Category: South Asia

NEW DELHI, August 24, 2009 (AFP) – Air India needs a bailout of nearly 620 million dollars to keep flying, a minister said in remarks published Monday, in which he added he was certain the loss-making airline would survive. “I want this reduced for both low-cost and full-service carriers,” he said.“I have always advocated a […]

NEW DELHI, August 22, 2009 (AFP) – India and Nepal agreed to a new trade treaty Saturday as Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal ended a five-day official visit to the regional giant that both countries hailed as successful.Nepal, on his first official visit to the country since his appointment in May, earlier met his Indian […]

Aug 21, 2009 (LBO) – The Indian Ocean tourist paradise of Maldives will stop printing money to finance its budget deficit and cut state sector wages to stabilize its economy, International Monetary Fund has said. “Maldives is facing a difficult economic and fiscal situation,” IMF mission chief to the archipelago said in a statement. “The […]

NEW DELHI, August 21, 2009 (AFP) – India will import lentils, edible oil and other staples to cope with any shortfalls caused by a widespread drought that has badly hurt crops, the finance minister said Friday.The statement by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee came as the country of nearly 1.2 billion people faces its weakest monsoon […]

NEW DELHI, August 21, 2009 (AFP) – India’s health minister warned Friday that the country of nearly 1.2 billion people must brace for a “large-scale” swine flu pandemic.Given the South Asian nation’s size “we shall have to be prepared much more than any other country in the world”, Ghulam Nabi Azad told a gathering of […]

NEW DELHI, August 19, 2009 (AFP) – India said Wednesday it would step up its food distribution programme for the poor as a widening drought threatened to cut rice production by 10 percent and sharply reduce sugar supplies.Agriculture and Food Minister Sharad Pawar also said the government would consider releasing wheat and rice from its […]

NEW DELHI, August 19, 2009 (AFP) – German automobile giant Volkswagen AG, seeking to tap into India’s fast-growing vehicle market, said Wednesday it hopes to sell 100,000 cars by 2014 in the country.Europe’s largest car manufacturer said it would accelerate its sales in India using the planned launch next year of its popular mass-market Polo […]

NEW DELHI, August 19, 2009 (AFP) – The head of Nokia, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, said Wednesday that the Finnish company aims to expand in India by offering lower-cost handsets.“India is our second-largest market. We aim to remove the affordability barrier,” chief executive and president Olli-Pekka Kallsvuo told reporters, without specifying the […]

LONDON, August 18, 2009 (AFP) – Britain should review all arms export licences to Sri Lanka in the wake of the recently-ended war with Tamil Tiger rebels, lawmakers said Wednesday.Ministers should also provide full details of what British arms were used by Sri Lankan forces during the conflict, the Committees on Arms Export Controls said […]

MELBOURNE, August 19, 2009 (AFP) – Attacks on overseas students and dodgy education providers risk “poisoning” international attitudes to Australia and souring relations with China and India, a major think tank said Wednesday. The crisis facing Australia’s international education sector could also destroy the country’s third-largest export earner, worth more than 12 billion US dollars […]

NEW DELHI, August 16, 2009 (AFP) – Crops are shrivelling as India faces the spectre of drought but economists say they are still upbeat about the country’s economic prospects. They are banking that a strong industrial performance will help offset the impact of the worst monsoon in years in Asia’s third largest economy. Analysts have […]

ISLAMABAD, August 14, 2009 (AFP) – Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari unveiled political reforms in the country’s tribal belt Friday in a bid to extricate the lawless region from the grip of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants.Pakistan’s seven federally administered tribal areas (FATA) have become a stronghold for hundreds of extremists who fled after the US-led […]