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Dubai’s Google-backed startup promoter starts work

|By Arabian Post Staff| AstroLabs, Google -backed technology hub, is helping regional entrepreneurs to grow their startups. AstroLabs opened in October, with 42 startups picked from among 250. The facility features a device lab designed by Google is equipped with iPhones, Android smartphones, tablets and computers, which can be used by startups to test their mobile applications and content. One of the aspiring entrepreneurs is Lamia Tabbaa-Bibi, creator of IReadArabic.com, […]

MAKING INDIAN INVESTMENT CLIMATE MORE BUSINESS-FRIENDLY

BUREAUCRATS HAVE TO CHANGE THEIR MINDSETS

By Subrata Majumder

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to take India within top 50 in the World Bank‘s Ease of Doing Business in three years from the current rank of 130 out of 189 countries. Morgan Stanley Vice – Chairman Tom Nides reposed confidence in Modi’s leadership in fast-forwarding the economy. Arguing on Make in India, he said that Mr Modi was not for short term decision for instant gratification. Over the decades, Indian bureaucracy became the main tool to formulate the economic policies, no matter whether they were economists, scientists or statisticians or not.

Caught in the ambivalence of personal loyalty to ministers and Prevention of Corruption Act, passing the buck and shying away from decision making were the common practices of Indian bureaucrats. Clogged into huge paper works and multiple

Trump outbursts make US firms nervous

No topic has so dominated public discussion over the past week like Donald Trump’s call to indefinitely ban Muslims from entering the U.S. Editorial pages have raged, talk shows have engaged, even leaders of his Republican Party have forcefully rejected the proposal. One group of national leaders, however, has said little: corporate chiefs. A few, it is true, have spoken in broad terms, usually without mentioning Trump. […]

Facebook at Work for Enterprises To Launch Next Year

Currently being tested by several hundred companies, including the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Club Med, Facebook at Work is expected to see a wider rollout next year. Available for desktop and mobile devices, the app will function much like the regular Facebook, except that posts, messages and other content will be visible only to users with company work accounts. “More than 300 companies are part […]

Facebook service aimed at professionals to launch in coming months

Facebook at Work, Facebook Inc’s (FB.O) professional version of its social network, is expected to launch in the coming months, after spending a year in tests, a company executive said. The new service, geared towards workplace collaboration, is nearly identical to its ubiquitous social network, with a scrolling news “feed”, “likes” and a chat service. “I would say 95 percent of what we developed for Facebook is […]

Why is gold price so depressed?

|By Lawrence Williams| The ‘Nobody Cares’ quote was the theme of Grant Williams’ polished performance at Mines & Money London last week.  Grant (no relation) is a Senior adviser to Vulpes Investment Management in Singapore – but is perhaps better known as the author of the always entertaining and enlightening Things that make you go hmm… newsletter.  This has been published since 2009 and has become one […]

DIFC court orders Bank Sarasin to pay $70m plus

|By Arabian Post Staff| The Courts of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) have, once again, ruled in favour of the Al Khorafi family to the tune of $70 million plus costs and interest. This comes after the Court of First Instance published its judgment in November 2015, where the first and second defendants, Bank Sarasin-Alpen (ME) and Bank J.Safra Sarasin Ltd respectively, were ordered to pay […]

NITISH IS YET TO GALVANISE ADMINISTRATION

LAW AND ORDER, HEALTH ARE FOCUS AREAS

By Arun Srivastava

Performance of government, its outreach and initiatives matters but what is most important is the peoples’ perception of the government. It was perception of the Nitish led mahagathbandhan, of being peoples’ friendly and concerned of their aspirations that people voted it to power. But ironically after assuming power the grand alliance government has not made a serious move to consolidate it and make it the USP of the government.

Importance of the perception could be understood from the rout of the BJP in the assembly election. People perceived that the Prime Minister was following the RSS brief. Though it is too early to say that the Nitish government has not succeeded in coming up to the peoples’ perception within a period of fortnight, notwithstanding the chief minister Nitish Kumar personally has

Peg debate back with a bang

|Arabian Post Special| The relentless plunge in oil price, which analysts are likening to the crash of 1990s, and its serious implications on spending plans are putting the focus back on the Gulf currencies’ dollar peg, including that of the UAE dirham. Despite consistent backing for the dollar peg from all possible channels, including the monetary authorities, the debate is back with a bang. And the market […]

Iran hopes boost Dubai confidence

|By Arabian Post Staff|Analysts are consistently arguing in favour of a pickup in Dubai’s economic prospects in the wake of a possible boost in trade with Iran following the lifting of sanctions. Low oil price, which cast a shadow over the Gulf’s oil economies, has also affected Dubai, with its real estate sector, a key determinant of the emirate’s economic performance, showing signs of a clear slowdown. […]

Gold rebounds off 6-year low

Gold prices rebounded off five-year lows on Monday as some investors rushed to grab a bargain while others closed out bets on weaker prices to lock in gains on the recent slide. The most actively traded gold-futures contract, for February delivery, was recently up $6.10, or 0.6%, at $1,062.20 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices slid to $1,056.20 an […]

