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The Indian cabinet has approved changes to its foreign direct investment policy, allowing investments from "Land Bordering Countries." View More
In this articleCAASFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meet on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, on Oct. 23, 2024.China Daily via Reuters India is easing rules that will allow Chinese investments into the country, in a move that marks New Delhi's push to reset economic ties with Beijing after nearly six years of friction.The Indian cabinet has approved changes to its foreign direct investment policy, allowing investments from "Land Bordering Countries" in manufacturing of electronic components, capital goods and solar cells, the government said in a release on Tuesday.While India shares borders with China, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, the restrictions were primarily aimed at limiting investments from China â the only major economy sharing its border with India. Beijing-New Delhi ties had soured in 2020 following the deadly border skirmish in the Galwan Valley, and India had tightened investment rules the same year. Under the new rules, Chinese investments in Indian companies will be expedited and processed within 60 days as long as the ownership of the firms stays with Indian shareholders, the note said. The rules also permit Chinese companies to acquire up to 10% stake in Indian businesses without seeking New Delhi's approval. "Allowing limited Chinese participation in India's manufacturing ecosystem could make it easier for [multinational] companies to shift final assembly to India while maintaining access to Chinese inputs," said Arpit Chaturvedi, South Asia advisor at Teneo.He added that this will reinforce India's "attractiveness within China-plus-one strategies" of multinational companies that are looking to diversify supply chains away from China.For the past six years, attempts by Chinese companies to invest in India had been thwarted by a web of security clearances from India's foreign and home ministries.The Indian government in its note has said that these restrictions were "adversely affecting investment flows from investors including global funds such as PE/ VC funds" especially in cases where investors held a "non-strategic, non-controlling interests." Effective reset? India is also hoping that the changes will improve the ease of doing business and will usher greater investment inflows from global funds for startups and deep tech companies."I would read this as a pragmatic recalibration rather than a structural reset in IndiaâChina relations," Reema Bhattacharya, head of Asia risk insight, corporate risk and sustainability at Singapore-based business advisory firm Verisk Maplecroft. However, some experts are skeptical of impact of New Delhi's regulatory changes on investments as border tensions between India and China remain unresolved and the broader geostrategic competition between the two persists."I wouldn't expect a flood of Chinese capital into India," said Bhattacharya of Verisk Maplecroft. div {box-sizing: border-box;} .noselect { -webkit-touch-callout: none; /* iOS Safari */ -webkit-user-select: none; /* Safari */ -khtml-user-select: none; /* Konqueror HTML */ -moz-user-select: none; /* Old versions of Firefox */ -ms-user-select: none; /* Internet Explorer/Edge */ user-select: none; /* Non-prefixed version, currently supported by Chrome, Edge, Opera and Firefox */ } #tcc-wrapper {width: 100%; max-width: 620px; min-width: 300px; cursor: pointer; display: block;} .tcc-widget-content { font-family: Proxima Nova,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 400; color: #000; padding: 16px 0 16px 0; width: 100%; height: auto; border-top: 1px solid #cccccc; border-bottom: 1px solid #cccccc; } .tcc-logo-col { float: left; margin-right: 20px; } .tcc-text-col { } .tcc-text a { color: #0053CF !important; text-decoration: none; font-weight: 600; } Get a weekly roundup of news from India in your inbox every Thursday. Subscribe now While the policy has signaled easing, Bhattacharya said that Chinese companies will still factor in the risk that investment rules can tighten again if bilateral tensions flare up."The easing reflects economic pragmatism at a time when both countries are navigating a more fragmented global order, but the deeper strategic mistrust has not disappeared," she said.The two major global economies have been slowly working towards improving ties since last year. After the U.S. imposed 50% tariffs on India in August last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first visit to China in seven years to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.Since then, the two countries have taken several measures aimed at normalizing relations, including restarting flights and disengagement of troops at the border. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday said New Delhi and Beijing should "support each other's BRICS presidency over the next two years" to "bring new hope to the Global South." Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.
