By: Mallica JoshiNEW DELHI: How did Beijing go from being the ‘smog capital of the world’ to footnotes in research papers on tackling air pollution? China has lessons for India.In a series of posts on X, spokesperson of the Chinese embassy in India, Yu Jing laid out the path that Beijing followed to drastically improve air quality.

“Both China and India know the struggle with air pollution amid rapid urbanization. While the challenge remains complex, China’s sustained efforts over the past decade have delivered noticeable improvements…” Jing posted.Also read: Poisoned skies: How China tackled pollution — if Beijing can, why can’t Delhi?Beijing’s annual PM 2.5 average in 2013 was 101.7 ug/m3. In 2024, it stood at 30.9 ug/m3.In her posts that followed, Jing spoke about the steps taken in transport and industry sectors that led to better air. “How did Beijing tackle air pollution? Step 1: Vehicle emissions control. Adopt ultra-strict regulations like China 6NI (on par with Euro 6). Phase-out retired old, high-emission vehicles. Curb car growth via license-plate lotteries and odd-even / weekday driving rules. Build one of the world’s largest metro and bus networks. Accelerate the shift to electric mobility. Work with the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region on coordinated emissions cuts. Cleaner air doesn’t happen overnight—but it is achievable,” she said.Addressing air pollution from industry, Jing said, “Step 2: Industrial Restructuring. Shut down or remove 3000+ heavy industries. Relocating Shougang, one of China’s largest steelmakers, alone cut inhalable particles by 20%. Transform vacated factories into parks, commercial zones, cultural and tech hubs. Example, the former Shougang site became the 2022 Winter Olympics venue. Relieve non-capital functions by relocating wholesale markets, logistics hubs and some educational and medical institutions. Coordinate regional integration by shifting general manufacturing to Hebei, while retaining high-value R&D and services in Beijing.”These interventions are not unheard of in India. Cleaner fuel for vehicles as well as industry, a curb on growth of private vehicles and robust public transport have been part of discussions for at least a decade.According to experts, the difference is in the scale and seriousness of the action.“In China, action was not taken just in Beijing but in 26 cities and towns to tackle the problem, which is regional. The first lesson is that the actions they took were urgent, stringent, and at a large scale. They took deep to enable massive energy transition, like getting rid of coal not only in industry but also in household use. Beijing also capped the number of cars that can be sold in a year even as it created infrastructure for public transport. We will find similarities in our plans for Delhi-NCR but the scale is missing,” said Anumita Roy Chaudhuri, Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, Centre For Science and Environment.She also said action in Delhi is taken only during air emergencies.“We can’t have just emergency measures. The implementation of these actions has to be round-the clock,” she said.Sunil Dahiya, Founder and Lead Analyst at the think tank EnviroCatalyst, said, “We already have BS6, which is equivalent to Euro 6, and the latest decision on not allowing BS VI or below vehicles in Delhi seems to be in the right direction. All the steps suggested for vehicular pollution were tried in India, but they didn’t work only because there wasn’t a political will.”On industrial pollution, Dahiya said shifting or removing all industries to a different region might be difficult as we are dealing with the livelihood of people residing in several states. “We can instead come up with better facilities. For instance, small and medium enterprises or manufacturing units mostly use undesignated fuel and lack air pollution control devices. We can introduce better mechanisms with common pollution control devices, emission control devices, and restructuring industrial clusters,” he said, adding that since 2019, no strict measures have been taken against power plants.

Microsoft 365 services in Japan and China have been fully restored after thousands of users experienced widespread access and sign-in failures early Thursday. The regional outage affected essential tools including Outlook, Teams, OneDrive and Microsoft’s AI assistant Copilot, disrupting business operations and remote work across both markets. Sharing a post on microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter), the official page of Microsoft 365 Status said “After an extended period of monitoring, we confirmed that our mitigating actions resolved impact for users. For more information, please see MO1198797 in the admin center”.

What caused Microsoft 365 services outage in Japan and China

According to updates posted in Microsoft’s admin center, the issue stemmed from a routing fault inside the company’s service infrastructure responsible for handling traffic in Japan. The outage led to intermittent login failures, slow loading times and degraded app performance for several hours. Microsoft engineers deployed mitigation steps throughout the morning, rebalancing traffic across backup systems to stabilize services.

