March 21 News Roundup | IMF financial aid to Sri Lanka, protests in France & more

From International Monetary Fund's financial aid to Sri Lanka to a fresh list of the happiest countries in the world, read on for the latest international news and updates in our March 21 news roundup.

In a bid to help the country overcome its economic crisis, International Monetary Fund has approved $3 billion in aid to Sri Lanka. A slew of internal factors like missteps in policy along with some external factors have caused an unprecedented humanitarian and economic crisis in Sri Lanka.

Adding to the ever-growing list, another Indian-origin CEO has taken charge of the giant coffee chain, Starbucks. Laxman Narasimhan, who had joined Starbucks as 'interim CEO' in October 2022, will succeed Howard Schultz as the new CEO.

Finland has been named the 'happiest country in the world' for the sixth year running in a UN-sponsored happiness index. India has been ranked 126th in the list of 137 countries while war-torn Ukraine has jumped six spots to 92nd owing to increased "acts of kindness" in the country.

After the United Nations declared 2023 as the 'international year of millets', more and more Indian restaurants across the globe are expected to serve more millet-based food. Given the health-benefits of these multi-grains, urbanites are finding the addition of millet-based food on global menus especially refreshing.

Several were detained in Paris on Monday evening over the ongoing protests against President Macron's pension reform. The said reform is the government's new bill to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, which has been proposed as an attempt to tackle the problem caused by France's aging population.

India has summoned UK's highest ranking diplomatic official in view of the recent incident of Khalistan supporters desecrating the tricolor atop the Indian high commission in London. Vinay Kwatra, Foreign Secretary of India, has made clear that India has voiced its concern regarding the security lapses during said incident to British officials.

In addition to a series of cuts made earlier, ecommerce giant Amazon is all set to lay off 9,000 employees in fresh wave of job cuts. In recent months, Amazon has laid off around 10% of its 300,000 strong workforce as the downturn in the tech industry continues.

Stay tuned for more updates from across the globe and follow ups on these stories.