Shares of Waaree Energies opened higher and extended gains by trading at ?2,710.40 by 9.40 am, up 2.06% or ?54.70 from the previous close of ?2,655.70 View More
Initiative to enable farmers to generate electricity while continuing agricultural activities on the same land View More
According to Charugundla Bhavani Suresh, Founder and Managing Director, Truzon Solar, both players had invested in the company reflecting their confidence in the organisation’s long-term vision and its contribution to India’s clean energy transition. View More
Fadnavis asserted that the government's effort is to ensure at least 10 hours of electricity supply to farmers during the day, as the current average supply is around eight hours in some places View More
Global conflicts are disrupting fossil fuel supplies. This instability may push nations towards homegrown renewable energy for greater security. Experts believe this shift, driven by national interest, could accelerate the move away from fossil fuels. The United Nations highlights that clean energy resources cannot be blockaded or weaponized. View More
World leaders have tried and failed to curb climate change by appealing to nations to act for the common good. Now, the Iran war and its costly energy crunch have some experts wondering if selfishness and nationalism may be a more likely way to save the planet, by boosting support for homegrown renewables over imported fossil fuels. Bombed refineries, disrupted shipping channels for oil and liquefied natural gas and skyrocketing fuel prices should point even the most reluctant leaders to a cleaner fossil free future, hope some experts. But others are dismissive, noting the same speculation emerged, and then quickly flopped, as recently as Russia's invasion of Ukraine. That prompted some European nations to replace gas with even dirtier coal. “Just wishful thinking,” said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who tracks global emissions of carbon dioxide. The head of the United Nations will argue otherwise on Monday. Live Events “The turmoil we are witnessing today in the Middle East makes it evident that we are facing a global energy system largely tied to fossil fuels — where supply is concentrated in a few regions and every conflict risks sending shock waves through the global economy,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in an email to The Associated Press. “In past oil shocks, countries had little choice but to absorb the pain. Now they have an exit ramp. “Homegrown renewable energy has never been cheaper, more accessible, or more scalable,” Guterres said. “The resources of the clean energy era cannot be blockaded or weaponized.” Going alone versus together Annual U.N. climate conferences aimed at global cooperation have accomplished little. The most recent meeting in Brazil, known as COP30, ended with a statement that didn’t even mention the words “fossil fuels,” much less include a timeline to reduce their use. Guterres said then that he “cannot pretend that COP30 has delivered everything that is needed.” Under President Donald Trump, whose attack on Iran has sparked new energy concerns, the U.S. didn't even participate in the Brazil meeting. Even though renewable energy use and new installations are soaring globally, outpacing fossil fuel growth, the world continues to increase its fossil fuel use every year with emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide and methane rising to new highs year after. That's driving atmospheric warming that increases costly and deadly extreme weather, including dangerous heat, around the world. “The bottom line is that for at least another five years and maybe longer, emissions reduction will in fact be dealt with largely unilaterally,” said Michael Oppenheimer, a Princeton climate and international affairs professor. “If countries see the Israel-U.S.-Iran war as a further reason to head for the exits on fossil fuels by loosening domestic opposition to the necessary policies, that will be accomplished unilaterally at the domestic level.” A moment of opportunity may be here Caroline Baxter , director of the Converging Risks Lab at the Council on Strategic Risks in Washington, said there has already been a “dramatic slowdown” in the movement of fossil fuels to various ports due to the conflict. And for countries like Japan or South Korea that depend on tankers arriving in their ports to deliver energy, this is a really big deal, she said. Baxter said she “wouldn’t be surprised” if some shift to green energy because of the conflict, if only because renewable energy offers more stability than fossil fuels do. “I think there is an opportunity, rightly or wrongly, for countries to really turn inward and try to power themselves in a way that cuts off their dependence on other nations for that source,” said Baxter, who was U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for force education and training from 2021 to 2024 under the Biden administration. Baxter said if she’s right and if “everyone does it in their backyard,” it will limit future climate change “without the thorny diplomatic negotiations and the glad-handing and the machinations behind closed doors” of international climate conferences. The war will lead to more solar panels and heat pumps installed in coming months, said energy analyst Ana Maria Jaller-Makarewicz, of IEEFA Europe. A reality check from Ukraine: ‘Exactly the wrong lesson’ More skeptical analysts point to the Russian invasion of Ukraine a few years ago, which put a massive kink in Europe’s natural gas supply, yet didn’t change the world’s fossil fuel dependence. Politicians often pivot to other fossil fuels to address war-oriented energy insecurity, such as coal, which releases even higher amounts of heat-trapping gases. “We have seen this at the European level where actors post-2022 slowly wanted to move away from the energy transition which is exactly the wrong lesson,” said war studies lecturer Pauline Heinrichs at King’s College in the United Kingdom. Just as Europe did then, many countries, like China and India — already the world's No. 1 and No. 3 carbon-emitting countries — could turn to more coal use, said Ohio University's Geoff Dabelko, an expert on climate and conflict, and University of St. Andrews' Neta Crawford, author of “The Pentagon, Climate Change, and War: Charting the Rise and Fall of U.S. Military Emissions.” War and militaries pollute the air Whatever happens with nations' energy choices, the war itself will spike emissions. Even before it began, reports showed that the world's militaries are responsible for 5.5% of Earth's heat-trapping emissions each year, more than any country except China, the United States and India. Crawford, co-founder of the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, said fighter jets consuming vast quantities of fuel, releasing carbon dioxide and other pollutants, is just one example. “The consequences of war on emissions will far exceed any incremental offset in emissions due to increased enthusiasm for a green transition,” she said. .Pbanner{display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;background-color:#ec1c40;margin-top:20px;padding:5px 10px;border-radius:4px;color:#fff;line-height:10px;} .Pbannertext{display:flex;align-items:center;font-size:16px;font-weight:600;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannertext img{height:20px;margin:0 6px} .Pbannerbutton a{display:flex;align-items:center;background-color:#fff;color:#ec1c40;text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;padding:4px 8px;border-radius:6px;font-size:15px;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannerbutton img{height:20px;margin-right:6px} .Pbannerbutton a:hover{background-color:#f7f7f7} Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now!
