Services, the biggest sector of India’s economy, saw a dip in growth in November, but it was the second straight month to have witnessed growth after 7 months of continuous decline, showed the widely-tracked IHS Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI). While domestic demand remains strong, that from overseas markets declined.

The index declined to 53.7 in November from 54.1 in October. In the PMI lexicon, any reading above 50 is expansion and any print below that is contraction.

The commentary associated with PMI said the latest reading was still indicative of a solid pace of expansion.

“Companies that signalled output growth commented on better demand conditions and a relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions,” it said.

Sub-sector data highlighted transport & storage as the best performing category in November, with rates of growth for output and sales surpassing those seen

President-elect Joe Biden was in a good mood as we talked on the phone Tuesday evening for an hour — he in Delaware and me in Bethesda, Md. He apologized, though, for being late. He had been following the breaking news that Attorney General William Barr had just announced that the Justice Department had not uncovered any significant fraud that could have affected the results of the presidential election. It’s all over.

Biden joked that Barr had just called him, “asking if I can get him in the witness protection program for endorsing me.”

Considering the Trump team’s hurricane of dishonest claims about the election results, the president-elect was entitled to a little laugh at their expense. Otherwise, he was all business.

Biden had a lot to say about how he intends to approach the current Senate majority leader,

A trial participant claims to have suffered a neurological illness (acute encephalopathy) and was hospitalised 10 days after he received the first jab of the vaccine in the Covishield trial. He sent a legal notice to the Serum Institute of India (SII), the sponsor of the trial, seeking Rs 5 crore in damages.

Serum Institute has in response stated that the allegations made in the legal notice are ‘malicious and misconceived’, and that it will seek damages in excess of Rs 100 crore.

Listen to the podcast to know all the key updates related to vaccine

The International Cricket Council’s newly-elected chairman Greg Barclay on Monday conceded that the ambitious World Test Championship hasn’t quite achieved what it intended to and the disruption caused by COVID-19 has only highlighted its “shortcomings”.

The World Test Championship schedule has been thrown haywire by the andemic and the ICC has come up with a percentage allocation of points as all the scheduled series before the 2021 final at the Lord’s cannot be completed in a short span of time.

Has the Test Championship given the format a fillip that it was meant to?

“In short, I don’t think so. The COVID has probably highlighted its shortcomings of the championship,” Barclay, who took charge earlier this month, said during a virtual media conference for wire services.

The New Zealander feels that a lot of problems with the current cricketing calendar is due

Van Heusen, an apparel brand from the stable of Rs 8,788-crore Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd (ABFRL), is planning to expand the Van Heusen Innerwear EBO (Exclusive Brand Outlet) network to around 400 stores over the next 2-3 years from the current 45.

Puneet Kumar Malik, CEO, Van Heusen Innerwear and Athleisure, said that the innerwear and athleisure business segment was one of the few businesses running ahead of last year’s levels and had grown in the second quarter.

Growing salience and increasing consumer acceptance was resulting in rising market share also, he said.

On the company’s expansion plans, Malik said that it was looking to increase Van Heusen Innerwear EBO network by adding 100 stores in the next 9-10 months across tier-1 and 2 cities and was looking at 400 stores over the next 2-3 years.

China built a village in territory also claimed by the kingdom of Bhutan, echoing its aggressive tactics at the border with India and in places much farther away.

Just in time for its National Day in October, China completed construction of a new village high in the mountains where the Chinese region of Tibet meets the kingdom of Bhutan. A hundred people moved into two dozen new homes beside the Torsa River and celebrated the holiday by raising China’s flag and singing the national anthem.

“Each of us is a coordinate of the great motherland,” a border guard was quoted as saying by an official state news agency, China Tibetan News.

The problem is, these new “coordinates” are more than a mile inside what Bhutan considers its territory.

The construction, documented in satellite photos, followed a playbook