Indian equity indices opened in the red on Thursday following profit-booking midcap and smallcap stocks.

At 9:46 a.m., Sensex was down 102 points or 0.13 per cent, at 80,608 and Nifty was at 24,588, down 17 points or 0.07 per cent.

Selling is being seen in the midcap and smallcap. Nifty midcap 100 index is down 482 points or 0.77 per cent, at 57,181.20 and Nifty smallcap 100 index is 168 points or 0.89 per cent, at 18,893.

Among the sectoral indices, Auto, metal, realty, media, and PSE are the major losers. FMCG and pvt bank are the major gainers.

Sun Pharma, HCS Tech, Infosys, TCS, Axis Bank, SBI, and M&M are the top gainers in the Sensex pack. Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement, NTPC, JSW, Reliance, HDFC Bank and NTPC are the top losers.

Deven Mehata, Research Analyst at Choice Broking, said, “Nifty can find support at 24,550 followed by 24,500 and 24,400. On the higher side, 24,650 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 24,700 and 24,800.”

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) extended their support as they purchased equities worth Rs 1271 crore, while domestic institutional investors extended their selling as they sold equities worth Rs 529 crore, on July 16.

Mixed trading is taking place in Asian markets. There is a decline in Tokyo, Shanghai, and Seoul, while the markets of Hong Kong, Bangkok and Jakarta are in the green. US markets closed mixed on Wednesday. AGENCIES

 Three children were among the seven people killed in a fire tragedy in Nice, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said in a post on X.

“Last night in Nice a fire killed seven people, including three children. The rapid action of the firefighters made it possible to avoid many additional victims. The police will shed light on the circumstances of this terrible tragedy,” the minister said.

“The rapid action of the fire department prevented many more casualties,” he said, adding that an investigation is underway to find out the circumstances that led to the fire, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to local media, the building that caught fire is located in Moulins district of Nice.

A total of 25 fire engines and 72 firefighters were pressed into service to douse the fire. AGENCIES

 Electronics manufacturers on Thursday urged the government to prioritise comprehensive support for the local manufacturing of electronics, including the television industry, on the lines of mobile devices.

While mobile phone manufacturing has benefited from numerous incentives, the TV manufacturing sector, despite contributing nearly $12 billion to the economy, is yet to get its due, they said.

“The long-awaited production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme should extend its benefits to televisions or provide alternative manufacturing incentives, particularly for smart TVs,” said Arjun Bajaj, Director of the home-grown manufacturer, Videotex.

Additionally, the classification of TVs larger than 32 inches under the GST slab for luxury goods is outdated.

“Televisions are no longer a luxury item but a necessity for over 200 million households in India. Revising this GST classification would make TVs more affordable, thereby boosting the sector and making these essential devices more accessible to a broader population,” suggested Bajaj.

The industry is reliant on imports for critical components like semiconductors and display fabs, predominantly sourced from China and Taiwan.

While the government has initiated efforts to establish semiconductor manufacturing in India, it is crucial to expedite these projects and also focus on developing domestic display manufacturing capabilities, said industry players.

Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO, Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd (SPPL), said simplifying GST rules, investing in job training and changing tax brackets for consumers are essential steps.

“Keeping the 15 per cent corporate tax rate for new manufacturing ventures would attract both local and international businesses to set up shop in India. Additionally, expanding the PLI scheme in the electronics sector can help Indian manufacturers grow,” he told IANS.

One expected move, suggested Marwah, is to reduce the GST rate on LED TVs larger than 32 inches from 28 per cent to 18 per cent.

“This change aims to boost consumer spending in the electronics sector. Expanding PLI schemes to include smart TVs, refrigerators, and washing machines is also important for market growth and improving manufacturing capabilities,” he mentioned.

The budget holds a critical role in ensuring India maintains its status as the world’s third-largest economy.

India’s contribution of $3.7 trillion to the global economy, within a total of $100 trillion, coupled with its largest population of young individuals, presents substantial untapped potential. AGENCIES

 Higher GDP allocation for healthcare and advances in digital health infrastructure is imperative, said experts ahead of the Union Budget. 

The Union Budget 2024 is slated to be presented on July 23 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

“There is an urgent need to advance digital health infrastructure, particularly in tier II and III cities and rural areas, to enhance health coverage and support existing facilities,” said Jyotsna Govil, Chairperson Indian Cancer Society.

Govil also called for boosting reforms in cancer care by prioritising funding for personalised medicine and immunotherapy.

This, she noted, will make the therapies more accessible to a large number of patients.

While India’s current public healthcare spending remains low with just 1.6 to 1.8 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the experts stressed the need for higher allocation.

“A higher percentage of GDP allocation to healthcare is obviously a long pending demand, I hope it will be met in good measure in this budget,” said Dr. BS Ajaikumar, Executive Chairman, HealthCare Global Enterprises.

He noted that over the years, the government has taken many measures towards making healthcare affordable and accessible for the deprived sections of society.

“However, schemes like Ayushman Bharat are unflinchingly focused on subsidised treatment; the quality aspect is yet largely ignored,” Dr. Ajaikumar said.

