Category: Other
Sri Lanka tea exporter profits halve, demand down
Sept 01, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Tea Services, which exports value-added teas under the Dilmah brand, said net profit halved last year and sales are likely to remain poor this year owing to recession.Group net profit in the year ended March 31, 2009 fell 55 percent to 487 million rupees from a year […]
‘s Maruti Suzuki posts record exports
MUMBAI, September 1, 2009 (AFP) – India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India, majority-owned by Japan’s Suzuki Motor, announced record exports Tuesday in August, led by strong sales across European markets.Maruti’s exports nearly tripled to 14,847 vehicles during the month, from 5,795 a year earlier, helped by its A-star hatchback launched last November. “Data showed the […]
India posts 6.1 pct quarterly growth
NEW DELHI, August 31, 2009 (AFP) – India’s economy expanded by 6.1 percent in the three months to June, picking up pace from the previous quarter as the country emerged from the global downturn, official data showed Monday. The quarterly growth figure was up from the 5.8 percent growth posted in the March quarter, but […]
”
LUKLA, August 30, 2009 (AFP) – Over two decades, Funuru Sherpa has watched the lake above his native village of Dengboche in Nepal’s Himalayas grow, as the glacier that feeds it melts. The 29-year-old, who runs a busy Internet cafe for tourists visiting the Everest region, remembers his grandfather telling him that 50 years ago […]
Bangladeshi migrants pay high costs: World Bank
DHAKA, August 30, 2009 (AFP) – Bangladeshi migrant workers spend an average of 2,300 US dollars securing employment abroad — the equivalent of more than 18 months’ work in their new job, the World Bank said in a report. The World Bank survey calculated they send home on average 1,480 dollars a year and that […]
Probe Call
GENEVA, August 28, 2009 (AFP) – A United Nations expert on Friday urged the Sri Lankan government to set up an independent probe into the authencity of a video clip aired in Britain allegedly showing Sri Lankan troops executing prisoners. Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said Colombo had […]
Larger Bench
Aug 27, 2009 (LBO) – A case where Sri Lanka’s former Treasury Secretary is seeking permission to return to public service from which he was ousted by court, will be taken up before an expanded bench, lawyers said. Gamini Amaratunga, a serving judge was a part of the bench that delivered the original judgement on […]
India summer crops may be 20 pct below normal: govt
NEW DELHI, August 27, 2009 (AFP) – India could record a 15 to 20 percent crop shortfall due to widespread drought caused by a bad monsoon, the finance minister said Thursday.Some 252 out of India’s 626 districts have been hit by drought as a result of the weak June-to-September monsoon that is running at 26 […]
Microsoft revs up low-budget mobile phones
SAN FRANCISCO, August 24, 2009 (AFP) – Microsoft on Monday unveiled software that lets Twitter, Facebook and other hot Internet services be delivered to low-cost “feature phones” common in developing countries.The US technology giant will debut OneApp in South Africa and hopes to swiftly roll it out in India, China and other countries where millions […]
Cairn on brink of big win in India oil gamble
NEW DELHI, August 25, 2009 (AFP) – Oil entrepreneur Bill Gammell took a big gamble 12 years ago — and his winnings look set to start rolling in as Cairn Energy, the company he heads, begins to pump oil from under western India.Cairn aims to draw 175,000 barrels of oil per day — accounting for […]
Sri Lanka coconut exporter wins agribusiness award
Aug 25, 2009 (LBO) – Renuka Agrifoods, a Sri Lankan exporter of value-added agro-based products, especially coconut, has won a top award for agribusiness.The company, a subsidiary of the listed Renuka Holdings, said in a statement it was named Overall National Winner (Gold Award) at the recent National Agribusiness Awards 2009. It also clinched the […]
Minister says Air India needs bailout: report
NEW DELHI, August 24, 2009 (AFP) – Air India needs a bailout of nearly 620 million dollars to keep flying, a minister said in remarks published Monday, in which he added he was certain the loss-making airline would survive. “I want this reduced for both low-cost and full-service carriers,” he said.“I have always advocated a […]