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Japan is providing a major US chipmaker a subsidy of up to 46.6 billion yen (USD 322 million) to support its plan to produce advanced memory chips at a Hiroshima factory, the Japanese trade minister said Friday.

The RBI on Friday retained its inflation projection for FY23 at 6.7 per cent amid geopolitical concerns triggered by Russia-Ukraine war, and expected inflation to be under control from January.

The Reserve Bank's decision to hike the interest rate by half a percentage point on Friday was on expected lines and another increase by 50-60 basis points is likely this fiscal due to sticky inflation, said analysts. While raising the key short-term lending rate (repo), the Reserve Bank said the consumer price index (CPI) based inflation would remain at around 6 percent in the second half of the current financial year.

Veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who filed his nomination for the post of party president on Friday, said he was fighting for big change in the party. He also appealed to all delegates to vote for him. "I thank senior leaders from all states for supporting me in the Congress presidential election," Kharge told reporters at the AICC office after filing his nomination. His candidature was proposed by party leaders Ashok Gehlot, Digvijaya Singh, Pramod Tiwari, PL Punia, AK Antony, Pawan Kumar Bansal and Mukul Wasnik. G23 leaders Anand Sharma and Manish Tewari have also backed him.Kharge is one of the most experienced persons in the party and is a Dalit leader too, Tewari said. Friday is the last day for filing nominations for the top party post. 

Rajasthan High Court on Friday extended the stay on holding fresh election to the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) till further orders. The RCA election in which Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav was in the fray for the post of president was scheduled to be held on Friday. Justice Mahendra Goyal also issued notice to the RCA's Election Officer Ramlubhaya, Principal Secretary Sports of Rajasthan Government and Registrar cooperative to file their replies within a week. The matter has now been placed for hearing on October 11.

The body of a 20-year-old youth was found on the railway track here on Friday morning, police said. The deceased was identified as Suraj Yadav, a resident of Nekpur Kala under Kotwali Fatehgarh, they said. According to police, his body was found on the railway track between Fatehgarh and Farrukhabad located near his house. In a complaint filed by the mother of the deceased, she alleged that her son was murdered over a love affair a girl, they said.

Preparations are underway to arrest Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Raghav Chadha since he was appointed as the party's co-incharge of political affairs in Gujarat, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed on Friday. Kejriwal, however, did not specify which agency was working on the alleged plan to arrest Chadha and on what charges. Rajya Sabha MP Chadha, who is credited with playing a significant role in the AAP's victory in the assembly elections in Punjab earlier this year, was recently appointed as co-incharge of the party's political affairs in Gujarat where elections are due this year. "We are hearing that these people will arrest Ragav Chadha now since he has been appointed as co-incharge of Gujarat and he has started participating in poll campaigns in Gujarat," Kejriwal, the AAP’s national convenor, said in a Tweet in Hindi. "In which case they will (arrest) and what will be the allegations, these people are working on these points at present," he added. Kejriwal's claim comes after the CBI arrested the party's media communications in-charge Vijay Nair in connection with the alleged Delhi excise policy "scam" on Tuesday.

Air India will introduce 20 additional weekly flights to Birmingham, London and San Francisco in next three months as the Tatas-owned airline seeks to strengthen its international presence.  With 5 additional flights a week to Birmingham, 9 additional flights to London and 6 additional flights a week to San Francisco, more than 5,000 additional seats will be offered every week to customers, the carrier said in a release on Friday. The airline's current schedule of 34 flights every week to the UK will now go up to 48 flights. Birmingham will receive extra five flights per week, three from Delhi and two additional from Amritsar. London will receive nine additional weekly flights, of which, five are from Mumbai, three from Delhi and one from Ahmedabad.

The Reserve Bank of India on Friday slashed the growth projection to 7 per cent for the current fiscal from the earlier forecast of 7.2 per cent, citing aggressive tightening of monetary policies globally and moderation in demand. Unveiling the fifth monetary policy for this fiscal, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the central bank remains committed to price stability to put the country on the sustained path of growth. Real GDP growth in the first quarter of the current fiscal was 13.5 per cent. Das, however, cautioned that there is a third wave of shock globally triggered by aggressive monetary policy tightening to curb inflation. The central bank in April slashed the real GDP growth projection to 7.2 per cent from its earlier forecast of 7.8 per cent for 2022-23. 

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Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Digvijaya Singh will file their nominations for the upcoming party president election on Friday, the last day of the process. A tent has been set up in the lawns of the AICC headquarters here and party leaders can file their nomination papers between 11 am and 3 pm. Singh met Tharoor on Thursday and the latter said they agreed that theirs is "not a battle between rivals but a friendly contest" among colleagues. Senior party leader Mallikarjun Kharge is also likely to enter the contest with the blessing of the Gandhi family. He is likely to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi soon.

Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra has issued orders for the appointment of vice chancellors to eight universities in consultation with the state government. According to an official statement issued on Thursday, Dr Abhay Kumar Vyas has been appointed as the vice chancellor (VC) of Agriculture University, Kota; Prof Bagda Ram Choudhary of Agricultural University, Jodhpur; and Dr Arun Kumar of Swami Kesavanand Rajasthan Agricultural University, Bikaner. Prof Ramsevak Dubey has been appointed as the VC of Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Rajasthan Sanskrit University, Jaipur; Dr Ajit Kumar of Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur; and Prof Pradeep Kumar Prajapati of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Rajasthan Ayurved University, Jodhpur. Prof Kailash Sodhani has been appointed as the VC of Vardhman Mahaveer Open University, Kota; and Dr Balraj Singh of Shri Karan Narendra Agricultural University.

