Category: Other

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

NEW DELHI, August 22, 2009 (AFP) – India and Nepal agreed to a new trade treaty Saturday as Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal ended a five-day official visit to the regional giant that both countries hailed as successful.Nepal, on his first official visit to the country since his appointment in May, earlier met his Indian […]

Aug 21, 2009 (LBO) – The Indian Ocean tourist paradise of Maldives will stop printing money to finance its budget deficit and cut state sector wages to stabilize its economy, International Monetary Fund has said. “Maldives is facing a difficult economic and fiscal situation,” IMF mission chief to the archipelago said in a statement. “The […]

NEW DELHI, August 21, 2009 (AFP) – India will import lentils, edible oil and other staples to cope with any shortfalls caused by a widespread drought that has badly hurt crops, the finance minister said Friday.The statement by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee came as the country of nearly 1.2 billion people faces its weakest monsoon […]

NEW DELHI, August 21, 2009 (AFP) – India’s health minister warned Friday that the country of nearly 1.2 billion people must brace for a “large-scale” swine flu pandemic.Given the South Asian nation’s size “we shall have to be prepared much more than any other country in the world”, Ghulam Nabi Azad told a gathering of […]

NEW DELHI, August 19, 2009 (AFP) – India said Wednesday it would step up its food distribution programme for the poor as a widening drought threatened to cut rice production by 10 percent and sharply reduce sugar supplies.Agriculture and Food Minister Sharad Pawar also said the government would consider releasing wheat and rice from its […]

NEW DELHI, August 19, 2009 (AFP) – German automobile giant Volkswagen AG, seeking to tap into India’s fast-growing vehicle market, said Wednesday it hopes to sell 100,000 cars by 2014 in the country.Europe’s largest car manufacturer said it would accelerate its sales in India using the planned launch next year of its popular mass-market Polo […]