He also called for an “effective universal health care model” that can bring out real transformation in the health sector.

In the interim budget, in February, the government had encouraged vaccination for girls in the age group of 9 to 14 years for prevention of cervical cancer.

Dr. Ajaikumar urged for bringing down the cost of vaccinations to prevent cervical cancer.

Health expert Dr. Sameer Bhati stressed the need to provide more facilities for manufacturing medical equipment in India.

“Medical equipment like CT Scan to a large extent, are imported. It will be better if these are manufactured in India,” Bhati said.

He said that boosting digital health can play a big role in better health services in villages. AGENCIES

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has kept India’s growth forecast unchanged at 7 per cent in 2024-25 as it sees the country as the fastest growing economy with robust growth in the industrial sector and a rebound in agriculture due to a better monsoon.

The ADB projected India’s economy to grow faster at 7.2 per cent in 2025-26, in its report released on Wednesday.

“The outlook for India, the region’s fastest-growing economy, is unchanged at 7.0 per cent for fiscal year 2024-25. India’s industrial sector is projected to grow robustly, driven by manufacturing and strong demand in construction. Agriculture is expected to rebound amid forecasts for an above-normal monsoon, while investment demand remains strong, led by public investment,” the ADB report states.

The announcement comes close on the heels of the International Monetary Fund’s upgrade for the growth of the Indian economy to 7 per cent from 6.8 per cent projected in April.

ADB has also raised its economic growth forecast for developing Asia and the Pacific this year slightly to 5.0 per cent from a previous projection of 4.9 per cent, as rising regional exports complement resilient domestic demand. The growth outlook for next year is maintained at 4.9 per cent.

The growth forecast for China, the region’s largest economy, is maintained at 4.8 per cent this year. A continued recovery in services consumption and stronger-than-expected exports and industrial activity are supporting the expansion, even as China’s struggling property sector has yet to stabilise. The government introduced additional policy measures in May to support the property market.

Inflation is forecast to slow to 2.9 per cent in Asia this year amid easing global food prices and the lingering effects of higher interest rates, according to the latest edition of Asian Development Outlook (ADO), released on Wednesday.

After a post-pandemic recovery that was driven mainly by domestic demand, exports are rebounding and helping propel the region’s economic growth. Strong global demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors used for high-technology and artificial intelligence applications, is boosting exports from several Asian economies.

“Most of Asia and the Pacific are seeing faster economic growth compared with the second half of last year,” said ADB Chief Economist Albert Park. “The region’s fundamentals remain strong, but policymakers still need to pay attention to a number of risks that could affect the outlook, from uncertainty related to election outcomes in major economies to interest rate decisions and geopolitical tensions.”

While inflation is moderating towards pre-pandemic levels in the region as a whole, price pressures remain elevated in some economies. Food inflation is still high in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific, in part due to adverse weather and food export restrictions in some economies.

For Southeast Asia, the growth forecast is maintained at 4.6 per cent this year amid solid improvements in both domestic and external demand. This year’s outlook for the Caucasus and Central Asia is raised to 4.5 per cent from a previous projection of 4.3 per cent, driven in part by stronger-than-expected growth in Azerbaijan and the Kyrgyz Republic. In the Pacific, the outlook for 2024 is maintained at 3.3 per cent growth, driven by tourism and infrastructure spending, along with revived mining activity in Papua New Guinea. AGENCIES

The Australian state government of New South Wales (NSW) said on Wednesday that actions have been taken to halt the affiliation of  the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) Construction and General Division with the NSW Labor Party after “appalling” revelations about the union’s state secretary’s alleged bribery deeds.

The announcement came after major media outlets, including The Australian Financial Review, The Age, and The Sydney Morning Herald, revealed that a hidden camera captured CFMEU NSW Secretary Darren Greenfield being passed a 5,000 Australian-dollar bundle of cash (about $ 3,369) as part of a suspected kickback deal, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to local media, the video was filmed during a joint NSW Police and Australian Federal Police operation, which resulted in him being charged with corruption offences in September 2021.

Despite anticipations that he would step aside as the CFMEU’s NSW boss, Greenfield has continued to retain his official position at the union, with his offences yet to be tested before a jury.

“The revelations that have come to light this morning are appalling. There is absolutely no tolerance for criminal or corrupt behaviour in the building industry, in unions or anywhere. It is clear the CFMEU Construction and General Division will not and cannot clean itself up,” the NSW government said in a statement.

The CFMEU, also known as The Construction, Forestry, and Maritime Employees Union, represents more than 100,000 workers nationwide spanning industries like building, construction, shipping, diving, timber, textile, clothing, and footwear.

Given Wednesday’s revelations, the NSW government has written to the state’s Labor Party General Secretary, calling for necessary steps to immediately suspend the union’s affiliation with the NSW Labor Party and stop any donations or affiliation fees.