The latest Middle East tensions sheds light on how the world's three largest oil consumers have taken different approaches to energy, with global consequences. View More
In this articleUSBUSOCAASFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT An oil tanker unloads crude oil at a terminal at the port in Qingdao, in China's eastern Shandong province on March 8, 2026. - | Afp | Getty Images BEIJING â Surging oil prices following the Iran war are expected to impact China less than in past years as the country has built large crude stockpiles and diversified its energy sources, including renewables.As oil prices climbed past $100 a barrel for the first time in four years, OCBC analysts said China may be "less sensitive to a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz than many of its Asian peers.""China has accumulated one of the world's largest strategic and commercial crude reserves," the analysts said, adding that its "rapid transition toward electric vehicles and renewable energy provides an additional structural hedge."China held an estimated 1.2 billion barrels of onshore crude stockpiles as of January.That's about 3 to 4 months of reserves, which will delay the economic impact, Rush Doshi, director of the China Strategy Initiative at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Monday on CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia.""China has taken the last 20 years to reduce some of its dependence on maritime oil flows," Doshi said, noting that new overland oil pipelines and some diversification to renewables mean the country now only relies on the Strait of Hormuz for about 40% to 50% of its seaborne oil imports.By 2030, China aims to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in total energy consumption to 25%, up from 21.7% in 2025.The strait connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea and global shipping routes. It's a narrow passage with Iran to the north and Oman and the United Arab Emirates to the south. About 31% of the world's seaborne oil flows passed through the Strait of Hormuz last year, or around 13 million barrels a day of crude, according to Kpler.However, oil shipments through the strait account for only 6.6% of China's overall energy consumption, according to Nomura's chief China economist Ting Lu.Natural gas imports through the route account for another 0.6%, he said. The shift reflects two decades of strategic transition, giving China a unique position in global energy markets. watch nowVIDEO4:3704:37More concerned about China in medium-term on energy, says Longview's McNealFast Money The U.S. is the world's largest consumer of oil, followed by China and India, according to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which was founded in 1960 to coordinate global oil supply.But China is the largest crude importer, buying nearly twice as much as the U.S., while India ranks third, OPEC data showed.Of the three, India is the most dependent on petroleum imports, accounting for one-fourth of its total consumption, according to CNBC's analysis of U.S. Energy Information Administration data for 2023.China was lower at 14%, while the U.S. produced most of its petroleum needs, according to the 2023 data, which includes "other liquids" in the petroleum category. Diverging energy strategies While the U.S. has ramped up domestic oil production over the past decade, China has rapidly diversified its energy sources.Renewables, excluding nuclear power and hydropower, accounted for 1.2% of China's total energy consumption in 2023, up from 0.2% two decades earlier, according to CNBC calculations based on International Energy Agency data.India and the U.S. recorded a far lower share of renewables in 2023, at 0.2% each. That's a tiny figure for now. But the growing share of renewables in China's energy mix has global implications.China's electric vehicle push, especially in trucks, has already displaced over 1 million barrels per day of implied oil demand, Rhodium Group said in July 2025.The research firm expected that figure to rise by around 600,000 barrels per day over the following 12 months.More than half of China's new passenger vehicles sold are now new-energy vehicles, meaning they rely more on batteries than on gasoline."With road fuel demand already showing signs of peaking and renewable capacity expanding rapidly, China's sensitivity to oil price fluctuations is declining on a [year-on-year] basis," the OCBC analysts said."Over time, the electrification of transportation and the expansion of renewable power generation will further insulate the economy from oil-related shocks."Oil and natural gas only account for 4% of China's power mix, far lower than the 40% to 50% share seen in many Asian economies, the analysts said.Electricity, largely generated from coal and a growing amount of renewables, now accounts for a growing share of China's total energy consumption, according to energy think tank Ember. Fossil fuels still loom large Renewables provided about 80% of China's new electric power demand in 