Business

Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani set the tone for the Group's renewed commitment to Andhra Pradesh (AP), praising the scale of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's vision and reaffirming the conglomerate's rapid push on the Google-data-centre collaboration and expanded investments across ports, green energy, education and the development of a world-class Amaravati, the administrative capital of the coastal state.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while replying to the discussion in Rajya Sabha, said the higher duties on cigarettes will be shared with the states. "This is not a cess but excise duty. The amount will be redistributed to the States as per the Finance Commission's recommendations."

In a move to make citizen services faster and safer, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has announced that Passport Verification Records (PVR) are now available on DigiLocker. The initiative, developed by the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) of MeitY in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), aims to make document access simple, secure, and paperless for every citizen, according to the Ministry of Electronics & IT.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to India has drawn strong attention from industry leaders, who believe the trip could mark a new chapter in trade relations between the two nations. Industry experts say the discussions are focused on boosting bilateral trade, balancing imports and exports, and identifying new areas of cooperation in technology and industry.

The report mentioned that India's pharmaceutical industry is entering a decisive new phase marked by tighter supply chains, sustainable manufacturing pressures and an accelerated global shift toward advanced biologics.

Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov said that Russia wants to increase supplies of Indian goods in their market.