Saudi banks suffer oil crash squeeze

Saudi Arabian banks are feeling the squeeze from falling oil prices. The rate at which banks in the biggest Arab economy lend overnight to each other jumped the most in seven years in November, the fifth straight month of increases, following a slump in deposits the previous month that forced lenders to seek more funds from each other. “The drop in deposits in October, in absolute amount, […]

Gold price falls despite Asian demand rise

|By Lawrence Williams| Let’s face it, the gold price seems to bear little correlation to global physical metal demand.  In the face of reducing supply (low gold prices keep scrap sales depressed, new mined gold supply is plateauing and beginning to fall and sales out of the big gold ETFs this year are a fraction of those seen back in 2013) and increasing demand – China, India […]

Gold falls below ‘crucial level’

|By Arabian Post Staff| The price of gold futures hit their lowest levels since October 2009, below what Goldman called a crucial level and at current prices half of the gold coming from mines may not be viable, industry sources warned. “The more we continue to produce unprofitable gold, the more pressure we put on the gold price,” said Randgold Resources Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow. […]

@6-year lows, it’s double whammy for gold

|By Arabian Post Staff| It is a double whammy for gold this Thursday. The metal was trading near its lowest in nearly six years while Reuters reported from Mumbai that third-quarter gold buying in India, the world’s biggest consumer, is likely to fall to the lowest level in eight years. Gold is hurt by poor investment demand as the dollar held at multi-month highs after U.S. economic […]

Saudis may be forced to devalue riyal

|Arabian Post Special|If oil prices fall further from the current levels, it would lead to a quick buildup of pressure on the Saudi riyal’s 30-year peg to the dollar, forcing the Saudi authorities to de-peg and devalue the currency, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said in a report. “And frankly, it is a lot easier politically at first to deliver a modest crude oil supply cut than to […]

India gold plan refuses to take off

|By Arabian Post Staff| The gold deposit scheme launched with great fanfare by Prime Minister Narendra Modi two weeks ago has so far attracted only 400gm, Indian newspapers reported.This is against a national hoard estimated at 20,000 tons. Modi has urged people to put gold stashed in homes and temples in the bank, offering modest rates of interest that earlier schemes have lacked. The government has also […]

Limitless debt deal faces trouble

|By Arabian Post Staff| The AED 1.9 billion debt restructuring deal by Dubai government-owned entity Limitless has run into trouble following resistance by some of the creditors, Reuters reported quoting three banking sources. The company needs complete creditor approval in order to push through any deal. The delay in completing the deal is causing uncertainty, particularly in view of the weakness in the UAE property market, the […]

IFC invests $27m in Souq

|By Arabian Post Staff| IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the IFC Asset Management Company are investing $27 million in Souq, the largest e-commerce platform in the Middle East and North Africa. The investment will support the company’s growth, boost e-commerce in the region, and help create jobs and drive innovation. The investment will help Souq diversify its offerings and enhance its logistics and […]

Dubai plans safe, says ICD chief

|By Arabian Post Staff| Dubai’s investment plans are not threatened by the situation stemming from the fall in oil prices and its economic impact, Mohammad al-Shaibani, chief executive of state-owned Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), asserted. Although energy is a key determinant of business confidence, as far as Dubai is concerned, oil accounts for only 2 percent of the emirate’s economy, he pointed out. “There won’t be […]

Debt-hit business owners start fleeing

|By Arabian Staff| Loan defaults and business owners fleeing the country leaving behind huge debts are becoming a routine affair in Dubai and other parts of the UAE, observers point out. According to EmiratesNBD, an increasing number of SME owners are being forced to flee and somewhat draws a parallel with the situation in the aftermath of the 2009 financial crisis. The problems of a slowing economy […]

Oil slump forces UAE spending cuts

|By Arabian Post Staff| The United Arab Emirates may cut government spending as a result of the slump in oil prices, Central Bank Governor Mubarak Rashed Al Mansoori indicated. The decline in the government’s oil revenue “may trigger further fiscal consolidation, albeit at a gradual pace, to preserve priority spending in support of non-oil growth,” Al Mansoori said at a conference in Dubai on Monday. Oil accounted […]

Do you realize what ‘killer robots’ are doing to us?

|By Arabian Post staff| The rise of intelligent machines represents the evolution of the next industrial revolution, which will bring about a paradigm shift in the way we live and work, a special report on the subject by BankofAmerica-Merrill Lynch says. Robots and AI are becoming an integral part of our daily lives as providers of labour, mobility, safety, convenience, and entertainment. The year 2014 was the […]

Tight Dubai debt spreads ‘worrisome’

|By Arabian Post Staff| Dubai’s external debt continues to be at tight spreads, given still high leverage and refinancing challenges but this is somewhat offset by certain positive aspects, a Bank of America-Merrill Lynch research report said. The positives include still solid local bid on the shorter end of the curve and its low-beta defensive status within an emerging markets context. The Iran nuclear deal is another […]