India on july 28 criticised Pakistan for pulling out of the 44th Chess Olympiad in Tamil Nadu and said it is "highly unfortunate" that Islamabad has "politicised" the prestigious international event.

Reacting to Pakistan's decision, Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Arindam Bagchi said it was surprising that Pakistan has suddenly taken the decision not to participate in the event.

It is highly unfortunate that Pakistan has politicised the prestigious international event by making such statements and withdrawing its participation after its team has already reached India, he said.

Bagchi was responding to questions on Pakistan's decision to pull out from the Olympiad, citing the torch relay of the event passing through Jammu and Kashmir.

A three-and-a-half feet idol of Chola queen Sembiyan Mahadevi, stolen from a temple in Tamil Nadu's Nagapattinam in 1929, has been traced to the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington DC, USA, by the Idol Wing police, which has initiated steps to retrieve the idol.

The exquisite bronze idol was purchased by the Freer Gallery of Art from Hagop Kevorkian in New York in 1929 for an undisclosed price, said K Jayanth Murali, Director-General of Police. Kevorkian died in 1962.

Pakistan has decided to pay over USD 11.5 million in compensation to 36 Chinese nationals working on a major hydropower project who either died or were injured in a terrorist attack in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province last year.

The decision on the quantum of compensation to be paid was taken at a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet presided over by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail.

India received its highest ever Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow of Rs 6,31,050 crore in Financial Year 2021-22 said Som Parkash, Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The FDI Equity inflow in manufacturing sectors has increased to Rs 1,58,332 crore in the financial year 2021-22 from Rs 89,766 crore in the previous year, making it an increase of 76 per cent.

India's 5G spectrum auction received bids worth about Rs 1,49,855 crore as of july 29, the fourth day of sale, as continued interest for radiowaves stretched the bidding process to july 30.

About 71 per cent of the total spectrum put on the block has been provisionally sold, Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio, Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and a unit of billionaire Gautam Adani's flagship Adani Enterprises are in the race to bid for 5G spectrum, that offers speeds about 10 times faster than 4G, lag-free connectivity, and can enable billions of connected devices to share data in real-time.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi  has visited  India's first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) near Gandhinagar on july 29 .

During his visit, Modi has  launched  'India International Bullion Exchange (IIBX)', the country's first international bullion exchange.

This exchange will facilitate efficient price discovery with the assurance of responsible sourcing and quality, apart from giving impetus to the financialisation of gold in India.

The prime minister has  also laid  the foundation stone for the headquarters building of the International Financial Services Centres Authority. Apart from that, Modi has  launched  NSE IFSC-SGX Connect platform.

Under this system, all orders on Nifty derivatives placed by members of Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) will be routed to and matched on the NSE-IFSC order matching and trading platform.

·         Singapore, the US, Mauritius, the Netherlands and Switzerland have emerged as the top 5 countries, which brought the highest foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country, as per the commerce ministry data. Singapore’s contribution to FDI is the maximum at 27%, followed by the US at 17.94% and Mauritius at 15.98%.

·         The government said India has improved one position to 7th rank among the top 20 host economies for 2021, as per the UNCTAD World Investment Report 2022.  Meanwhile, FDI equity inflow in manufacturing sectors has risen by 76% in FY 22 at $21.34 billion as compared with the previous fiscal at $12.09 billion.

England's Alex Yee won the first gold of the Commonwealth Games on july 29, hailing his victory in the men's triathlon in Birmingham as his "greatest achievement" despite taking Olympic silver last year.

The 24-year-old made up a deficit of 15 seconds following the bike section to overhaul long-time pacesetter Hayden Wilde on the run and finish the sprint-distance event in a time of 50 min 34 sec.