The musical evening, 'Romancing Tagore', will celebrate the Bard’s poetic words and music and explore his diverse influences
entertainment2 hours ago
Sri Lanka was handed temporary relief from energy shortages and rolling blackouts on Wednesday with a $500 million loan from India to finance urgent oil purchases for the cash-strapped nation.
The island’s economic woes have left thermal power generators unable to keep the lights on and disrupted transport networks, as traders run desperately low on foreign currency to fund imports.
Frequent breakdowns at a huge coal power plant have compounded unannounced electricity cuts and households are also struggling to source cooking gas and kerosene.
Officials said a formal agreement was being signed on Wednesday after two weeks of talks, in addition to a recent $915 million in foreign exchange support.
An Indian diplomat said talks were underway on another $1 billion credit line to fund urgently needed food and medicine imports from India.
“The $500 million is for Sri Lanka to purchase petroleum products from Indian suppliers,” the official said.
Sri Lanka’s economy is also seeing a scarcity of rice, automotive parts and cement, with supermarkets forced to ration some staple foods.
The shortages pushed food inflation to a record 25 percent last month.
Tourism is a key foreign exchange earner for Sri Lanka but the sector has collapsed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The government has shut overseas diplomatic missions to save money and a broad ban on imports has been in effect for nearly two years to conserve foreign currency.
Three international rating agencies have downgraded the island since late last year on fears it may not be able to service its $35 billion sovereign debt.
Sri Lanka has sought more loans from Beijing to help repay its existing Chinese debt, which accounts for about 10 percent of the country’s external borrowings.
Authorities have borrowed heavily from China for infrastructure projects in the past, some of which ended up as costly white elephants. — AFP
The musical evening, 'Romancing Tagore', will celebrate the Bard’s poetic words and music and explore his diverse influences
entertainment2 hours ago
In latest feat, Pakistan's Naila Kiani climbed world’s fifth highest peak Makalu on Sunday
uae2 hours ago
About 1.2 million people are currently sheltering in the Palestinian city
mena3 hours ago
The board has decided to discontinue compartment exams for Classes 10 and 12 starting this session
education3 hours ago
The 24K variant of the yellow metal was trading at Dh279.5 per gram on Monday morning as compared to last week’s close of Dh278.75 per gram
uae3 hours ago
The rupee was at 83.4425 against the US dollar as of 08:20 am UAE time, barely changing from its previous session
world3 hours ago
The aircraft will serve short to medium haul cities, with Bahrain as its inaugural destination
aviation3 hours ago
This is an unbelievable feeling to be here, said old timers, recalling the first service held in April 1979 at St Andrew’s Church on Corniche Road
uae4 hours ago