Category: South Asia

NEW DELHI, October 4, 2009 (AFP) – Ambika Biswas looks at her grocery bag and winces.She is buying food for her family in one of New Delhi’s cheapest markets — yet her grocery costs are far higher than last year. Her maid’s income of 5,000 rupees (104 dollars) a month supports her two teenage children […]

NEW DELHI, September 29, 2009 (AFP) – India on Tuesday said it was dropping a graft case against an Italian involved in the arms scandal that ended Rajiv Gandhi’s premiership 20 years ago, the Press Trust of India reported. Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told the supreme court the case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi would […]

NEW DELHI, September 29, 2009 (AFP) – Shares of Bharti Airtel rose nearly two percent in morning trade Tuesday ahead of an expected announcement by the top Indian mobile firm and South Africa’s flagship group MTN on a possible tie-up.Shares of Bharti Airtel were up 1.75 percent or 7.25 rupees at 421.60, a day ahead […]

NEW DELHI, September 29, 2009 (AFP) – Air India said on Tuesday that about half of its international flights had been cancelled due to a strike by pilots and announced a suspension of new bookings.Nine out of 21 international flights and 37 out of 177 domestic flights were scrapped, spokesman Jitender Bhargava said, after pilots […]

NEW DELHI, September 28, 2009 (AFP) – Debt-ridden Air India cancelled around 40 flights on Monday as management and striking pilots of the state-run carrier met to negotiate an end to three days of stoppages over a slash in bonuses.But senior pilots’ representative V.K. Bhalla told the Press Trust of India news agency that talks […]

NEW DELHI, September 26, 2009 (AFP) – State-owned Air India said several flights were disrupted Saturday after some senior pilots reported sick in protest at a decision by the airline to slash productivity bonuses.The protest by the non-unionised executive pilots, classified as airline management, comes as India’s biggest religious festival season of the year gets […]

DHAKA, September 23, 2009 (AFP) – US energy group Chevron has made the biggest gas discovery in at least a decade in energy-starved Bangladesh, almost doubling the size of a field it is drilling there, a government official said Wednesday.The US firm has told authorities its Bibiyana gas field in Sylhet, northeastern Bangladesh, contains 6.6 […]

NEW DELHI, September 22, 2009 (AFP) – India’s top mobile firm Bharti Airtel has offered a range of new concessions to South Africa’s MTN in order to seal a tie-up, a report said Tuesday.“Bharti Airtel is making a slew of last-minute concessions to sew up a deal with MTN as it awaits a political push […]

NEW DELHI, September 21, 2009 (AFP) – India’s top mobile firm Bharti Airtel and South African cellular flagship MTN are ready to sign a tie-up deal but regulatory issues could stymie a final agreement, reports said Monday. “The deal is all set, agreed and legally ready to be signed,” the Business Standard newspaper quoted an […]

PHNOM PENH, September 14, 2009 (AFP) – Cambodia has joined the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries in the hope of further developing the nation’s rubber industry, a government official said Monday.Ly Phalla, director-general of Cambodia’s directorate of rubber, said the ascension to the inter-governmental organisation will bring its burgeoning industry new technology and help […]

MUMBAI, September 13, 2009 (AFP) – Services on India’s second-largest private airline, Jet Airways, resumed on Sunday after a five-day walk-out by pilots ended, the company said.Jet officials, who sacked two other pilots for breach of disciplinary procedures, on Sunday told a news conference in Mumbai that no action would be taken against the pilots. […]

NEW DELHI, September 11, 2009 (AFP) – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has backed down after his cabinet revolted against an austerity drive that would have forced ministers to fly in economy class, reports said Friday.Singh faced a barrage of complaints when he chaired his weekly meeting on Thursday over a series of cost-cutting steps […]