By Sapna 
In today’s Top News, we have strong recovery in the the Indian stock market, Maharastra caretaker Chief Minister Eknath Shinde reportedly delayed a crucial Mahayuti meeting in Mumbai amid suspense over Maharashtra CM; and more.
Despite heightening geopolitical tensions, the Indian stock market made a strong recovery on Friday, November 29 as strong support from heavyweights such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, and ICICI Bank helped the frontline indices finish the last trading day of November in positive territory.
India’s two consecutive quarters of disappointing growth have left economists pinning their hopes on a rebound in the second half of the financial year, expecting higher government spending, the ongoing festival season, and robust rural consumption to serve up a glass half full.
India’s economic growth slowed to a near two-year low of 5.4 per cent in the July-September quarter of this fiscal due to poor performance of manufacturing and mining sectors as well as weak consumption, but the country continued to remain the fastest-growing large economy, data showed on Friday.
The data also showed that the growth of private final consumption expenditure (PFCE), which indicates consumer spending, decelerated to 6 per cent in September quarter from 7.4 per cent in April-June this year. However, India remained the fastest-growing major economy as China’s GDP growth in the July-September quarter this year was at 4.6 per cent.
India’s response came almost a week after the United States Department of Justice accused billionaire Gautam Adani and others of being involved in a scheme to pay bribes of $265 million to secure Indian solar power supply contracts.
The Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday that it is a legal matter between private firms and the US Department of Justice. The ministry also added that the central government has not received any request from Washington, according to Reuters. This was India’s first official comment on the indictment of Adani by the US authorities.
India reiterated calls for Bangladesh to ‘protect minorities’ on Friday amid growing outrage over the arrest of a Hindu priest. The developments came soon after Chinmoy Krishna Das was denied bail this week following his arrest for ‘disrespecting the Bangladeshi flag’ during a rally.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “Our position on the matter is clear — the interim government must live up to its responsibility of protecting all minorities. We are concerned about the surge of extremist rhetoric and increasing incidents of violence and provocation. These developments cannot be dismissed only as media exaggeration. We once again call upon Bangladesh to take all steps to protect minorities.”
Maharashtra’s caretaker Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who attended a key meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah late on Thursday, is now travelling to his native village, Dare, in the Satara district in western Maharashtra.
Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde said in Delhi late on Thursday night that the next meeting of the Mahayuti alliance on government formation will be held in Mumbai on Friday, news agency PTI reported. However, sources told PTI that Shinde is travelling to his native village and the meeting is now expected to take place on Sunday.