India has entered into a collaboration with the US state of California for research and innovation in the field of zero-emission vehicles to spur the development of its nascent EV industry and address climate risks. California has the world’s most advanced zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) policies. It has an ambitious 100 per cent ZEV mandate by 2035. As part of the collaboration, the University of California, research institute Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, established a new India ZEV Research Centre. The California-India ZEV Policy programme is aimed at supporting ZEV uptake in India, spurring the development of an EV industry in India and contributing to India’s industrial growth.

Irate villagers, mostly women, blackened the face of a school teacher with ink and garlanded him with shoes in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district for allegedly showing pornographic videos to girls inside the classroom and touching them inappropriately. After the police, on finding out about the incident, rescued the accused and took him to an outpost, the villagers staged a dharna demanding that he be sent to jail immediately. At least six girl students of an upgraded middle school in Noamundi block had told their parents that the teacher showed them indecent videos and touched them inappropriately, a police officer said. The villagers then lodged a written complaint against the accused on Wednesday.

Britain's Royal Mint has unveiled the first coins to feature the portrait of King Charles III. Britons will begin to see Charles' image in their change from around December, as 50-pence coins depicting him gradually enter circulation. The new monarch's effigy was created by British sculptor Martin Jennings, and has been personally approved by Charles, the Royal Mint said Friday. In keeping with tradition, the king's portrait faces to the left — the opposite direction to his mother's, Queen Elizabeth II.

Rescue crews piloted boats and waded through inundated streets Thursday to save thousands of Floridians trapped amid flooded homes and shattered buildings left by Hurricane Ian, which crossed into the Atlantic Ocean and churned toward South Carolina. Hours after weakening to a tropical storm while crossing the Florida peninsula, Ian regained hurricane strength Thursday evening over the Atlantic. The National Hurricane Center predicted it would hit South Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane Friday. The devastation inflicted on Florida came into focus a day after Ian struck as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane, one of the strongest storms ever to hit the U.S. It flooded homes on both the state's coasts, cut off the only road access to a barrier island, destroyed a historic waterfront pier and knocked out electricity to 2.67 million Florida homes and businesses — nearly a quarter of utility customers.

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The Vande Bharat Superfast Express train which Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be flagging off on Friday morning will run six days a week between Mumbai Central and Gandhinagar stations, Western Railway said. In a late evening release on Thursday, it said that Vande Bharat Superfast Express will run six days a week except Sundays. The train will depart from Mumbai Central at 6.10 am and reach Gandhinagar at 12.30 pm. It will depart from Gandhinagar at 2.05 pm and arrive at Mumbai Central at 8.35 pm, the release said. It will halt at Surat, Vadodara and Ahmedabad stations in both directions. The train comprises AC Chair Car and Executive Chair Car compartments and will offer facilities such as sliding doors, personalized reading lights, mobile charging points etc. 

At least 10 people were injured when a truck rammed into a tractor in the Debai area here on Thursday night, police said. District Magistrate Chandra Prakash Singh and senior police officials rushed to the spot after the incident. Singh said the injured were shifted to a hospital and five among them were later referred to Aligarh Medical college. A child, who was in the tractor, is said to be critical, he added. A car and a tractor collided and a truck coming from the Aligarh side rammed into the tractor, he said.

A Jamia Millia Islamia student was shot at and injured by another student inside the Holy Family Hospital in southeast Delhi's Jamia Nagar area Thursday evening, police said. Around 8:50 pm, information was received regarding a quarrel at Jamia Millia Islamia university library, they said. During inquiry, it was found that the fight had ensued between two groups of students, a senior police officer said. In the incident, one student, Noman Chaudhary (26), a resident of Meerut district in Uttar Pradesh, sustained blunt injury on his head and had gone to the Holy Family Hospital for treatment, the officer said.

The Indian American community has not only diversified and promoted India but also contributed to the US economy in a huge sense, a BJP spokesperson has said, describing the Indian diaspora as a “bridge” between the two countries. Guru Prakash Paswan, one of the youngest national spokespersons of the BJP, was here on a multiple-city book tour for his latest book ‘Makers of Modern Dalit History’ and participate in the recently held Jaipur Literary Festival in New York.

Doreen Bogdan-Martin of the United States was elected Thursday to head the UN's telecommunications agency, winning a U.S.-Russia face-off for the leadership of a global agency that sets guideposts for radio, internet, satellite and television communications. Envoys from the 193 member states of the Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union selected Bogdan-Martin over lone rival Rashid Ismailov of Russia, ending a contest that was largely overshadowed by geopolitics in the wake of Russia's war in Ukraine. Members of the agency's policy-making body meeting in Romania's capital voted 139-25 with a number of abstentions in favor of naming the first woman as ITU secretary-general and the first American to hold the post since the 1960s.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has recognised the independence of two more Ukrainian regions, a precursor to their annexation by Russia. Putin issued decrees early Friday recognising the independence of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. He took similar steps in February regarding Luhansk and Donetsk and earlier for Crimea. Russia's plan to annex more of Ukraine on Friday is an escalation of the seven-month war and is expected to isolate the Kremlin further, draw more international punishment and bring Ukraine extra military, political and economic support. The annexation - and planned celebratory concerts and rallies in Moscow and the occupied territories - would come just days after voters supposedly approved independence in Moscow-managed “referendums.” Ukrainian and Western officials have denounced the votes as illegal, forced and rigged.