Category: South Asia

KAVRE, December 15, 2009 (AFP) – Thirty years ago, Nepalese farmer Badri Prasad Jangam realised that the once thickly-wooded hillside that overlooks his home had been transformed into a barren slope.Decades of deforestation had taken their toll, stripping away the topsoil, affecting vital underground water sources and threatening to bring disaster to a community entirely […]

NEW DELHI, December 14, 2009 (AFP) – Indians, the world’s biggest buyers of gold, are increasingly opting for branded jewellery, attracting franchisers and foreign groups like Cartier at the expense of traditional retailers.Traditionally, most Indians would go to their small family jewellers, normally located in a congested wholesale market, sit down on cotton mattresses with […]

NEW DELHI, December 14, 2009 (AFP) – India’s inflation rate jumped to its highest level in 10 months, according to official data Monday, increasing pressure on the central bank to begin reversing aggressive interest rate cuts.The wholesale inflation rate, India’s closest watched inflation measure, increased by 4.78 percent in November from a year earlier after […]

NEW DELHI, December 12, 2009 (AFP) – Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, began production of its popular mass-market Polo hatchback in India on Saturday and said it aimed to grab up to 10 percent of the rapidly growing market. But the Polo is seen by analysts as a key model for Volkswagen to penetrate the market […]

NEW DELHI, December 11, 2009 (AFP) – The Indian navy on Friday rescued two coastguard personnel abducted earlier this week by Sri Lankan fishermen, a spokesman said.Navy spokesman P.V.S Satish said the two were among 14 coastguard officers who had boarded seven Sri Lankan trawlers found fishing in Indian waters on Tuesday. They had been […]

NEW DELHI, December 11, 2009 (AFP) – India’s car sales are racing ahead, mobile phone sales are booming and share prices have rocketed, but policy makers are signalling a go-slow approach to ending economic stimulus and hiking rates.Even with inflationary pressure returning, central bankers and the government are suggesting only a gradual roll-back of stimulus […]

NEW DELHI, December 10, 2009 (AFP) – India’s Supreme Court suggested legalising prostitution as a solution to the rampant sex trade that has flourished despite a raft of laws, a report said Thursday.“When you say it is the world’s oldest profession and when you are not able to curb it by laws, why don’t you […]

NEW DELHI, December 9, 2009 (AFP) – India’s multi-billion-dollar IT software industry is a target for attacks by militant groups, a top home ministry official warned Wednesday. “We are world leaders in software,” Gopal Pillai, India’s home secretary told a conference on the “Challenge of Terrorism to India’s Infrastructure and Economy” in New Delhi. “The […]

NEW DELHI, December 8, 2009 (AFP) – The Indian government will complete stake sales in three state-run companies by the end of the current financial year in March, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Tuesday.Divestment of five percent each in the National Thermal Power Corporation and the Rural Electrification Corporation and 10 percent in Satluj Jal […]

DUBAI, December 6, 2009 (AFP) – Construction worker Bilal is in a happy mood as he takes his lunch break sitting next to an artificial lake near Dubai’s showpiece Mall of the Emirates.But he admits anxiety about the end of his contract in one year’s time, when the 24-year-old may have to return to Bangladesh. […]

Dec 05, 2009 (LBO) – The Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA), the archipelago’s central bank has stopped printing money which was causing reserve losses, but the country still had to fix its budgets, the International Monetary Fund has said.The IMF has given 92.5 million US dollars to shore up foreign reserves of the tourist paradise under […]

December 3, 2009 (AFP) – Food inflation in India soared by over 17 percent in the 12 months ending November 21, official figures showed Thursday, raising pressure on the central bank to tighten monetary policy.Earlier most economists were betting that the first rate rise would come in April. The food price index climbed 17.47 percent […]