Parents should consider balanced accounts, according to financial advisors. They can also invest in equity funds and then switch to debt funds, as they get closer to their target. Assistant Professor Preethi Nair, who lives in Bengaluru, is worried about her 9-year-old son's future due to rising education costs. Families may now spend money on digital tools as a result of online courses, and these costs are consuming a larger portion of the family budget than in the past, putting more strain on the family.A survey on Household Social Consumption: Education was conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) and published by the government in November 2019. It states that in the current academic year, the average expenditure per student pursuing a general course in rural areas was $5,...

Indian-origin billionaire brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa have purchased Leon, a renowned British fast-food chain, as part of their plan to expand their foodservice operations in the United Kingdom. As part of their EG Group business, the Issa brothers, whose parents immigrated to the UK from Gujarat in the 1970s, own the Euro Garages chain of petrol stations. As part of their plan to grow their non-fuel business, they bought the leading UK retail chain Asda from the US owners Walmart last year.Leon, founded in 2004 by John Vincent, Henry Dimbleby, and chef Allegra McEvedy, is a “naturally quick food” concept with an emphasis on making a balanced menu, that tastes good while also being sustainable. The purchase is expected to be worth £100 million pounds. The EG Group's co-founders and c...

Dutch authorities named Danske Bank CEO Chris Vogelzang, as a suspect in a probe into violations of money-laundering regulations at Dutch lender ABN Amro. Vogelzang took control of Danske Bank in June 2019, with an intention to steer Danske through one of the world’s biggest money laundering scandals. Danske bank has been helping their customers being financially confident and help them build their lives and businesses on a solid financial foundation. In addition to banking services, Danske bank also provides services in the fields of life insurance and pensions, mortgage finance, asset management, real-estate and leasing. Vogelzang gave his resignation on Monday after he was suspected in the case of violations of money laundering regulations at Dutch lender ABN Amro. Danske Bank also c...

Even though the Federal Reserve is likely still a few years away from establishing its own, Wall Street is warming up to the possibility that central bank digital currencies are the next major disruptive force on the horizon. Digital money is gaining traction as the future of an increasingly cashless world, with countries as big as China and as small as the Bahamas leading the way. In some ways, a digital dollar would be similar to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin or Ethereum, but in other ways, it would be distinct. The central bank digital currency will behave more like dollars and have universal acceptance rather than being a tradable commodity with wildly fluctuating values and limited use. It will also be fully governed and centralised. A big organisation like the Fed would have to an...

Druva Inc., the pioneer in Cloud Data Protection and Management, reported a $147 million investment today, as the company scales to meet increased demand for its platform. The fundraise was led by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), a multinational investment firm, with Neuberger Berman, making a major investment. Both companies control over $300 billion in net assets. Current investors Viking Global Investors and Atreides Management also participated in the round, which increased the company's value to over $2 billion.This new investment will fuel the continued growth of Druva Cloud Platform to meet today's unparalleled needs, and expand the company's market leadership, as it defines tomorrow's data security as companies rapidly shift workloads to cloud environments, embrace...

HCL Technologies Ltd. has signed a deal with Japanese company UD Trucks Corp., to accelerate the digital transformation of the Japanese commercial vehicle solutions provider. IT services pioneer HCL Technologies has signed a multi-million dollar digital transformation and hybrid cloud contract, in order to deliver end-to-end IT transformation spanning across digital platforms, agile digital application development, migration, support and maintenance and digital workplace services. After inking the deal with UD Trucks, HCL tech aims to post strong organic growth over different verticals in the coming years with further collaboration and service expansion. By moving to a new next-generation IT environment, UD Trucks aims at leveraging the power of cloud and Internet of things (IoT), while...

Apple Inc. made a commitment by announcing plans to be completely carbon neutral by 2030. The pledge covers its entire global business including its supply chain, manufacturing process, and the life of its products. So, an iPhone purchased in 2030 will have a net-zero climate impact, including the energy required for the device. Apple’s plan is to achieve this by minimizing carbon in its all products, by using efficient and renewable energy sources or by using different materials. Apple's move comes after Amazon's plans to go carbon neutral in the coming years. Apple is already starting to change the materials it works with. The company claims that it's begun to use a new type of aluminium to make its 16-inch MacBook Pro, and no carbon is used when the aluminium is smelted for using it ...

Excess cash in the financial system has pushed down overnight interest rates, making them negative in some cases, according to economists, prompting the Federal Reserve to raise the short-term rates, it controls. The overnight repurchase rate, which calculates the cost of borrowing short-term cash using Treasuries or other debt securities as leverage, fell as low as -0.06% in late March, and then rose to about 0.01 percent on Friday. Since about March, the US secured overnight financing rate (SOFR), a short-term reference rate that has replaced the benchmark London interbank offered rates (LIBOR), has been pinned at 0.01 percent.According to analysts, the Fed needs to stop SOFR going pessimistic, because it has serious technical problems with its components. Expectations are growing tha...

According to people familiar with the matter, Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal will hold a virtual meeting with Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission executive vice-president and commissioner of trade, on April 29, boosting the prospects for a firm start of negotiations on an India-EU broad-based trade and investment agreement.This is their second meeting in less than three months; the first was on February 5, when Piyush Goyal hosted the first India-EU high-level dialogue, or HLD, during which the two sides extensively addressed the condition of bilateral trade and investment ties between India and the EU, as well as the path forward. Dombrovskis also expressed the EU's desire to resume negotiations for ambitious, substantive, and mutually beneficial trade and investment agre...

The European Union announced plans to discuss a major contract extension for Pfizer-COVID-19 BioNTech's vaccine on Wednesday, in a stinging rebuke to pharma giant AstraZeneca, arguing that the 27-nation bloc had to go with companies, that had proven their worth during the pandemic. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said, "We need to concentrate on innovations that have proved their value." She also announced that Pfizer and BioNTech, both of the United States’, would send an additional 50 million dozes to the EU in the second quarter of this year to compensate for AstraZeneca's stalled deliveries. Pfizer-BioNTech, in contrast to the much-maligned Anglo-Swedish firm, "has proved to be a trustworthy partner," according to von der Leyen. It has kept its promises a...