CALCUTTA - Shyam Benegal, one of India’s greatest filmmakers who was a prominent name in global cinema and a pioneer of the parallel film movement of the ’70s and ‘80s, passed away on Monday evening. He was 90. Benegal had been suffering from kidney problems that required dialysis a couple of times a week.

DHAKA, Bangladesh —  has sent a formal letter to India to extradite ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to New Delhi in August amid the student-led protests that ended her 15 years in power, the country’s foreign affairs adviser said. The move likely to further complicate the already frosty Dhaka-New Delhi relationship.

NEW DELHI - The iconic picture of India’s greatest military victory — a painting of the Pakistani army signing the Instrument of Surrender in Dhaka on December 16, 1971 — has been removed from the India Army Chief’s Sena Bhavan. Military veterans have castigated the Narendra Modi government and the military top brass for removing the painting from the wall of the army chief’s office and replacing it with another painting.

President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to adopt a tit-for-tat approach against India’s high tariffs that have stymied US exports to one of the world’s largest consuming economies. Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that his administration would hit back with high tariffs if India continued to slap high levies on American goods and services.

SAN FRANSISCO - Renowned tabla maestro and composer Zakir Hussain passed away on Sunday, December 15, 2024, at the age of 73 in San Francisco. Son of the iconic tabla maestro Ustad Allah Rakha, the 73-year-old legendary musician was admitted in ICU due to heart and lung-related ailments for the last two weeks.

NEW DELHI - Switzerland has announced that it will suspend the most favoured nation (MFN) clause in its double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) with India, starting from January 1, 2025. This will have far reaching consequences on the trade and commerce relations between India and Switzerland. This move will double the withholding tax rate on dividends paid to Indian tax comapnies to 10 per cent from 5 per cent. 

Samsung has accused India's competition watchdog of unlawfully detaining its employees and seizing data in a raid carried out in connection with an antitrust investigation on Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart, a legal filing shows. Samsung is embroiled in the Competition Commission of India's (CCI) investigation that in August concluded that the South Korean giant and other smartphone companies broke anti-trust laws by colluding with Amazon and Flipkart to exclusively launch products online.

MUMBAI - India has appointed Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra as governor of the country's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, for a three-year period. He will take over from outgoing Governor Shaktikanta Das, who also served as secretary in the Ministry of Finance before his six-year stint with the Reserve Bank of India.

 India plans to expand electric vehicle incentives to automakers building models at existing factories in the country, instead of limiting the benefits to automakers willing to build new plants, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.

FCRA registration will also be cancelled if any NGO is not utilising foreign funding as per the aims and objectives of the NGO or if it has not uploaded the annual returns, the ministry said.