Category: South Asia

NEW DELHI, October 22, 2011 (AFP) – India’s central bank is set to raise interest rates for the 13th consecutive time this week in a bid to tame near double-digit inflation, even as “dark clouds” gather over Asia’s third-largest economy. The Reserve Bank of India has increased interest rates 12 times since March 2010 — […]

MUMBAI, October 17, 2011 (AFP) – India’s energy giant Reliance Industries has suspended drilling at its oil and gas exploration blocks covered under a deal with new venture partner BP pending a review, a company source said on Monday. India’s largest private oil explorer is “re-evaluating” its exploration and production strategy in partnership with the […]

DHAKA, October 11, 2011 (AFP) – Bangladesh on Tuesday unveiled a $130 locally made laptop that it hopes will help bridge the digital divide in the impoverished South Asian country. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina unveiled the Doel — or magpie — laptops at a ceremony in the capital Dhaka, saying the computer, made by state-owned […]

MUMBAI, October 10, 2011 (AFP) – Shares in India’s Tata Coffee soared nearly 10 percent on Monday after media reports that a proposed tie-up with giant US chain Starbucks will be announced soon. Tata Coffee, a grower and supplier of high-quality Arabica beans, jumped 9.8 percent intraday to a day’s high of 881. 75 rupees […]

NEW DELHI, October 9, 2011 (AFP) – Every lunchtime at a McDonald’s on the corner of one of central New Delhi’s biggest streets, queues of hungry young patrons, often four-wide and unruly, snake towards the counters. In another study published last month, the International Federation of the Red Cross focused on the “double-edged scandal” of […]

WASHINGTON, October 6, 2011 (AFP) – The United States said Thursday it has enlisted the World Trade Organization to obtain detailed information on subsidy programs in China and India. US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said that Washington had submitted information to the WTO identifying nearly 200 subsidy programs that China has failed to notify as […]

NEW DELHI, October 4, 2011 (AFP) – India is set Wednesday to launch its long-awaited low-cost computer, a tablet device designed to bring the information technology revolution to tens of millions of students. The touchscreen computer has a seven-inch (18-centimetre) screen, Wi-Fi Internet access, a media player and 180 minutes of battery power, according to […]

WASHINGTON, October 4, 2011 (AFP) – India, Bangladesh and the Philippines lead the world in the number of products made by child workers, a US government stock-taking of the global scale of underaged labor revealed Monday. Some 130 types of goods — from building bricks and soccer balls to pornography and rare ores used in […]

NEW DELHI, October 2, 2011 (AFP) – India’s rupee has slid nearly 10 percent in three months against the dollar, a consequence of global economic uncertainty that will stoke already high inflation in Asia’s third-biggest economy. The rupee’s tumble makes import prices of everything from oil, fertilizers to food staples such as pulses, fuelling near-double-digit […]

NEW DELHI, September 30, 2011 (AFP) – India’s workaholic Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has not taken a holiday since he took the top job in 2004, according to a new in-depth profile published this week. The 12,000-word study in current affairs journal The Caravan of 79-year-old Singh, under fire for a series of debilitating scandals […]

SEOUL, September 29, 2011 (AFP) – Japan’s March tsunami was a wake-up call for Indian Ocean nations still restoring their coastlines after a massive wave struck in December 2004, an expert said Thursday. “This year’s tsunami heightened awareness among all MFF countries that they are still vulnerable,” said Donald Macintosh, senior adviser to a group […]

BRUSSELS, September 27, 2011 (AFP) – European governments are threatening to break off negotiations with India on a free-trade deal the EU had hoped would be worth 175 billion euros a year, an EU report revealed on Tuesday. Four years after talks began with New Delhi, frustrated European Union trade ministers have taken the decision […]