Microsoft 365 services outage in Japan and China: Details of the disruption

The outage began around 12:00 am UTC (5:30 amIST), according to Microsoft’s status page. Users across Japan and China reported being unable to sign in to Microsoft 365 apps, with some experiencing repeated timeouts when accessing cloud-based files or using Copilot features. Microsoft confirmed that the disruption was limited to the Asia-Pacific region and said there was no indication of a cyberattack. Early assessments pointed to a routing misconfiguration that isolated parts of otherwise healthy infrastructure.Throughout the morning, Microsoft shared successive updates as mitigation progressed. At around 12:10 PM JST, engineers reported that traffic had been rebalanced across redundant systems and that services were returning to normal.In its latest post on X via Microsoft 365 Status, the company said: “After an extended period of monitoring, we confirmed that our mitigating actions resolved impact for users. For more information, please see MO1198797 in the admin center.”Outage impact and recoveryNo data loss or security issues were reported. However, the downtime affected organizations dependent on Microsoft’s cloud tools for daily operations. Copilot-powered workflows, email access, file sync and internal communication channels experienced the most disruption.

Asian stocks fell sharply on Thursday, tracking losses on Wall Street, as concerns mounted over the technology sector and the heavy spending on artificial intelligence cautioned investors.Hong Kong’s HSI was trading below 111 points or 0.44% at 25,357 at 10:38 AM IST. Nikkei also trimmed over 422 points to reach 49,089. Kospi also lost 1.39% to reach 3,999. Expectations of a year-end rally have weakened after the US Federal Reserve last week suggested it may pause interest rate cuts as early as next month. Although the central bank’s three consecutive reductions had supported equities in recent months, investors are increasingly wary that the policy tailwind could be coming to an end. With uncertainty building, markets are now looking ahead to key US inflation data due later on Thursday for clues on the Fed’s next move. A US jobs report released earlier this week did little to clarify the outlook for monetary policy. The spotlight has returned to technology stocks, where fears are growing that valuations may have overshot fundamentals. Tech and chipmakers have been the driving force behind this year’s rally to record highs, but scepticism is rising over how long earnings can justify the heavy capital being poured into AI and when meaningful returns will emerge. Those concerns intensified on Wednesday following reports that private capital firm Blue Owl had withdrawn from Oracle’s planned $10 billion data centre, raising doubts over the project’s future. The development came soon after Oracle and semiconductor major Broadcom reported weaker-than-expected earnings last week. Markets reacted sharply. Oracle shares slid more than five per cent on Wednesday, while Broadcom also moved lower. Losses spread across the sector, dragging down major names such as Nvidia, Alphabet and Advanced Micro Devices. The technology-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.8%, and the S&P 500 declined by more than one per cent.Elsewhere, oil prices climbed more than one per cent for a second consecutive day after the US said its forces had struck a vessel in the Pacific Ocean that Washington claims was involved in drug trafficking, killing four people described as “narco-terrorists”. The development added to tensions surrounding Venezuela after US President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of oil tankers labelled as “sanctioned” while heading to and from the country. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused Washington of pursuing regime change rather than focusing on its stated aim of curbing drug trafficking.

Rupee on Thursday opened 6 paise up to 90.32 against the US dollar in early trade, continuing its tentative recovery after hitting historic lows earlier this week. The uptick comes a day after the currency staged a sharp rebound on Wednesday, when it snapped a five-day losing streak to recover from the losses, rising 55 paise from its record low. Back on Tuesday, the rupee had breached the psychologically significant 91-per-dollar level for the first time, touching an all-time low of 91.14 before closing at 90.93. According to experts, the turnaround was driven by intervention from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which stepped in to sell dollars following a steep and sustained slide in the currency. Rupee then climbed to an intraday high of 89.75 on the interbank order matching system, from levels close to 91.00 before the central bank’s action. The RBI’s move reflected a strategy seen in October and November, when it intervened multiple times to counter persistent one-way depreciation in the rupee. During those periods, the central bank sold dollars heavily in both the spot and non-deliverable forward (NDF) markets, resulting in sharp intraday reversals. Unlike earlier interventions, which were carried out before market hours, Wednesday’s dollar sales began shortly after onshore trading commenced, a banker said. “The Indian rupee appreciated after a five-day losing streak, bolstered by suspected aggressive intervention from the central bank,” said Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities. Market experts said the rupee’s decline this year has been driven more by global pressures than domestic economic conditions. The currency has fallen almost 6% against the dollar in 2025, placing it among the worst-performing currencies globally. Analysts cited a widening trade deficit, 50% tariffs by the US and persistent investment outflows as key factors behind the weakness. “No currency has been hit harder by US tariffs than India’s rupee,” analysts said, adding that uncertainty over a US–India trade deal has kept investors cautious, Reuters reported.