2024, Ember said. But coal remains a significant, albeit stagnating, source of energy in the country. China was the world's largest producer and consumer of coal in 2023, despite efforts to reduce carbon emissions.U.S. sanctions on Iran have also made China one of the few buyers of Tehran's oil.Iran accounted for about 20% of China's oil imports, though much of that volume could mostly be replaced by increased oil imports from Russia, said Ano Kuhanathan, Head of Corporate Research at Allianz Trade. The larger risk lies in the roughly 5 million barrels per day of oil China imports from other Middle Eastern countries through the Strait of Hormuz, Kuhanathan said. div {box-sizing: border-box;} .noselect { -webkit-touch-callout: none; /* iOS Safari */ -webkit-user-select: none; /* Safari */ -khtml-user-select: none; /* Konqueror HTML */ -moz-user-select: none; /* Old versions of Firefox */ -ms-user-select: none; /* Internet Explorer/Edge */ user-select: none; /* Non-prefixed version, currently supported by Chrome, Edge, Opera and Firefox */ } #tcc-wrapper {width: 100%; max-width: 620px; min-width: 300px; cursor: pointer; display: block;} .tcc-widget-content { font-family: Proxima Nova,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 400; color: #000; padding: 16px 0 16px 0; width: 100%; height: auto; border-top: 1px solid #cccccc; border-bottom: 1px solid #cccccc; } .tcc-logo-col { float: left; margin-right: 20px; } .tcc-text-col { } .tcc-text a { color: #0053CF !important; text-decoration: none; font-weight: 600; } Weekly analysis and insights from Asia's largest economy in your inbox Subscribe now As the Iran war enters its second week, it remains unclear when the conflict will end."A shock like this would likely reinforce the direction China is already taking rather than change it," said Muyi Yang, senior energy analyst, Asia, at Ember."It highlights the risks of relying heavily on imported oil and gas. And that's why the transition is not only about building more wind and solar, but also about economy-wide decarbonisation," she said. However, change doesn't happen easily. The country's fossil fuel industry is dominated by China's state-owned corporations, which tend to be less dynamic than their private-sector peers.China may also continue building crude reserves.The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in February it expects China to expand strategic stockpiles by around 1 million barrels a day in 2026.China's crude oil imports dropped by nearly 2% in 2024, according to Wind Information. But as Middle East tensions started to simmer last year, China's crude imports climbed 4.6% to a record of around 580 million metric tons."China is materially exposed but more flexible," Kpler's principal insight analyst Go Katayama previously told CNBC.â CNBC's Sam Meredith, Ying Shan Lee and Penny Chen contributed to this report. 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From recreating lost vintage perfumes to evoking extinct flowers, innovators are using cutting-edge biotech and creative license. This olfactory endeavor not only safeguards precious botanicals but also raises awareness about environmental fragility. View More
In the 1970s, the pop ballad "Time in a Bottle" sounded like a wistful love song. In 2026, it has become an olfactory mission statement. Conservationists, perfumers and biotech engineers are separately making moves to bottle time in the form of fragrance. Their efforts respond to an uncomfortable truth: Unless we capture scents made by certain prized plants now, our beleaguered environment and consumption could put an end to them. "The vanilla , lavender and sandalwood industries, to name a few, are facing significant threats due to climate change and other negative influences such as habitat destruction," said Peggy Fiedler, a leader of the Red List Project , a nonprofit focused on global plant conservation. "All are cultivated species of great importance to the fragrance industry." Fiedler and her Red List Project co-leader, Vanessa Handley, who are both biologists, have come up with a novel way of calling attention to the plight of endangered plants: Since 2018, they've been appealing to the fragrance industry for support. "We started cold calling these big companies whose work is contingent on inspiration from the natural world," Handley said. The carrot they dangled was the offer of scents from threatened plants that could give rise to new fragrance ingredients. Live Events In 2021, the French prestige fragrance house MANE, which works with Gucci, signed on as a partner. MANE has since developed three scents based on plants suggested by the Red List Project. According to Fiedler, the company's perfumers described the scent synthesized from a magnolia found in Ecuador as "fresh, green and creamy, like the skin of a peach." The one that came from the wood of a Caribbean juniper was "surprisingly floral, with woody, buttery undertones like rosewood." And the one derived from a cycad plant from Guam had a tutti-frutti character "reminiscent of mango or