Category: Other
Indians to outnumber Chinese in 2025: US
WASHINGTON, December 29, 2010 (AFP) – India is on course to top China as the world’s most populous country in 2025, the US Census Bureau forecast, potentially changing the dynamics between the Asian giants. The latest Census Bureau estimates out this week, which are in line with previous studies, predicted that India would have 1. […]
Bangladesh to explore gas in restive hill region
DHAKA, December 28, 2010 (AFP) – Bangladesh has invited some of the world’s leading state-owned gas giants to help explore its insurgency-hit southeastern hill tracts region, an official said Tuesday. The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region makes up one-tenth of the South Asian country’s landmass but has been largely left unexplored due to a decades-long […]
‘s poorest
KAVRE, December 29, 2010 (AFP) – Seven years ago, Nepalese farmer Madhab Parajuli faced an agonising choice: lose his small plot of farmland to mounting debts, or sell one of his kidneys to an organ trafficker. “Local people see that you can give up a kidney and still try to live a healthy life. So, […]
Sri Lanka to get fish canning plants
Dec 28, 2010 (LBO) – Two fish canning plants are to be built in Sri Lanka next year to supply both the export and domestic markets, fisheries minister Rajitha Senaratne said. Fish production has been increasing since the island’s 30-year ethnic war ended in May 2009. “By the end of next year, we aim to […]
Sri Lanka coconut farmers to get subsidies amid high prices
Dec 28, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s coconut farmers, who are now perhaps getting the highest prices in the world due to agriculture protection, are to get tax payer support in the form of a fertilizer subsidy, the government has said. Earlier in the year Sri Lanka’s desiccated coconut producers proposed a periodically adjusted tax […]
Sri Lanka fish prices seen falling when weather improves
Dec 27, 2010 (LBO) – Fish prices in Sri Lanka should come down when the weather improves and Catholic fishermen put out to sea with the end of Christmas celebrations, the fisheries minister Rajitha Senaratne said. Increased sales by the state-owned Ceylon Fisheries Corporation had already brought fish prices down by about 22 percent on […]
India launches sharia stock index for Muslims
MUMBAI, December 27, 2010 (AFP) – India’s Bombay Stock Exchange launched a share index of sharia-compliant companies on Monday in an attempt to open stock-trading to more Muslims. The BSE TASIS Sharia 50 consists of the largest and most liquid sharia-compliant stocks within the BSE 500 index. All the companies have been vetted to ensure […]
‘ warm words
NEW DELHI, December 26, 2010 (AFP) – The theme of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to India was “friends not rivals,” but a border dispute remains a source of tension and, analysts warn, potential conflict between the Asian giants. The joint communique that concluded Wen’s recent visit barely mentioned the long-standing border issue, as both […]
‘s cheapest car
NEW DELHI, December 26, 2010 (AFP) – India’s launch of the world’s cheapest car, the Nano, was expected to create a vast new market segment in the nation of 1.2 billion people, but reality has fallen short of expectations. “The really good thing for Tata is that those people who have the car are happy […]
‘s city-dwellers get angrier as society changes
MUMBAI, December 26, 2010 (AFP) – With its religious retreats for meditation and yoga, India has long been sought out by Western visitors eager to escape the rat race and return home better prepared to face life’s challenges. Big cities like New Delhi and Mumbai, however, are becoming anything but havens of spiritual calm and […]
Onions, coconuts and the politics of taste in S.Asia
NEW DELHI, December 24, 2010 (AFP) – Food and politics have always been closely intertwined in the developing countries of South Asia, but when national taste buds are at stake the relationship can become especially volatile. A shortage of onions in India, a dearth of coconuts in Sri Lanka and the soaring price of cooking […]
Missing Syndrome
GENEVA, December 23, 2010 (AFP) – An international accord aimed at preventing abductions — a fate affecting tens of thousands of people throughout the world — came into force Thursday, the United Nations said. “In Latin America, where a number of countries are parties to the convention, thousands of families still await information on the […]