Where is Rupee headed?

State Bank of India (SBI), in its latest report, has projected a strong recovery for rupee in the latter part of the next financial year, between October 2026 and March 2027. SBI said that its assessment is based on historical currency behaviour and internal analysis, which indicate that the ongoing weakening trend is not permanent. The report noted that the rupee has moved through different depreciation and appreciation cycles in the past and is likely to exit the current phase in the second half of the next fiscal year. “We believe that the Rupee is likely to bounce back strongly in the second half of next fiscal” The report traced earlier rupee movements to strong foreign portfolio investment flows, particularly before calendar year 2014. During that period, large and sustained inflows played a central role in determining the currency’s trajectory. However, SBI addded that the global environment has since changed. The report pointed out that such high levels of portfolio inflows are no longer available, with geopolitical uncertainty, including delays in trade agreements, now exerting greater influence on the rupee’s performance. According to the bank, the period of easy and abundant capital inflows has come to an end as global risks have intensified. Data cited in the report showed that net portfolio inflows averaged $162.8 billion between CY07 and CY14. In comparison, inflows fell to $87.7 billion between CY15 and CY25 (till date). The report further classified rupee’s long-term behaviour into three separate phases based on its interaction with the US dollar. The first phase: The period, spanning January 2008 to May 2014, was marked by a sharp weakening of rupee compared with the dollar. During this period, the dollar rose by an average of 1.7 %, while the rupee fell by an average of 16.3%, a trend the report attributed to weak domestic fundamentals. The second phase: om May 2014 to March 2021, movements in the rupee and the dollar were more closely aligned. Over this period, the rupee depreciated by an average of 7.9%, broadly in line with a 5.1% appreciation in the dollar, indicating a more balanced relationship between the two currencies. The third phase: September 2024 and continues at present, has seen both rupee and dollar weaken simultaneously. According to SBI, this marks a new regime driven by elevated geopolitical uncertainty in the current global environment. Based on this framework, the currency is still in a phase of depreciation but is expected to move out of it over time. As global uncertainties subside, the currency is projected to rebound strongly in the second half of the next financial year.

According to market experts, the overall sentiment continues to be weak. (AI image)

Stock market today: Indian equity benchmark indices, Nifty50 and BSE Sensex, opened in red in trade on Thursday. While Nifty50 was below 25,800, BSE Sensex was down around 150 points. At 9:16 AM, Nifty50 was trading at 25,784.80, down 34 points or 0.13%. BSE Sensex was at 84,412.18, down 147 points or 0.17%.According to market experts, the overall sentiment continues to be weak, with Nifty likely finding support near 25700-25650 in the near term before staging a recovery. Any upward movement could face strong resistance at 25950-26000 levels.Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited says, “The trend of weakening AI trade is gathering pace in the U.S. market. This trend is likely to continue in early 2026, and this will favour non-AI markets like India. An interesting takeaway from yesterday’s trade is that despite FII buying and net institutional buying the market drifted down. The reason might be the FIIs increasing their short positions in the market. This means, in the near-term, FIIs will resort to a sell on rally strategy.” US stock markets finished lower on Wednesday, with S&P 500 and Nasdaq reaching three-week lows as concerns over AI-related stocks impacted the technology sector.Asian equities started lower, following US market decline as global sentiment turned risk-averse with technology concerns affecting stocks while supporting short-term Treasuries and precious metals.Foreign portfolio investors disposed of shares valued at Rs 1,172 crore on Wednesday. Domestic institutional investors acquired shares worth Rs 769 crore.(Disclaimer: Recommendations and views on the stock market, other asset classes or personal finance management tips given by experts are their own. These opinions do not represent the views of The Times of India)

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday (local time) delivered a live address from the White House, highlighting the financial and economic achievements he achieved in his second term. Much of the speech centred on inflation, trade policy, tariffs and household finances, alongside sharp criticism of the previous Democrat administration.Beginning his address, Trump highlighted that he took office at a time of severe economic strain, arguing that Americans were struggling with high prices and declining affordability.“America, 11 months ago, I inherited a mess and I’m fixing it. When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years, and some would say in the history of our country, which caused prices to be higher than ever before, making life unaffordable for millions and millions of Americans. This happened during a Democrat administration, and it’s when we first began hearing the word affordability,” he said.The president repeatedly targeted the Biden administration over inflation and public spending, accusing it of draining the US treasury and driving up everyday costs. He went on to criticise earlier trade deals, saying that the United States had lost economic standing on the global stage. However, after Trump began his second term as a president, the country was no longer being “laughed at” from all over the world.

