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The Francis Scott Key Bridge in the US city of Baltimore collapsed after a ship collided with it, the Maryland Transportation Authority said early Tuesday."I-695 Key Bridge collapse due to ship strike," the MTA posted on social media platform X, referring to the interstate highway. It urged drivers to avoid the route over the Patapsco River, which it called an "active scene".Earlier, the MTA had said interstate lanes in both directions were closed due to an "incident" on the bridge and that traffic was being redirected.A police spokesperson from the Baltimore Police Department told NBC News that people were possibly in the river."I can confirm at 1:35 a.m., Baltimore City police were notified of a partial bridge collapse, with workers possibly in the water, at the Francis Scott Key Bridge," Detective Niki Fennoy said in a statement.— cackenbools (@cackenbools) Ship monitoring website MarineTraffic showed a Singapore-flagged container ship called the Dali stopped under the bridge early Tuesday. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scoot and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr both said they were aware of the incident and that rescue efforts were underway. "Please pray for those impacted," Olszewski posted on X.

Abrdn Plc is adding exposure to Indian sovereign bonds on attractive yields and amid expectations that their inclusion into global indexes will drive large inflows.“We’re very positive about India,” said Stephen Bird, chief executive officer of the firm that manages and administers £495 billion ($626 billion) in assets. Still, he sees the market facing some uncertainty ahead of the national elections starting next month.India’s debt market is projected to attract up to $40 billion of new money with JPMorgan Chase & Co set to add the country’s bonds into its indexes from June. Foreigners currently hold just a fraction of Indian debt. 108783924Bloomberg Index Services Ltd. will also include some India bonds in its emerging market local currency index starting next year. Bloomberg LP is the parent company of Bloomberg Index Services Ltd., which administers indexes that compete with those from other service providers.The benchmark 10-year yield closed at 7.09% on Friday, after falling to a nine-month low of around 7% earlier in March. The yield can drop to 6.78% by year-end, according to a Bloomberg poll of strategists.Overall, Bird expects emerging markets to perform better when the Federal Reserve starts its easing cycle. “When rates come off, which they will, that historically EM starts to do better and we think that investors need to prepare for that,” he added.Here are some more views from Bird: -Favors local-currency government bonds in Asia due to their “very good return,” in addition to investment-grade credit-Less confident about high-yield because it’s “priced to perfection”-Positive about tech stocks in Taiwan and Korea, which lead digitization and electrification; positive about Japan equities-Monetary policy easing in South America offers good prospects in local-currency bonds in that region

The initial public offering (IPO) of Bharti Hexacom will open for subscription on April 3 and close on April 5. The company has fixed a price band of Rs 542-570 per share.The anchor book of the first public issue of the new financial year FY2024-25 will be open for a day on April 2. The company aims to raise Rs 4,275 crore from the stake sale.The Bharti Hexacom IPO consists solely of an offer-for-sale (OFS) component, without any fresh issue of shares. Telecommunications Consultants India, the sole public shareholder in the company, will offload 7.5 crore equity shares or a 15% stake in the OFS.Sunil Mittal-driven telco Bharti Airtel holds a 70% stake or 35 crore shares and the remaining 30% shareholding, equivalent to 15 crore equity shares is held by non-promoter TCIL.Bharti Hexacom runs mobile services in Rajasthan and the Northeast circles of India. Airtel will continue to hold a majority stake in the subsidiary.The northeast telecommunication circles in India comprise the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura.From an average revenue per user (ARPU) of Rs 135 in FY21, Bharti Hexacom has managed to improve this to Rs 195 during the six months ended September 2023.As of September 2023, the company had an aggregate of 29.1 million customers across both circles.Bharti Hexacom has a spectrum portfolio with a varied pool of mid-band spectrum, which has enabled us to offer 5G plus services to customers.For the six months ended September, the company reported a revenue of Rs 3,420 crore, compared to Rs 3,167 crore a year ago. However, profit dropped to Rs 69 crore from Rs 195 crore a year ago.SBI Capital Markets, Axis Capital, BOB Capital Markets, ICICI Securities, and IIFL Securities are the book-running lead managers to the issue.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)

The world's governments have agreed they want to triple renewable energy by 2030, a goal laid out at the U.N. climate summit in December.But right now, the post-pandemic global economy is throwing up obstacles that will need to be overcome if the goal is going to be met.Here are the big hurdles to solar, wind and other renewable energy projects:Central banks in Europe and the U.S. have raised interest rates to combat inflation. That hits renewables harder than it does investment in fossil fuel projects.Renewables have much higher up-front costs to build wind farms, solar arrays and more, and that borrowing costs money. After that, operating costs are negligible since the wind and sun are free, of course — but high interest rates have made it harder to get new projects off the ground.In many cases, the answer is raising the agreed price of the electricity flowing to the grid to cover the added costs.Everything costs more these days — not just food and rent, but the electric cables, power turbines, construction materials and services needed to build wind or solar installations. One exception: solar panels have plunged in price due to massive Chinese production.Order backlogs and supply delays are growing because there are shortages of skilled engineers, raw materials and a lack of manufacturing capacity for complex machinery needed for renewable energy projects.An order for a new wind turbine or a transformer to connect to the grid can take months or longer to arrive than it did before the COVID-19 pandemic.So-called NIMBY syndrome remains an issue in many places. Germany's southern region of Bavaria, for example, is known for resisting the noise and appearance of wind turbines in its scenic landscape.Installations have lagged in Bavaria and other regions despite the German government's push for more renewable energy after losing affordable Russian natural gas used to heat homes, generate electricity and power factories.Low-income countries have long faced much higher borrowing costs than the richer parts of the globe because government subsidies or other credit guarantees are uncertain.The result is that the same solar park if built today costs twice as much in Ghana as it would in the U.S. because of interest rates alone, according to Todd Moss, a former State Department official who heads the Energy for Growth Hub in Washington.