Saturday, September 12
Uttar Pradesh's tourism department said the holy month of Shravan in 2025 witnessed an 'unprecedented' surge of faith and festivities across Uttar Pradesh, shattering all previous records in religious tourism.The department stated that at Lucknow’s famed Mankameshwar Temple, daily pilgrim numbers rose from an average of 5,000–6,000 to over 15,000–20,000 during Shravan. At Budheshwar Temple, footfall crossed 20,000 every Monday and Wednesday. Barabanki’s Lodheswar Mahadev Temple welcomed nearly 1.2 million devotees, with Mondays drawing up to 300,000 people.Bagpat’s Shravan Mela attracted approximately 1.4 million visitors, with over 500,000 arriving in a single day. More than 100,000 kanwariyas carried Ganga water from Hapur’s Garhmukteshwar Ghat, while Lakhimpur Kheri’s Gola
Mumbai: Retail investors may have entered the equity market driven by the fear of missing out, or FOMO, but for banks, the move was more strategic. Their treasury operations saw an opportunity to diversify, leading to a sharp rise in equity investments in FY25.An analysis by ET covering 16 banks - together accounting for 90% of the lending market - showed that their investments in stocks rose 49% to ₹49,572 crore.Investments by State bank of India (SBI) tripled to ₹22,000 crore over the previous year, while equity commitments by Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank and UCO Bank more than doubled.Retail participation in the markets also grew in the same period, as investor accounts on NSDL surged to 39.5 million (35.8 million in the previous year). Retail presence on CDSL grew to 153 million (11
US national debt reached record USD 37 trillion. The national debt eclipsed this new milestone years sooner than pre-pandemic projections. The Congressional Budget Office's January 2020 projections predicted the US reaching the milestone after fiscal year 2030. But the debt grew faster than expected as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down much of the US economy and the Trump and Biden administrations borrowed heavily to stabilise the national economy.