Trump’s favourite word — Tariffs!

He highlighted what he described as record levels of investment flowing into the United States, linking this directly to his trade and tariff policies. “Already, I’ve secured a record-breaking $18 trillion of investment into the United States, which means jobs, wage increases, growth, factory openings, and far greater national security,” he said.He described tariffs as a central tool of his economic strategy, arguing that they had encouraged companies to relocate manufacturing back to the US.“Much of this success has been accomplished by tariffs, my favorite word, tariffs, which, for many decades, have been used successfully by other countries against us, but not anymore. Companies know that if they build in America, there are no tariffs, and that’s why they’re coming home to the USA in record numbers. They’re building factories and plants at levels we haven’t seen, AI, automobiles.”The US President claimed that the economic turnaround had been dramatic.“We’re doing what nobody thought was even possible, not even remotely possible. There has never, frankly, been anything like it. One year ago, our country was dead. We were absolutely dead. Our country was ready to fail. Totally failed.”Alongside foreign policy claims, the president said the domestic economy had been brought back “from the brink of ruin”, again blaming previous leadership for rising prices across key sectors.“The last administration and their allies in Congress looted our Treasury for trillions of dollars, driving up prices and everything at levels never seen before. I am bringing those high prices down and bringing them down very fast,” he said.

Fuels, food, wages — What changed in Trump’s term?

Trump listed a series of price increases he attributed to the Biden years, including cars, fuel, hotel rates and airfares, before claiming those costs were now falling.

“Under the Biden administration, car prices rose 22% and, in many states, 30% or more. Gasoline rose 30 to 50%. Hotel rates rose 37%. Airfares rose 31%. Now, under our leadership, they are all coming down and coming down fast.”He also referred to food prices, citing declines in the cost of groceries.“The price of a Thanksgiving turkey was down 33% compared to the Biden last year. The price of eggs is down 82 percent since March, and everything else is falling rapidly. And it’s not done yet, but, boy, are we making progress.”Energy costs featured prominently in the speech, with Trump saying households had borne heavy losses under the previous administration.“Electricity costs surged 30 to 100 percent under Biden. And the typical family lost $5,000 to $10,000 in higher energy costs,” he said, adding that he had declared a national energy emergency on his first day in office.He claimed fuel prices had since dropped sharply. “Gasoline is now under $2.50 a gallon in much of the country. In some states, it, by the way, just hit $1.99 a gallon.”Turning to wages and incomes, Trump said his policies were boosting take-home pay after years of decline.“After years of record-setting falling incomes, our policies are boosting take-home pay at a historic pace,” he said, adding that “under Biden, real wages plummeted by $3,000”.He said factory workers were now seeing wage increases of $1,300, while construction workers were gaining $1,800, stressing that “wages are going up much faster than inflation”.The president also highlighted a major tax package, describing it as “one beautiful bill”, which combined multiple measures including “no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security for our great seniors”.He said these changes would save many families between $11,000 and $20,000 a year and lead to what he described as the largest tax refund season on record.Linking tariffs to government revenue, Trump announced a special payment for military personnel.“Because of tariffs, along with the just-passed, one big, beautiful bill, tonight I am also proud to announce that more than 1,450,000 — think of this, 1,450,000 — military service members will receive a special we call warrior dividend before Christmas,” he said.“We are sending every soldier $1,776,” he added, stating that the payments were already being issued.Closing his address, Trump said the combination of falling prices, rising wages and trade-driven revenue had restored America’s economic position.“Wages are up. Prices are down. Our nation is strong. America is respected. And our country is back, stronger than ever before. We’re poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen.”

