The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has recommended to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman that the Union Budget should strive to shift the focus from macroeconomic parameters, such as reining in fiscal deficit and inflation, to real problems facing the economy.

The party has diagnosed that emphasis on meeting fiscal targets and controlling inflation needs to be overcome to spur growth.

Shares of cement companies were trading firm on the BSE on Thursday amid hopes of earnings improvement with Ramco Cements hitting a 52-week high, while Heidelberg Cement rallied 5 per cent intra-day.

In the past month, the share prices of JK Cements, Shree Cement, JK Lakshmi Cement, India Cements, Orient Cement, Birla Corporation, Ramco Cements and Heidelberg Cement have all soared over 10 per cent.

Malaysia's top sugar refiner said it will increase purchases of the commodity from India, which according to two sources is part of efforts to placate New Delhi amid an ongoing spat over palm oil imports.

MSM Malaysia Holdings Berhad will buy 130,000 tonnes of raw sugar from India worth 200 million ringgit ($49.20 million) in the first quarter, the company told Reuters. It bought around 88,000 tonnes of raw sugar from India in 2019.

India has once again slammed Pakistan for spewing venom and false narratives of monumental proportions in the United Nations about Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking at a session of the General Assembly on Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization on Wednesday, India's Deputy Permanent Representative to UN, Nagaraj Naidu, said that Islamabad is indulged in hate speech against New Delhi and spreads false propaganda about J&K at global level every time it speaks at UN or any other international forum.

A case has been registered against former Indian cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin and two others in Aurangabad in Maharashtra after a travel agent lodged a police complaint alleging that they cheated him to the tune of Rs 20.96 lakh, an official said on Thursday.

Azharuddin, however, dismissed the allegation as "baseless", and said he will take legal action against the complainant, Mohammed Shahab.

Private lender Axis Bank surged as much as 3.4 per cent, to Rs 737.3 on the BSE, in the early trade on Thursday after the bank's loan growth touched a 7 quarter high during the December quarter of FY20 despite the slowdown in the economy. That apart, the bank's provisions declined 1.34 per cent sequentially to Rs 3,470.92 crore in Q3FY20.

The bank's loan book for the quarter ended December 31, 2019 stood at Rs 5.5 lakh crore, up 16 per cent year-on-year.

Oil prices fell to their lowest in seven weeks on Thursday on concerns that the spread of a newly identified respiratory virus from China may lower fuel demand at the same time a report showed oil inventories in the United States rose last week.

The so-called novel coronavirus has killed 17 people because of respiratory illness since it emerged late last year in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

In a reshuffle in the Haryana cabinet, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar was allocated three more portfolios including the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) with immediate effect.

According to a government notification, state home minister Anil Vij, who was earlier heading the CID, was divested of the charge. He will, however, continue to head the Haryana's home ministry.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi (pictured) on Wednesday reviewed the progress made in nine delayed projects spread across as many states at the first meeting of ‘Pragati’ this year.

These projects, worth over Rs 24,000 crore, are spread over Odisha, Telangana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh.

A judge in Canada approved a CAD $196.5 million (114 million pounds) fine against Volkswagen AG on Wednesday after the company pleaded guilty to dozens of counts of diesel emissions violations.

Volkswagen was charged in December with importing nearly 128,000 vehicles into Canada violating emissions standards. VW pleaded guilty after being charged with 60 counts of breaching the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and providing misleading information.

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