Category: South Asia

NEW DELHI, December 7, 2010 (AFP) – India will attend Friday’s Nobel peace prize ceremony in Oslo for jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, the country’s national news agency said on Tuesday. The Press Trust of India (PTI) did not give details or say who will represent India at the ceremony. Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vishnu […]

NEW DELHI, December 7, 2010 (AFP) – India’s hunger for new technology is as sharp in its countless small villages as in its shiny office towers or shopping malls — and businesses are waking up to an area of massive potential growth. Specific designs being aimed at Indian villagers include a mobile phone cash-transfer system, […]

DHAKA, December 6, 2010 (AFP) – A Bangladeshi-flagged vessel hijacked by pirates in the Arabian Sea off the coast of India was heading towards the Somali coast on Monday, the head of Bangladesh’s shipping department said. Officials said Bangladesh’s shipping department had also contacted a British anti-piracy office in Dubai and a regional anti-piracy office […]

NEW DELHI, December 5, 2010 (AFP) – An explosion of working-age people in India could serve as an engine of economic growth — or bring social turmoil, experts say. Over the next two decades, India’s working-age population will increase by 240 million — four times the entire population of Britain — according to investment house […]

NEW DELHI, November 30, 2010 (AFP) – India’s economy grew a forecast-beating 8. 9 percent year-on-year in July-September, data showed Tuesday, underscoring the country’s brisk recovery from the global financial crisis. The healthy numbers brought temporary cheer to the Congress-led government, buffeted by a string of scandals including a damaging telecom corruption scam which could […]

KABUL, November 29, 2010 (AFP) – Leaked US documents on Monday painted President Hamid Karzai’s controversial younger brother as a corrupt drugs baron, exposing deep US concerns about graft undermining the war against the Afghan Taliban. Internet whistleblower WikiLeaks has started to release quarter of a million confidential US diplomatic cables, detailing embarrassing and inflammatory […]

DHAKA, November 28, 2010 (AFP) – In the home of cheap clothing manufacturing, the record price of cotton is causing havoc for producers — and the pain will pass down the chain to buyers in developed countries, analysts say. Bangladesh, the third-biggest producer of clothes worldwide, is one of the cheapest locations for manufacturing in […]

NEW DELHI, November 22, 2010 (AFP) – India gave the green light on Monday for the construction of a second international airport in the commercial capital Mumbai, a two billion dollar project that was ten years in the making. “Today, formally the environmental clearance has been given to the Navi Mumbai Project,” Environment Minister Jairam […]

NEW DELHI, November 14, 2010 (AFP) – Evidence of India’s construction boom can be seen in the new high-rise apartments sprouting up across the country, but the industry is suffering from a serious shortage of engineers and designers. “Until things change, we might manage some big-ticket items like the Delhi Metro with the help of […]

DHAKA, November 8, 2010 (AFP) – Bangladesh will offload stakes in dozens of state-owned enterprises as part of a major government effort to cool down the country’s overheated stock exchange, its finance minister said Monday. Eight state-owned firms, including major energy and power firms, which are already listed will be made to sell more shares, […]

Nov 08, 2010 (LBO) – Adaaran Prestige Water Villas, a resort in the Indian Ocean Island of Maldives, run by Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence group won the award of the World’s Leading Watervilla at a top travel awards. Maldives also won the award for the ‘Most Romantic Destination’ at the awards on November 07. The […]

MUMBAI, November 7, 2010 (AFP) – The success of India’s 3. 4-billion-dollar sale of shares in state-run Coal India has raised hopes of big returns for the government from a cascade of looming partial privatisations, analysts say. The sale of a 10 percent stake in Coal India was oversubscribed 15 times and shares soared 40 […]