NEW DELHI: Indian athletes have claimed the top rank in dope violations once again. The country’s athletes notched up a record 260 involvements in dope-related activities in the year 2024, as revealed by the latest World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) report. According to the report published on Wada’s website late on Tuesday, it has listed India as the worst doping offender globally for the third consecutive time.The findings emerged on the backdrop of India’s preparations to host the centenary edition of the Commonwealth Games in 2030 and is aggressively pushing for a bid to host the 2036 Olympics. The Inter national Olympic Committee (IOC) had red-flagged concerns over rampant doping when an Indian delegation visited its headquarters in the Swiss city of Lausanne in July to assess the feasibility of hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Wada says, India accounted for 260 adverse analytical findings (AAFs), reflecting a positivity rate of 3.6 per cent — the highest among all countries that conducted 5,000 or more tests. The Delhi-headquartered National Anti-Doping Agency (Nada) conducted 7,113 tests last year, comprising 6,576 urine samples and 537 blood samples. Of these, 253 urine samples (196 in-competition and 57 out of-competition) returned positive for prohibited substances, while seven blood samples (four in-competition and three out-of-competition) failed the dope test. Nada insisted that the latest figures reflected the anti doping watchdog’s more aggressive testing approach, when a total of 213 cases returned dope positive from 5,606 samples collected in 2023.However, several leading sporting nations recorded far lower positivity rates despite more extensive testing. France tested 11,744 samples and recorded 91 anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs), a 0.8 per cent positivity rate. Russia accounted for 76 ADRVs from 10,514 samples, a 0.7 per cent rate, after leading the global doping charts until 2021. China had just 43 dope failures, with a minimal 0.2 percent positivity rate from 24,214 samples. The US anti-doping agency did a lesser number of tests than India, 6592 in total, and had a positivity rate of 1.1 per cent.

The report highlights how deep the menace runs in the Indian sporting culture and again emphasised on the need to have a robust scientific and research system in the country. The figures also highlighted that Indian coaches, doctors and physiotherapists – attached with teams of different disciplines – lack basic knowledge of the use of performance-enhancing supplements and medicines. “While this position may appear concerning at both national and international levels, it is essential to underscore that the figures are a direct outcome of India’s intensified anti-doping efforts, marked by expanded testing and stronger detection mechanisms rather than a surge in doping prevalence,” stated a statement from Nada as it explained the continued high rate of positivity.In 2025, Nada has said it has so far conducted 7068 tests with a positivity rate of 1.5 per cent after a relatively lower adverse results count of 110.To tackle the doping menace, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) recently formed a new anti-doping panel while the govt has passed a national anti-doping bill aiming to ensure the highest standards of integrity in sports.

BENGALURU: What began as phone calls and mushy messages soon revealed itself as a carefully staged “love trap” — one that ultimately collapsed because a police inspector refused to play along. The woman has been arrested.It all began on Oct 30 when the first call was received by inspector Sathish GJ, who had taken charge of the Ramamurthynagar police station. The caller, who introduced herself as Sanjana, claimed she lived in the locality. Within minutes, the conversation veered away from small talk, ending with an unsolicited declaration of love.Sathish brushed it off as a prank. However, the calls didn’t stop. New numbers appeared each time old ones were blocked. By the time Sathish had blocked 11 numbers, it was clear this was not infatuation but persistence with intent. The woman demanded attention, affection, and acceptance, growing more aggressive with every rejection.When the attempts failed, pressure followed. Sanjana claimed to be a political party worker with access to the highest echelons of power. She sent photographs of herself with ministers and politicians and warned the inspector that his career could be “managed” up or down depending on his response. Calls even came in, claiming to represent the home minister and deputy chief minister, asking why Sathish was “ignoring” her complaint. The inspector said he replied, stating the woman had never formally visited the station nor filed any complaint, and that he would act only through due legal process.The woman changed tactics again. She visited the police station in Sathish’s absence, introduced herself as his relative, and left behind a bouquet and a box of sweets. When informed, Sathish warned her not to misuse his name. On Nov 7, she appeared at the station and handed him an envelope stuffed with handwritten love letters, heart sketches, declarations of devotion, and antidepressant tablets. The message was explicit: reciprocate, or she would end her life after holding him responsible. When the harassment continued, he formally lodged a complaint on Nov 8.During the inquiry, police learned that Sanjana had previously targeted a police constable in Whitefield and two other men in Ramamurthynagar and KR Pura, allegedly extracting money after similar “love” overtures. She returned on Dec 12, abusing the inspector, demanding a secret relationship, threatening suicide and vowing to destroy his reputation.In his complaint, the inspector alleged that the woman’s actions were aimed at harassment, intimidation, and possibly illegal financial gain, apart from damaging his personal dignity and the reputation of the police department. A case has been registered under the BNS sections 132 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty), 221 (obstructing a public servant in discharge of public functions), and 351 (criminal intimidation).