The head of the US government aid agency called on China to help Sri Lanka and other nations that had borrowed heavily from Beijing with debt restructuring, not just with lines of credit and emergency loans.

Samantha Power, the administrator for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), contrasted India’s “critical” measures to aid Sri Lanka during its worst economic crisis with the two decades during which China offered “opaque loan deals at higher interest rates than other lenders” and financed infrastructure projects that often served little practical use.

“The biggest question of all is whether Beijing will restructure debt to the same extent as other bilateral creditors," she said during a visit to India, warning that the crisis in Sri Lanka, albeit a result of different factors, wasn’t unique. Several countries in Africa and Asia were similarly hoping that their calls for restructuring debt would be answered.

PML-Q leader Chaudhry Parvez Elahi was sworn in as chief minister of Punjab by Pakistan President, in a boost to ousted premier Imran Khan whose party approached a top court seeking dismissal of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's government.

Elahi, the 76-year-old leader backed by Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, was sworn in at the directions of the Supreme Court which dealt a big blow to Prime Minister Sharif-led coalition by removing his son as the executive head of the country's politically crucial province.

A big pink diamond of 170 carats has been discovered in Angola and is claimed to be the largest such gemstone found in 300 years.

Called the "Lulo Rose", the diamond was found at the Lulo alluvial diamond mine, the mine's owner, the Lucapa Diamond Company, announced on its website.

The Lulo mine has already produced the two largest diamonds ever found in Angola, including a 404-carat clear diamond.

The US Federal Reserve on july 27 again raised the benchmark interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point in its ongoing battle to tamp down raging price pressures that are squeezing American families.

It was the second straight 75 basis point increase, and the fourth rate hike this year, as policy makers move aggressively to cool the strongest surge in inflation in more than four decades, without derailing the world's largest economy.

In a vote that was unanimous -- unlike the decision made in June -- the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee raised the policy lending rate to a range of 2.25 to 2.5 percent, after starting the year near zero.

The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi  has approved a Rs 1.64 lakh crore package for state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), in a bid to turn around the loss-making telecom operator.

The money will be used to de-stress BSNL’s balance sheet, expand fibre reach, and improve service quality, telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw  said after the meeting.

The Cabinet also cleared the proposal to merge Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL) with BSNL to facilitate wider utilisation of infrastructure.

The government will allot 900/1800 MHz band spectrum worth Rs 44,993 crore to BSNL through equity infusion. This will help BSNL expand its 4G services.

The minister said BSNL is in the process of deploying Atmanirbhar Bharat’s 4G technology stack.

The government will help the telco meet its projected capital expenditure for the next four years and fund capex of Rs 22,471 crore.

Another Rs 13,789 crore will be provided as viability gap funding for rural wireline operations done between 2014-15 and 2019-20.

The authorised capital of BSNL will be increased from Rs 40,000 crore to Rs 1.5 lakh crore in lieu of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues, provision of CAPEX and allotment of spectrum.

To de-stress BSNL’s balance sheet, the government will provide a sovereign guarantee for the telco to raise long-term loans. Subsequently, BSNL will be able to raise long-term bonds for Rs 40,399 crore.

BSNL’s AGR dues of Rs 33,404 crore will also be settled by conversion into equity. BSNL had suffered Rs 50,631 crore losses in the past five years.

It posted Rs 7,441 crore loss in 2020- 21 and Rs 15,500 crore in 2019-20.

The government had infused Rs 70,000 crore in BSNL in 2019. Following this, the telco turned Ebitda positive (operating profit) in 2020-21.

The package has a cash component of Rs 43,964 crore and a non-cash component of Rs 1.2 lakh crore spread over four years.

With BSNL rapidly losing market share to private rivals, the state firm would have gone into a deep sink if government support was not provided to upgrade technology and services to match the competition.

The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister approved an allocation of 900/1800 MHz band spectrum worth Rs 44,993 crore to support 4G services to BSNL, which has skipped participation in recent auctions of airwaves.

This allocationwill allow BSNL to compete in the market and provide high-speed data.

Over 50 per cent of the recognized Indian startups belong to non-metropolitan cities, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Prakash informed the Parliament on July 27 .

He further said startups and the innovation ecosystem are the engines of growth for any country.

Recognizing this aspect, the Government launched the Startup India initiative in January 2016 with an aim to build a stronger ecosystem for nurturing India's startup culture that would further drive our economic growth, support entrepreneurship, and enable large-scale employment opportunities.

"Sustained Government efforts in this direction have resulted in increasing the number of recognized Startups from 471 in 2016 to 72,993 in 2022 (as on 30th June 2022). DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) has recognized startups which are spread across 56 diversified sectors," he further said.

More than 3,300 recognized startups are working in climate action sectors providing solutions through renewable energy and green technology.

Additionally, more than 4,500 Startups have been recognized in sectors relating to emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, artificial intelligence, and analytics.

Under the Atal Innovation Mission, the Government has set up Atal Incubation Centres (AIC) to incubate startups in various sectors. It has also launched Atal New India Challenge (ANIC) program to directly aid startups with technology-based innovations that solve sectoral challenges of national importance and societal relevance.

The Government has also operationalized 26 Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in diverse areas of national interest for driving self-sufficiency and creating capabilities to capture new and emerging technology areas.

Notably, India's startup unicorns crossed the 100 mark earlier this year

For the second time in a row, with a net worth of Rs 84,330 crore, HCL Technologies’ chairperson Roshni Nadar Malhotra is the country’s richest woman. Her wealth has increased 54% compared to Rs 54,850 crore in 2020.

Kotak Private Banking and Hurun India on july 27  launched the third edition of the Leading  Wealthy Women List, based on the net worth of women as of December 31, 2021. Falguni Nayar, founder and CEO of beauty e-commerce platform Nykaa, overtook Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson of Biocon, to become the richest self-made woman with a wealth of Rs 57,520 crore.

Nayar was also featured in the Hurun Global Rich List 2022.  Her entry into the list is backed by the success of the Nykaa IPO, which received an overwhelming response from investors. Shaw is the third-richest woman on the list with a net worth of Rs 29,030 crore, followed by Nilima Motaparti (Rs 28,180 crore) of Divi’s Laboratories and Radha Vembu of Zoho (Rs 26,260 crore).

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, posted its first revenue decline in history , dragged down by a drop in ad spending as the economy falters — and as competition from rival TikTok intensifies.

The results largely followed a broader decline in the digital advertising market that is dinging Meta rivals such as Google, Twitter — which also posted a revenue decline — and Snap. Google's parent company Alphabet reported its slowest quarterly growth in two years on july 26.