In a bold move towards financial stability, India's Reserve Bank is transforming its foreign exchange strategy. By acquiring more gold and scaling back on US Treasury Securities, the bank is effectively diversifying its reserves. This shift underscores gold's reputation as a secure asset in volatile economic climates, with India's gold reserves now surpassing a staggering 100 billion dollars.
The Ministry of Labour and Employment is developing a unified workforce architecture to link databases across ministries and states. This initiative aims to enhance policy coherence, ensure worker benefit portability, and measure employment outcomes. The plan includes AI-driven analytics for predictive policy planning and skill forecasting, with a goal of universal social security for all workers.
Several states, including Kerala and Maharashtra, are urging the Union finance ministry to ease borrowing limits. These limits now factor in power dues, unspent central funds, and off-budget borrowings, which states argue restrict their financial plans and legitimate borrowing space.
Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Thursday that Saudi Arabia should "keep riding camels" if it asks for a Palestinian state in exchange for normalising ties with Israel. "If Saudi Arabia tells us normalisation in exchange for a Palestinian state, friends, no thank you", Smotrich said at a conference in Israel.