.

The Saudi decisions were in reaction to Canada’s "blatant and unacceptable interference" in the domestic affairs of the kingdom, the ministry explained.