“We will also ask the Commonwealth Government to review Enterprise Bargaining Agreements in NSW which the CFMEU is party to. Further, the NSW Construction Compliance Unit will work with federal regulatory bodies and act on any allegations,” the state government added. AGENCIES

 Google on Wednesday said it is working with MeitY ‘Startup Hub’ to train 10,000 startups in artificial intelligence (AI), as the tech giant expanded access to its AI models and introduced new language tools for the developers in the country.

At its ‘I/O Connect’ event here, the company unveiled a range of tools, programmes and partnerships to empower Indian developers and startups to be at the forefront of the global AI revolution.

The company said that developers in India now have expanded access to Google’s powerful AI models with the two million token context window in Gemini 1.5 Pro and Gemma 2, the next generation of open models.

“We’re committed to empowering Indian innovators to harness AI’s full potential, creating solutions that not only address India’s unique needs but also shape the future of AI globally,” said Ambharish Kenghe, Vice President, Google.

The opportunities with multimodal, mobile, and multilingual AI are immense, and we’re thrilled to be a part of India’s AI journey, he added.

“The fastest way to build with Gemini is through its developer platform Google AI Studio, and India has one of the largest developer bases on Google AI Studio today,” said the company.

The Google DeepMind India team has expanded Project Vaani, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), which provides developers with over 14,000 hours of speech data across 58 languages, collected from 80,000 speakers in 80 districts.

The team also introduced IndicGenBench, a comprehensive benchmark to evaluate the generation capabilities of LLMs on Indic languages, and open-sourced CALM (Composition of Language Models).

The company said it is introducing Google Wallet APIs to simplify the integration of loyalty programs, tickets, and gift cards.

For developers using the Google Maps Platform, India-specific pricing is being introduced with up to 70 per cent lower costs on most APIs.

Google is also collaborating with the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), offering developers building for ONDC up to 90 per cent off on select Google Maps Platform APIs.

“From consumer experiences to agriculture, to social enterprises, AI has the power to address some of the biggest challenges of our time across many sectors and industries,” said Seshu Ajjarapu, Senior Director, Google DeepMind.

The company will also soon launch the Agricultural Landscape Understanding (ALU) Research API, a limited availability tool designed to make agricultural practices more data-driven and efficient. AGENCIES

As millions of people remain concerned about the safety of their data when they browse the web, Apple has revealed how data tracking is still all-pervasive and browsers can expose users to it without their permission — tracking their behaviour for advertising purposes.

The threats are multiple — data companies can track you across multiple websites, your location data can be collected without your permission, web extensions can violate your privacy and even if you go into private mode, your protections are limited.

In contrast, according to Apple which has released a new film on browser safety, Safari prevents cross-site tracking; helps you protect your location data; has privacy-preserving web extensions; and a state-of-the-art Private Browsing mode with real protections.

Some websites include 100 or more trackers from different companies on a single page.

Data companies are also constantly evolving new techniques to track people, so Apple has gone beyond just blocking cookies by creating ‘Intelligent Tracking Prevention’.

The company uses machine learning to learn which domains are used to track you, and then it immediately isolates and purges the tracking data from your device.

“If you want to see what Intelligent Tracking Prevention is protecting you from, you can look at the Safari Privacy Report,” according to the tech giant.

Safari also hides IP address from known trackers.

“This is important, because your IP address can be used to identify you across websites and sessions, and it can reveal your precise location,” according to Apple.

However, new techniques known as fingerprinting even go so far as to track your system configuration, your fonts and your plug-ins that have been installed.

Even your screen resolution can be used as part of a fingerprint.

This allows them to combine these characteristics of your device to create a “fingerprint” to track you online.

To combat fingerprinting, Safari presents a simplified version of the system configuration to trackers so more devices look identical, making it harder to single one out, Apple informed.

Safari also supports the official WebExtensions standard, so it’s easy for developers to offer extensions from other browsers.

“With Safari, users are informed about the information the extension can access before they enable it. And they can restrict the access an extension has to just a day or to just specific websites,” said the company.

Safari was the first browser to introduce a Private Browsing mode, back in 2005.

The additional privacy protections of Private Browsing in Safari 17.0, Safari 17.2 and Safari 17.5 set a new bar for user protection. AGENCIES

Indian exports remained resilient in the first quarter of current fiscal (FY25), as core export goods such as drugs and pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, organic and inorganic chemicals and readymade garments exhibited positive growth, a report showed on Wednesday.

In the labour-intensive exports category, growth in carpets, handloom products, man-made products, plastic and linoleum and readymade garments was positive, but slower than the previous month, according to a Crisil report.

Other categories such as handmade carpets, and jute manufacturing, including floor covering, leather and leather products recorded contraction.

Petroleum exports fell 18.3 per cent on-year and 18.5 per cent on-month in June.

While oil exports fell, oil imports were positive to meet domestic demand at a time when local refineries are operating above their capacity.

Oil imports rose 19.6 per cent in June compared with 28 per cent in May.

Among imports, fruits and vegetables, non-ferrous metals, project goods, textiles, yarn fabric made-up articles and wood and wood products saw an increase in growth compared with the previous month. AGENCIES