A man has been arrested after a woman’s body was located in Australia’s eastern state of New South Wales (NSW), local police said on Saturday.

At about 2:30 a.m. local time on Saturday, police attended a home on Johnston Street, Casino, in the state’s north following reports of a concern for welfare, NSW Police said in a statement.

Officers attached to Richmond Police District arrived and assisted the woman, who is believed to be aged in her 40s. However, she died at the scene, reports Xinhua news agency citing the police statement.

A 31-year-old man, believed to be known to the woman, was arrested at the scene and taken to Lismore Police Station, where he is assisting police with inquiries, according to the police statement.

A crime scene has been established, and a critical incident team from Tweed/Byron Police District will now investigate all circumstances surrounding the incident, including all aspects of the response from NSW Police. AGENCIES

 The World Bank said that it has approved a $750 million loan to strengthen the Philippine economy’s recovery.

The Philippines Second Sustainable Recovery Development Policy Loan supports reforms that increase investment in public service sectors, attract private investment in public infrastructure, particularly in domestic shipping, promote renewable energy, protect the environment and improve climate resilience, reports Xinhua news agency.

World Bank Senior Economist Ralph van Doorn on Saturday said the Philippine economy remains resilient despite ongoing global and domestic challenges. “The reforms supported by this lending program, if implemented, will encourage private investment, innovation, and sustained growth,” he said.

Through these reforms, Van Doorn said the Philippines can transition faster to a greener economy and achieve its environmental and climate objectives.

Given the Philippines’ archipelagic nature, he added that marine transport is critical for trade and connecting its numerous islands and destinations, enabling efficient movement of goods and products.

Van Doorn said attracting more local and foreign investments in domestic shipping can significantly boost the country’s competitiveness.

The loan also supports reforms that aim to enhance plastic waste reduction, recovery, and recycling, promote green transportation, and encourage the production and consumption of environment-friendly goods and services through public procurement. AGENCIES

^{Yemen’s Houthi Group Has Said In A Statement That They Have Launched Multiple Attacks Against An Oil Tanker And Other Cargo Ships, Including A Joint Attack With The Iraqi Islamic Resistance.}

^{“Our Armed Forces Carried Out Several Qualitative Military Operations, Including A Joint Military Operation With The Islamic Resistance In Iraq Targeted The Oil Tanker Waler In The Mediterranean Sea With Several Drones While It Was On Its Way To Haifa Port,” Yahya Sarea, The Houthi Military Spokesman, Said On Friday In The Televised Statement Aired By Houthi-Run Al-Masirah Tv.}

^{“Our Naval Forces Carried Out A Military Operation Targeting The American Ship Delonix In The Red Sea With Several Ballistic Missiles. The Operation Led To A Direct Hit On The Ship,” Sarea Added.}

^{“We Also Targeted The Ship Johannes Maersk In The Mediterranean Sea With A Winged Missile, And The Operation Achieved Its Goal Successfully,” He Said As Reported By Xinhua News Agency.}

^{“The Operation Was Carried Out Simultaneously With The Naval Forces Carrying Out Another Military Operation In The Red Sea Against The Ship Loannis. The Ship Was Targeted By Several Unmanned Boats,” He Added.}

^{Since November Last Year, The Houthi Group Has Been Conducting Drone And Missile Attacks In Shipping Lanes, Claiming These Actions Are In Solidarity With Palestinians Amid The Ongoing Conflict In Gaza.}

^{In Response, The Us-British Naval Coalition Stationed In The Waters Has Since January Conducted Air Raids And Missile Strikes Against Houthi Targets To Deter The Group, But This Only Led To An Expansion Of Houthi Attacks To Include Us And British Commercial Vessels And Naval Ships.} AGENCIES

 India has now become the world’s third-largest domestic aviation market after the U.S. and China, as airlines such as IndiGo and Air India have expanded their fleet size to cater to the surge in air passengers, according to data compiled by aviation analytics firm OAG.

