Category: South Asia

LONDON, December 31, 2010 (AFP) – The conglomerate, Sahara India Pariwar, has bought London’s luxurious Grosvenor House hotel from state-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland for 470 million pounds (545 million euros, 728 million dollars). “We are extremely happy to announce Grosvenor House joining the Sahara family,” Sahara Group chairman Subrata Roy Sahara said in a […]

WASHINGTON, December 29, 2010 (AFP) – India is on course to top China as the world’s most populous country in 2025, the US Census Bureau forecast, potentially changing the dynamics between the Asian giants. The latest Census Bureau estimates out this week, which are in line with previous studies, predicted that India would have 1. […]

NEW DELHI, December 30, 2010 (AFP) – A huge charity gift by a high-tech tycoon has shone a harsh light on the philanthropic track record of India’s established and emerging billionaires. Azim Premji, who transformed a family-owned cooking oil firm into the software giant Wipro, announced earlier this month that he was giving two billion […]

DHAKA, December 28, 2010 (AFP) – Bangladesh has invited some of the world’s leading state-owned gas giants to help explore its insurgency-hit southeastern hill tracts region, an official said Tuesday. The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region makes up one-tenth of the South Asian country’s landmass but has been largely left unexplored due to a decades-long […]

KAVRE, December 29, 2010 (AFP) – Seven years ago, Nepalese farmer Madhab Parajuli faced an agonising choice: lose his small plot of farmland to mounting debts, or sell one of his kidneys to an organ trafficker. “Local people see that you can give up a kidney and still try to live a healthy life. So, […]

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 […]