THE SPOKESPERSON

 The meeting is being billed as one of the largest international events to be organised in Kashmir in the aftermath of abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. China and Turkey are among G20 member states that won’t attend a tourism working group meeting to be held in Srinagar next week while several other countries will have low-level participation in the event, people familiar with the matter said.The meeting, to be held during May 22-24, is being billed as one of the largest international events to be organised in Kashmir in the aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. Tight security arrangements have been put in place around the venue, Sher-e-Kashmir International Conventional Centre (SKICC) on the banks of the Dal Lake. It was unclear if Indonesia, the last president of the G20 and a member of the grouping’s troika, would participate in the meeting in Srinagar.India has dismissed objections from Pakistan over the holding of G20 meetings in Jammu and Kash

  Walmart is preparing to spend over $2.5 billion in India as the retailer doubles down on the opportunities it sees in India’s e-commerce and payments markets even as the firm contends with rising costs amid the market downturns. Walmart spent about $780 million earlier this month in taxes after PhonePe, in which the retailer owns a majority stake, moved its domicile to India from Singapore. Walmart is also looking to invest between $200 million and $300 million in PhonePe’s ongoing funding round, according to a source familiar with the matter. (PhonePe declined to comment.) The U.S. company, which owns majority stake in Flipkart, is now looking to spend about $1.5 billion to buy back the e-commerce firm’s shares from early backers Tiger Global and Accel Partners, Indian newspaper Economic Times  reported Thursday . India, the world’s second largest internet market, has become a key battleground for Walmart and Amazon. Amazon has spent over $9 billion in India (including i

India’s largest oil and natural gas producer said that the discovery, to the west of its Mumbai High fields in the Arabian Sea, held in-place hydrocarbons reserve of about 30 million tonnes   Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd (ONGC) has found a significant new oil deposit in the Arabian Sea. The Indian Government-run company  said that the discovery , to the west of its Mumbai High Field, is estimated to hold in-place hydrocarbons reserve of about 30 million tonnes of oil equivalent. The discovery of the well WO-24-3 (WO-24-C) was announced by Dharmendra Pradhan, India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas on January 1st 2018, in a written reply to a question in the Parliament. Mr Pradhan said that the drilling identified nine deposits and on testing all the zones flowed oil and gas. The announcement added that the ninth zone on testing flowed oil at the rate of 3,310 barrels per day and natural gas at the rate 17,071 cu meter per day. This multi-layered oil and gas accumulat

 A company incubated out of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, has said they have successfully pulled off forward flight tests of their ePlane e50. Notably, The ePlane Company's e50 is said to be India's first drone with eVTOL capabilities. “eVTOL” is short for electric vertical take-off and landing. It is the smaller, electric battery-fuelled avatar of the VTOL aircraft or ‘jump jet’ that military aviation companies like Harrier first launched in the early 1970s. Writing for Swarajya, journalist Anand Parthasarathy has described eVTOL as “the aerial version of the electric car or Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV).” The plane is designed to take off like a drone and fly like a plane, seemingly suitable for congested urban spaces. The e50 is a sub-scale version of The ePlane Company's flying electric taxi and a stepping stone to the more advanced, full-scale flying taxi, the e200. “We just got a big step closer to our moonshot mission,” the Chennai-based co

  Scientist Nambi Narayanan, recipient of the Padma Bhushan (third-highest civilian award in India), oversaw the creation of the Vikas Engine, which enabled India to advance quickly into the PSLV rocket era. He is currently 80 years old. In order to assist India in launching heavier satellites to higher orbits, he also envisioned and worked toward constructing a far more sophisticated cryogenic engine domestically. PSLV, GSLV and GSLV Mark 3, all three of India's operational spacefaring rockets have one technical feature in common - all of them (in one stage or another) are powered by the 'Vikas' Engine. The liquid-fuelled Vikas Engine is a mainstay of all Indian rockets and continues to do so, till date. 'Padma Bhushan'(India's third highest civilian award) recipeint Nambi Narayanan (now aged 80) is the scientist who led his team to develop the Vikas Engine and help India leapfrog into the era of PSLV rockets. He also envisioned and worked towards dev

  Bangladesh has made a significant decision by granting India permission to use Chattogram and Mongla ports to transit and trans-shipment cargo vessels.The National Board of Revenue (NBR) in Bangladesh issued a permanent standing order stating, “The permanent transit order was issued by the NBR following the completion of trial runs for the operationalization and regular movement of goods." This decision will reduce both time and costs for transporting goods to India's northeastern states and West Bengal while promoting regional connectivity in the Bay of Bengal. Bangladeshi ports, the NBR, customs and other taxation parties involved will draw certain charges in line with the country’s tax and VAT laws. This will include fees for documentation, transhipment, security, scanning, administrative charges, an electric lock and seal fee and toll fees for using Bangladeshi roads, the order said. Situated in the southeastern region of Bangladesh, Chattogram Port serves as t