The data show India’s domestic airline capacity doubled in the last 10 years from 7.9 million seats in April 2014 to 15.5 million in April 2024 to surpass Brazil and Indonesia and move up from the 5th position.

India has replaced Brazil, which now stands at the fourth place with 9.7 million airline seats followed by Indonesia in fifth rank with 9.2 million.

India has also posted the highest annual average capacity growth rate of 6.9 per cent over the last decade among the top five countries, followed by China at 6.3 per cent and the US at 2.4 per cent.

IndiGo and Air India, which together have more than 1,000 planes on order, account for 9 of 10 domestic seats in the country.

According to OAG, India’s transition to low-cost carriers (LCCs) has been the sharpest among the top five.

In April 2024, LCCs accounted for 78.4 per cent of Indian domestic capacity, followed by Indonesia at 68.4 per cent, Brazil at 62.4 per cent, the US at 36.7 per cent, and China at 13.2 per cent. AGENCIES

 The Indian healthcare sector has become a major target for cybercriminals, experiencing an average of 6,935 cyberattacks per week over the last six months, compared to 1,821 attacks per organisation globally, a new report revealed on Friday.

According to the cyber security provider Check Point Software Technologies, this trend highlighted the increased attack surface due to the rapid adoption of technologies such as electronic health records (EHRs), telemedicine, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

“The simplicity of spoofing email addresses and the capability to deliver weaponised content make email a powerful tool for spreading malware, stealing credentials, and executing social engineering attacks,” said Sundar Balasubramanian, MD for India and SAARC at Check Point Software Technologies.

“Check Point urges users to avoid opening unverified email attachments, use strong passwords, enable multi-factor authentication, and exercise caution with unsolicited or suspicious emails,” he added.

Following healthcare, the most attacked industries in India include education/research (6,244 attacks), consulting (3,989 attacks), and government/military (3,618 attacks), the report mentioned.

The report also highlighted that Indian organisations, on average, were targeted 2,924 times per week over the past six months, compared to 1,401 attacks per organisation globally.

The most prevalent malware in India was ‘FakeUpdates’, accompanied by other malicious software such as ‘botnets’ and a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) named ‘Remcos’.

Information disclosure was the most commonly exploited vulnerability in India, affecting 72 per cent of organisations, followed by Remote Code Execution impacting 62 per cent, and Authentication Bypass affecting 52 per cent.

In the last 30 days, 63 per cent of malicious files in India were delivered via email, while 37 per cent were delivered through the web.

Notably, 58 per cent of the top malicious files delivered via email were executable files, while 59 per cent of malicious files delivered via the web were PDF files, the report said.

“Preventive measures, such as regular software updates, employee training, and the deployment of advanced security solutions, are essential to mitigate the growing threat landscape,” Balasubramanian said. AGENCIES

India government bonds or government securities are set for inclusion in the global bond index from Friday.

JP Morgan will add Indian government bonds to its Government Bond Index-Emerging Markets (GBI-EM) from June 28. It is the first time ever that Indian government bonds would be included in this index.

Government securities inclusion in the global bond index will have a positive impact on the Indian economy.

Indian bonds will have a 10 per cent weightage in the JP Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index. The weightage of India’s government bonds will be gradually increased in this index in a phased manner from June 28, 2024, to March 31, 2025, by one per cent each in the next 10 months.

JP Morgan announced the inclusion of Indian bonds in GBI-EM in September 2023, since then there has been an inflow of more than $10 billion into Indian bonds.

The move will enable foreign inflow to accelerate into Indian bonds. Demand for Indian government bonds will increase due to the inflow of foreign investment. This will increase the size of the Indian bond market. Besides, liquidity and efficiency will also increase.

Till now, only banks, insurance companies, and mutual funds have been major investors in government bonds. Now, a large number of global investors will be able to invest in Indian bonds. This will reduce the bond yield and will also reduce the cost of borrowing for the government which is expected to reduce the fiscal deficit.

