Category: South Asia

DHAKA, February 21, 2010 (AFP) – In a run-down office in downtown Dhaka, excited investor Mizanur Rahman has just spent his life savings of 3,000 dollars on shares despite knowing nothing about market fundamentals. Everyone in this unofficial trading room, one of hundreds across the country, is glued to a screen showing share price movements […]

DHAKA, February 20, 2010 (AFP) – Energy-hungry Bangladesh has signed a 1. 7-billion-dollar deal with India to build two coal-fired power plants in the country’s south to ease a huge electricity shortage, an official said Saturday. The deal highlights Dhaka’s improving ties with New Delhi under its new secular government led by Sheikh Hasina’s Awami […]

NEW DELHI, February 19, 2010 (AFP) – France’s Carrefour, the world’s second largest retailer, said Friday it plans to enter India’s vast retail market in 2010 following years of delays. “Carrefour will develop its activities in India with the start of cash-and-carry activities in 2010,” the company said in a statement emailed to AFP. Cash-and-carry […]

NEW DELHI, February 17, 2010 (AFP) – Indian telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal is hoping to make it third time lucky as he seeks to gain a presence in Africa, one of the world’s least developed mobile phone markets. After two failed attempts to tie up with South African flagship MTN, the founder-chairman of cellular […]

NEW DELHI, February 9, 2010 (AFP) – India’s car sales rose more than 32 percent year on year in January as demand was boosted by cheap loans and an economic recovery, an industry group said Tuesday. Domestic passenger car sales rose to 145,905 units from 110,300 in the same month last year, according to the […]

MUMBAI, February 4, 2010 (AFP) – India’s twin obsessions of cricket and Bollywood are at the heart of a bitter row that has broken out between the country’s top film star and a radical right-wing party in the movie capital Mumbai. The dispute, which has seen the ultra Hindu-nationalist Shiv Sena party threatening to scupper […]

Jan 31, 2010 (LBO) – Maldives has voluntarily pledged to slash carbon emissions 100 percent by 2020, which is the deepest cut promised by any country so far under an international accord, the Indian Ocean archipelago said. “Climate change threatens us all,” Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed said in a statement. “If we don’t act now, […]

Jan 31, 2010 (LBO) – The Indian Ocean archipelago of Maldives will privatize its airport but could also sell down other state enterprises and bring private capital to a domestic bank, the International Monetary Fund has said. “A central plank will be the privatization of the airport, but stakes in the telecommunications company have already […]

KATHMANDU, January 24, 2010 (AFP) – Nepal will this year play host to a royal wedding with a difference when an openly gay Indian prince marries his partner at a Hindu temple in Kathmandu. The ceremony is the start of what Nepalese lawmaker Sunil Babu Pant hopes will become a lucrative business for his country, […]

PARIS, January 22, 2010 (AFP) – Babies born to child brides in India run a higher risk of malnourishment compared to those born to older mothers, says a paper appearing on Friday. Anita Raj, a professor at Boston University School of Public Health, led an investigation into 19,000 children born to 13,500 women who had […]

MUMBAI, January 12, 2010 (AFP) – India’s biggest mobile phone firm Bharti Airtel on Tuesday announced it will acquire a 70 percent stake in Bangladesh-based Warid Telecom, signalling the company’s strong global ambitions. The move into Bangladesh by Bharti comes after its plan to ally with South Africa’s MTN to create an emerging market telecom […]

NEW DELHI, January 3, 2010 (AFP) – Small will be big at an Indian auto show when the world’s leading manufacturers unveil a slew of compact cars designed for one of the world’s fastest growing markets. AutoExpo 2010, which begins on Tuesday and runs until January 11, is expected to be the biggest ever, featuring […]