Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Apr 26  he will host President Joe Biden and the leaders of India and Japan for a security summit next month.

The meeting at the Sydney Opera House on May 24 will be Australia's first time hosting the Quad Leaders' Summit. It will also include Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Albanese attended a summit in Tokyo hours after he was sworn in as prime minister following elections last year.

Albanese said he would visit the United States when Biden hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in San Francisco in November and has also been invited for a bilateral meeting with the president, details of which had yet to be finalized.

Albanese last visited the United States in March when he, Biden and British Prime Minister Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced details of the so-called AUKUS partnership that will deliver Australia eight submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology.

Singapore on Apr 26  hanged a prisoner convicted of conspiracy to smuggle one kilogram of cannabis, authorities said, ignoring international calls for the city-state to abolish capital punishment.

The execution took place despite a plea by the United Nations Human Rights Office for Singapore to "urgently reconsider" the hanging and calls by British tycoon Richard Branson to halt it.

Tangaraju was convicted in 2017 of "abetting by engaging in a conspiracy to traffic" 1,017.9 grams (35.9 ounces) of cannabis, twice the minimum volume required for a death sentence in Singapore.

He was sentenced to death in 2018 and the Court of Appeal upheld the decision.

India’s export of petroleum products decreased by 10.9% in March 2023 and 2.7% during April 2022-March 2023 as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. 

According to the monthly data by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), a body of petroleum ministry, India’s crude oil imports from OPEC countries decreased to 59.5% of total imports during April-March 2022-23 as compared to 71.6% during April-March 2021-22.  This comes after India’s crude oil imports increased by 8.9% and 9.5% during March 2023 and April 2022-March 2023, respectively.

However, the country’s indigenous crude oil and condensate production was down by 1.7% in March 2023. Crude oil processed increased by 5.6 % during April-March 2023 as compared to last year. The petroleum product imports decreased by 0.7% and increased by 12.3% during March 2023 and April 2022-March 2023, respectively. 

FMCG giant ITC has now overtaken the market capitalisation of Infosys to become India’s sixth most valuable company on the stock exchanges.  The cigarette-to-hotel conglomerate surpassed the market capitalisation of IT major Infosys on Apr 24  after overtaking home finance lender HDFC Ltd.

UK's Minister for Investment Lord Dominic Johnson on  Apr 26  embarked on a visit to India to strengthen the bilateral investment partnership across technology and life sciences sectors and build momentum behind ongoing trade talks.

The UK and India are currently negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) and the minister's visit comes as the ninth round of negotiations got underway between the officials on both sides this week.

Earlier this week, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told a business gathering that his Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch had been "hard at work" to make progress on the FTA discussions.

He visited Mumbai and New Delhi in October last year when he met with investors and businesses including Apollo Hospitals, Prodapt and Wockhardt.

After Bengaluru, Johnson is set to visit Pune to meet investors and leading Indian businesses, including Infosys and Zensar, to drum up investor interest in the UK, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said.

On the eve of the ministerial visit, the department described India as a "priority market" for the UK with Johnson's visit seen as helping to build momentum behind the ongoing FTA negotiations between the two countries.

Johnson, a House of Lords peer and minister of state in the DBT, will also use his visit to promote the Global Investment Summit 2023, which will bring together over 200 CEOs of multinational companies and investment corporations in the UK later this year.

According to the British government, the inaugural Summit in 2021 secured nearly 10 billion pounds of new foreign investment on the day, with this year's event set to showcase emerging UK success stories in life sciences, deep tech, nuclear fusion and small modular reactors (SMRs), and manufacturing.

The DBT said the UK-India investment partnership is thriving, with over 28 billion pounds invested in each other's economies supporting over half a million jobs.

According to official UK government statistics, total trade in goods and services (exports plus imports) between the UK and India was 34 billion pounds in the four quarters to the end of Q3 2022, an increase of 51.7 per cent or 11.6 billion pounds from the four quarters to the end of Q3 2021.

India was the UK's 12th largest trading partner in the four quarters to the end of Q3 2022, accounting for 2.1 per cent of total UK trade.

Tax deducted at source (TDS) has become a very effective tool for the government to increase the taxpayer’s base. In a meeting with the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the tax department informed the minister that due to the introduction of more TDS categories, the number of transactions reported have more than doubled to 144 crore in FY22 from 70 crore in FY16.

The tax department data shows that tax collection through TDS has increased from 33% of the gross direct tax collection in FY16 to 39% in FY22. Over the past few years the government has either brought new transactions under TDS or increased the TDS rates. In Budget 2023, the government increased the rate of TDS on foreign remittances for oversea tour packages from 5% to 20%. TDS is a tax deducted on the source of the income – salary, rent, dividends, etc. In FY22, the government collected `6.34 lakh crore as TDS of total Rs 16.36 lakh crore collected via direct taxes.

Sitharaman apprised of the fact that the personal income tax (PIT) to GDP ratio has increased from 2.11 in FY15 to 2.94 in FY22. The tax department also informed the minister that the introduction of new data sources in Statement of Financial Transactions (SFT) like dividend and interest, securities, mutual funds and information from GSTN in recent years has led to 1,118% increase in reported information. 

Sharjah Cricket Ground unveiled the Sachin Tendulkar stand at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Apr 25 .

Master Blaster's 50th birthday became extra special as the 'God of Cricket' now has a stand named after him. Sharjah Cricket Stadium has had a special place in Sachin's career. His record on this ground speaks about his talent in volumes. Sachin has played 42 matches in UAE and scored 1,778 runs in 42 innings at an average of 48.05. He has scored seven centuries and seven fifties here, with the best score of 143.

Most of the Master Blaster's matches have been played at this iconic cricket venue. One of the best knocks of Tendulkar's career, a knock of 143 against Australia in 1998 was witnessed at this venue. This knock is known among the fans as the 'Desert Storm'.

Earlier The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Apr 25  used legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar's 50th birthday celebrations to unveil gates at the iconic Australia venue that are named after the India legend and fellow cricketing great Brian Lara from West Indies.

The All England Club will pay for two rooms for Ukrainian tennis players and their teams during the grass-court season and will donate 1 British pound (about USD 1.25) for each ticket sold at Wimbledon to relief efforts in Ukraine — which could top 500,000 pounds (USD 620,000)