Demand for the rupee will increase due to foreign inflow and hence it may remain strong in the coming months. AGENCIES

The scope and scale of operations of ITC’s Agri Business have grown manifold over the years and currently encompasses nearly 3 million tonnes of annual volume in 22 states and over 20 agri-value chains, according to the ITC Annual Report 2023-24.The strategic focus of the business in recent years has been to accelerate growth by rapidly developing and scaling up Value-Added Agri Products (VAAP), straddling multiple value chains comprising spices, coffee, frozen marine products, and processed fruits, among others.

Amid the extremely challenging operating environment, ITC leveraged its strong farm linkages, extensive sourcing expertise enabling traceable, attribute-based and identity-preserved sourcing of agri-commodities, multi-modal logistics capability, agile supply chain operations, deep customer relationships, and focus on scale-up of the VAAP portfolio to sustain business operations during the year.

ITC is one of India’s largest exporters of agri commodities with exports to over 85 countries.

ITC is a leading player in spices such as chili, turmeric, coriander, and cumin. In line with its strategy of enhancing value addition and ‘producing the buy’, the business has, in recent years, scaled up its presence in ‘food safe’ markets viz. the US, EU, and Japan, leveraging its key strengths such as identity-preserved sourcing expertise, strong backward integration, custody of supply chain and customer-focused strategies.

During the year, the business consolidated its position as a preferred supplier in ‘food safe’ markets (private labels, steam sterilised, organic products) leveraging deep customer relationships, portfolio augmentation, and agile execution.

The business scaled up its Organic and Integrated Crop Management (ICM) programmes, thereby enhancing its ability to produce ‘food safe’ spices in a sustainable manner. The business continues to partner with various State Governments for production of ‘food safe’ spices and has maintained an unblemished track record over the years in terms of compliance with stringent food safety parameters.

The business continues to pursue sustainable farm management practices anchored on Rainforest Alliance and Global GAP accreditation.

Capacity utilisation of the state-of-the-art spices processing facility in Andhra Pradesh has been ramped up to enable ITC to expand its customer base in ‘food safe’ export markets, besides promoting inclusive spices value chains benefiting thousands of Indian farmers.

During the year, coffee prices witnessed a sharp increase in the international markets primarily due to lower crop output in Vietnam. The tightness in supply, in anticipation of further price increases, resulted in lower export volumes of Indian coffee. Notwithstanding these challenges, the business registered strong growth in exports, leveraging its strategic presence in key coffee-producing regions of India, deep understanding of estate and region-specific varieties, and focus on premium grades of Arabica, Certified Coffees, Specialty and, Monsooned Coffee.

ITC is one of the leading exporters of value-added frozen marine products from India with expertise in processing individually quick-frozen (IQF), raw and cooked products, adhering to the highest standards of safety and hygiene prevalent in developed markets such as the US, EU, and Japan.

During the year, ITC has emerged as one of the top three exporters of frozen shrimps from India to the EU market by expanding its footprint in sustainably sourced shrimps leveraging the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) programme.

The business also provides sourcing support to the ‘ITC Master Chef’ range of ‘Super Safe’ frozen prawns in the domestic market and supplies high-quality shrimps to ITC’s Hotels Business.

In the Processed Fruits & Vegetables segment, the business continues to expand its footprint in the fruit pulp and tomato paste categories through a robust network comprising a large number of small and marginal farmers in four states.

The business continues to focus on its strategy of moving up the value chain by scaling up its customised crop development and cultivation programme in Madhya Pradesh to further enhance its expertise in Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Extracts (MAPE).

Collaborations with farmers are being strengthened with the business providing necessary inputs, advisory, on-field support, and enabling farmers to ‘produce the buy’. AGENCIES

 The Maruti Suzuki Swift has achieved a new milestone of three million sales in India, the company said on Friday.

