Category: South Asia

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

NEW DELHI, December 22, 2010 (AFP) – The Indian government, facing mounting public anger over soaring onion costs, on Wednesday scrapped tax on imports of the vegetable to try to rein in prices of the ingredient. The government has been feeling the heat over inflation as the opposition BJP has seized on the issue to […]

MORABANDAR, December 22, 2010 (AFP) – The Elephanta Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage Site off the coast of India’s financial capital Mumbai, draw hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. Local people could sell back surplus energy to the grid, he added, while the government should provide subsidies, as it does to the coal industry […]

NEW DELHI, December 20, 2010 (AFP) – India suspended exports of onions, a key food staple, on Monday after prices of the vegetable soared, adding to the government’s inflation woes. Prices of onions — commonly used to add flavour to Indian food — have surged in the past few days to up to 80 rupees […]

HATIBANDHA, December 19, 2010 (AFP) – Every year, Bangladesh’s garment sector produces billions of dollars worth of high-street clothes for major western brands — and generates mountains of fabric offcuts in the process. While an informal recycling sector has sprung up to deal with the scraps of leftover jeans and T-shirts churned out by the […]

ISLAMABAD, December 18, 2010 (AFP) – China and Pakistan are set to conclude another 10 billion dollars’ worth of deals on Saturday, the latest signings on a trade focused trip to South Asia for Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Business leaders are scheduled to formalise deals at Islamabad’s five-star Marriott Hotel, where a devastating suicide truck […]

NEW DELHI, December 12, 2010 (AFP) – India’s seven-billion-dollar microfinance industry could be thrown into crisis by a bill that seeks to regulate lending to the poor more tightly, a lobby representing the sector has warned. The sector is also under fire in neighbouring Bangladesh where the micro lending model was pioneered, with Prime Minister […]

NEW DELHI, December 10, 2010 (AFP) – An Indian court ordered state-run Air India on Friday to rehire an airline hostess that the carrier had sacked nearly a decade ago for being overweight. Dismissed overweight women have previously unsuccessfully challenged Air India’s policy in Indian courts, which upheld clauses in the group’s employment contracts. Neepa […]