Category: South Asia

April 18, 2012 (LBO) – Maldivian President Mohamed Waheed on Wednesday called for presidential elections to be held ahead of time, in July 2013, after his favourites won two by-elections over the weekend. Waheed, who is accused by his predecessor of seizing power in a military-backed coup, said Saturday’s elections confirmed the democratic credentials of […]

Apr 05, 2012 (LBO) – Cairn India Limited (CIL) said it has made a second oil discovery in a through its fully owned unit Cairn Energy India Pty Limited (CEIL) in an exploration block in Krishna-Godavari Basin on the east coast of India. CEIL is the operator of the block owning 24 percent of the […]

MUMBAI, March 29 (AsiaPulse) – Godrej Properties (BSE:533150) on Monday fixed the price for its issue of shares to institutional investors at Rs 575 a share, the lower end of the price band, and would raise up to Rs 471 crore (US$92.8 million) for reducing debt and acquiring projects. The share price fell by 3.38 […]

NEW DELHI, March 28 (AsiaPulse) – The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s recent guidelines for the gold loan sector will significantly moderate the growth and profitability over the next year, said a Crisil report. “Business growth is likely to fall from 80 per cent per annum to 20-25 per cent per annum and return on […]

PERTH, March 26 (Asia Pulse) – India will eventually take over from China as the main engine of growth for the iron ore market but its consumption will be less intense, an analyst says. Markets shuddered this week when BHP Billiton said Chinese demand for the steel making commodity was flattening. Compounding the new sober […]

NEW DELHI, (Asia Pulse) – Notwithstanding lifting of ban on cotton exports, Commerce Industry and Textiles Minister Anand Sharma has said India will not be able to ship the natural fibre abroad unless it has surplus. “… we will be in a position to export (cotton), when we have that surplus again,” he said at […]

NEW DELHI, (Asia Pulse) – As many as six Indian brands including — Tata, Airtel, State Bank of India, Reliance, Indian Oil Corporation and Infosys — have been named amongst the world’s 500 best brands this year by global consultancy firm ‘Brand Finance’. The Tata is the only Indian brand making it to the top […]

JAMMU, March 23 (Asia Pulse) – The Reserve Bank of India asked banks to comply with the prescription of opening at least 25 per cent of new branches in a year in unbanked areas with a population less than 10,000. “At RBI we have said at least 25 per cent of all the branches opened […]

NEW DELHI, Mar 23 (Asia Pulse) – Sanction-struck Iran is looking to import four major farm commodities — wheat, rice, sugar and tea — from India, an export body FIEO said. “They (Iranian traders) want to import four major agri commodities from India. They are wheat, sugar, tea and rice,” Federation of Indian Export Organisations […]

NEW DELHI, March 22 (Asia Pulse) – The Reserve Bank of India said the global financial crisis has impacted India significantly despite its sound banking system and negligible exposure of banks to sub-prime assets. “The global financial crisis impacted India significantly, notwithstanding the sound banking system, negligible exposure of banks to sub-prime assets and relatively […]

NEW DELHI, March 21 (Asia Pulse) – Service tax exemption on advertising on media platforms, excluding TV and radio, could result in availability of up to Rs 1,500 crore (US7 million) more to advertisers for spending on campaigns, according to industry experts. “Given that marketing budgets of companies always take into account the service tax […]

HYDERABAD, March 19 (Asia Pulse) – India will require 1,043 new passenger and cargo aircraft valued at US5 billion between now and 2030, according to a market forecast by aviation major Airbus. Of this, 1,020 will be passenger aircraft and 23 cargo. Indian market for new aircraft is the world’s fourth largest in both number […]