The launch of the Epic New Swift in May has created new benchmarks and propelled the revered Swift legacy to its three million sales milestone, according to the company.

“With each new generation, the Swift has continued to raise the bar, offering cutting-edge technology, contemporary style, and that unmistakable ‘Swift DNA’ which continues to captivate customers,” Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India, said in a statement on Friday.

“This accomplishment fills us with immense gratitude, and we are thankful to all Swift owners across the country,” he added.

Inspired by the iconic Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle, the Swift was launched in 2005 with segment-first features such as climate control, airbags and an anti-lock braking system (ABS).

The brand has achieved over 6.5 million sales globally, with India being Swift’s largest market.

The Swift surpassed one million sales in 2013 within eight years since its introduction, and the two million sales mark was breached in 2018, the company mentioned.

In May, the carmaker launched the fourth generation Epic New Swift at a starting price of Rs 6.49 lakh (ex-showroom) in the country. AGENCIES

 The latest round of 15-20 per cent mobile tariff hikes for prepaid and postpaid plans by telecom service providers (TSPs) can result in additional operating profits of around Rs 20,000 crore for the industry once these hikes are fully absorbed, industry experts said on Friday.

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are likely to witness a significant average revenue per user (ARPU) benefit after the tariff hike. Vodafone Idea is yet to implement the mobile tariff hike.

“This will result in increased profit generation, thereby providing headroom for the industry to undertake deleveraging as well as fund capex for the technology upgrade as well as network expansion,” said Ankit Jain, Vice President and Sector Head of Corporate Ratings, ICRA.

ICRA expects the industry revenues to grow by 12-14 per cent in FY25, which given the operating leverage, is likely to translate into healthy expansion in operating profits by 14-16 per cent.

The telecom industry is likely to report revenues of Rs 3.2-3.3 lakh crore with operating profits of Rs 1.6-1.7 lakh crore in FY25.

“The improvement in operating profits coupled with the muted participation in the latest spectrum auctions and expected moderation in the capex intensity, the debt levels are expected to moderate to around Rs 6.2-6.3 lakh crore as on March 31, 2025, with the expectation of further decline going forward,” said ICRA.

According to a note by Morgan Stanley, we expect other players, including Bharti Airtel, to follow and announce price increases soon for 4G subscribers.

“We estimate that blended ARPU would benefit in the range of 16-18 per cent for Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio,” said the note.

AGENCIES

E-sports and gaming company NODWIN Gaming on Friday said that it will be acquiring Berlin-based global full-service gaming and esports agency Freaks 4U Gaming for Rs 271 crore.

The company’s Singapore-based subsidiary NODWIN Gaming International Pte has signed definitive agreements to increase its existing 13.51 per cent stake in Freaks 4U Gaming to 100 per cent in tranches through a share swap.

“This acquisition is a pivotal step in our global growth strategy. By integrating Freaks 4U Gaming’s expertise and resources, we are poised to deliver unparalleled services and expand our global footprint in the gaming and esports industries,” Akshat Rathee, Co-Founder of NODWIN Gaming, said in a statement.

NODWIN Pte will initially increase its existing stake in Freaks 4U Gaming to 57 per cent and the remaining 43 per cent held by the founders Michael Haenisch, Matthias Remmert and Jens Enders will be swapped at a later time at its option.

Existing investors of Freaks 4U Gaming will become shareholders of NODWIN Pte, according to the company.

“With our shared vision and ambition, we look forward to driving our global expansion while spearheading innovation and growth for gaming and esports,” said Haenisch.

Freaks 4U Gaming offers a multitude of agency services and best-in-case solutions to brands and publishers and generated Rs 223 crores in 2023.

Last year, NODWIN Gaming’s Singapore acquired a 100 per cent stake in game marketing agency PublishME for $2 million from its existing shareholders Nazara Technologies (NS:NAZA) and Ozgur Ozalp.

AGENCIES