peach jam." In return, the nonprofit received donations and a percentage of sales from MANE to devote to conservation work. Other fragrance companies and perfumers have followed suit and become donors. In 2022, Fiedler started working with heritage American perfumer Blocki to help revive its vintage Brazilian Lily scent, which hasn't been bottled since the early 1900s. The original formulation has been lost to time. No one at Blocki has smelled the lily from which the perfume was derived, said Tammy Kraemer, the company's co-owner. In Brazil, the flower is classified as endangered, preventing it from being harvested. (Some perfumers use "head-space capture," a procedure that allows scents to be extracted from plants in the wild without harming them; Blocki did not.) But an understanding gained from the Red List Project of the lily's rainforest habitat and a study of its close floral relatives enabled Blocki to reimagine its fragrance. "We went for something green and fresh and misty," Kraemer said. "You can almost smell dewdrops on green leaves." Future Society is another company developing scents that are meant to remind consumers of the fragility of plant life. Jasmina Aganovic, who studied chemical and bioengineering as an undergraduate, founded the company in 2023, taking advantage of once prohibitively expensive DNA sequencing technology to create a collection inspired by extinct flowers. She and Christina Agapakis, a biologist, worked with preserved extinct plants at the Gray Herbarium at Harvard University, to create the collection Scent Surrection. Fragrance companies, including the Swiss firm Givaudan, helped formulate the perfumes . The suite includes a scent called Grassland Opera that was meant to evoke a flowering plant lost partially as a result of 19th-century buffalo migration near the Ohio River. Solar Canopy, a sweet and fruity fragrance in the collection, could be what the Hawaiian hibiscus smelled like before it succumbed to deforestation. Aganovic and Agapakis were careful about not overselling Future Society's ability to resurrect lost scents. "A flower never smells the same way," Agapakis said. The odor of a rose, for example, changes with the time of day and where it is in its life cycle. "Different roses grown in different parts of the world in different environments are going to smell differently," she added. Social media has been quick to pounce on the company's unavoidable use of creative license. "Somebody said, 'What a great way to scam people,' because there's no way people can go back in time and confirm" what a flower smelled like, Aganovic said. "But I never thought this was an exercise in precision." Agapakis added, "The art of it is, we can get these traces from the DNA; there are things our nose can notice." But the plant itself "is sort of a ghost." Referring to Future Society's work, Fiedler said she found value in olfactory ghost stories, for plants as well as perfumers. "It may be sort of fun and sexy to think about wearing an extinct scent," she noted. "So, more power to them for telling the story, for raising awareness that plants go extinct." Six months ago, the biotech company Debut, in San Diego, started using machines that can recode plant cells to replicate scents. Some of those scents are natural and rare. Others are never-before-sniffed novelties. The company, which also uses artificial intelligence, is selling its lab-grown smells to fragrance makers for use in perfumes. Joshua Britton, Debut's founder, said that few people would recognize that the company's vetiver, a kind of grass, and orris, the root of the iris flower, have been produced artificially, apart from the bean counters tallying expenses. "Orris can go for about $100,000 a kilogram," Britton said. The molecules Debut uses to mimic it, by contrast, are "very cheap." Biotechnology enables the whittling of production time, too. The traditional way of synthesizing orris for perfume takes five years, he said. "We can ferment it like a wine in five days." The potential benefits reach past bottom lines into the habitats where at-risk plants are growing wild. "It takes 250,000 petals to create 5 milliliters of rose oil," Britton said. "Nature is no longer producing these ingredients the way it used to." In the interest of sparing plants, "we can do better." .Pbanner{display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;background-color:#ec1c40;margin-top:20px;padding:5px 10px;border-radius:4px;color:#fff;line-height:10px;} .Pbannertext{display:flex;align-items:center;font-size:16px;font-weight:600;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannertext img{height:20px;margin:0 6px} .Pbannerbutton a{display:flex;align-items:center;background-color:#fff;color:#ec1c40;text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;padding:4px 8px;border-radius:6px;font-size:15px;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannerbutton img{height:20px;margin-right:6px} .Pbannerbutton a:hover{background-color:#f7f7f7} Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now!