Category: South Asia

MUMBAI, September 13, 2010 (AFP) – India’s main stock market on Monday crossed the key 19,000 points marks to its highest level for more than two years, boosted by optimism about growth in Asia’s third largest economy, dealers said. The 30-share Sensex hit a day’s high of 19,095. 74 in morning trade, before retracing marginally […]

NEW DELHI, September 12, 2010 (AFP) – India is expected to hike interest rates this week for a fifth time in six months after a surge in industrial output strengthened the case for another dose of monetary tightening, economists say. Although India has been the most aggressive in the Asia-Pacific region in raising rates to […]

NEW DELHI, September 8, 2010 (AFP) – Barely one percent of rural Indians use the Internet, a new study has calculated, despite a rapid recent boom in web access across the country. About 5.4 million of an estimated 570 million rural Indians are active Internet users, said the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). […]

NEW DELHI, September 7, 2010 (AFP) – China is seeking to expand its influence in South Asia and gain a “foothold” in the region, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in remarks published Tuesday. “China would like to have a foothold in South Asia and we have to reflect on this reality,” Singh was quoted […]

NEW DELHI, September 8, 2010 (AFP) – Almost one-third of Indians are “utterly corrupt” and half are “borderline”, the outgoing head of the country’s corruption watchdog has said, blaming increased wealth for much of the problem. Pratyush Sinha, who retired as India’s Central Vigilance Commissioner this week, said the worst part of his “thankless job” […]

DHAKA, September 8, 2010 (AFP) – Bangladesh said Wednesday exports leapt more than 25 percent year on year in July, with manufacturers linking the jump to a shift in orders from China to the low-cost South Asian country. In July, the first month of its financial year, Bangladesh shipped 1.82 billion dollars of goods — […]

NEW DELHI, September 6, 2010 (AFP) – India said Monday it aims to sell stakes in two more state-run energy firms as part of its plans to speed reforms and raise funds to combat poverty. The Congress-led government is looking to sell 10 percent of its stake in Indian Oil Corp and a five-percent stake […]

BHUBANESWAR, September 5, 2010 (AFP) – India on Sunday successfully tested a surface-to-surface version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile which it has developed jointly with Russia, officials said. The missile was fired from a mobile launcher 200 kilometres (125 miles) northeast of Bhubaneswar, the capital of the eastern state of Orissa. “The test of […]

KATHMANDU, September 5, 2010 (AFP) – Nepal’s parliament failed for the sixth time to elect a prime minister on Sunday, as the house speaker warned of a “serious crisis” if a new government is not in place soon. The country has been without a government since June 30, when former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal […]

NEW DELHI, September 4, 2010 (AFP) – The world’s seventh-largest steelmaker, Tata Steel, is in talks with banks for a 5. 4-billion-dollar loan for its British unit Corus, a report said Saturday. The Economic Times newspaper said BNP Paribas, HSBC Holdings and Royal Bank of Scotland may be among the banks contributing funds for the […]

NAITALE, September 3, 2010 (AFP) – Sanjay Sathe stood by his vines in a sweeping agricultural belt outside the city of Nashik in western India and punched a number into his mobile phone. “Hello, it’s Sanjay Sathe,” the 36-year-old grape and tomato farmer announced in the local language, Marathi, as if talking to a friend. […]

WASHINGTON, September 2, 2010 (AFP) – The World Bank raised its emergency funding to Pakistan to one billion dollars on Wednesday to help the nation cope with the massive economic impact of catastrophic monsoon flooding. The hike, an additional 100 million dollars on top of an existing 900 million dollar loan, was announced by World […]