By Anjan Roy China is riding the crest of its economic success currently. It has taken one more step to make its currency globally traded and thus acceptable. China has announced what is known as the Hong Kong-Shanghai Stocks Connect from November 17. This in effect means off shore trading in the Chinese currency for purchase of stocks in Hong Kong and Shanghai exchanges. Earlier, […]
By S Sethuraman A Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), by no means a new concept, was successfully pushed by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the APEC Summit in Beijing on November 11, projecting it as ‘historic’, in a move aimed at countering US-dominant trade moves in the region. The 21-member APEC, of Pacific rim nations, including the United States, China and Japan, now […]
By Ashok B Sharma In a situation where economies are seeking integration with neighbours in the form of institutional grouping, India has made attempts for engagement with the ASEAN bloc primarily for trade and integration of the economy, more particularly to derive benefit for its remote north-eastern region. But this has not been realised in full potential due to poor land route connectivity despite inking of free […]
NEW DELHI: HDFC Bank will not be able to raise much money by way of foreign investment even as the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) on Friday regularised its current overseas investment structure. That is because the board turned down the bank’s plea to not treat the promoter stake as foreign investment. Besides, the bank will also have to deposit a penalty as it was in the […]
Mumbai: The finance ministry will meet chief executives of public sector banks on November 20 to take stock of the progress made under the Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). There will also be a review of the performance of the lenders. Hasmukh Adhia, the newly appointed secretary of financial services, who took charge on November 8, will chair the meeting. Adhia, a Gujarat-cadre IAS officer of […]
NEW DELHI: Less than a day after Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) announced a hike in consumer power tariff through power purchase adjustment charges (PPAC), it withdrew the order. This is the first time a tariff order has been withdrawn in Delhi since DERC was constituted in 2001. While the regulator said the order stands withdrawn till it receives complete information from various power generators on fuel […]
NEW DELHI: After cementing trade ties with China, energy-rich Russia is now looking to strengthen its relationship with India by reviving discussions on a hydrocarbon pipeline, in addition to inviting ONGC Videsh (OVL) to invest in oil and gas projects in the Russian Federation. India and Russia have decided to form a joint working group to study laying a ‘hydrocarbon’ pipeline connecting the nations. Preliminary discussions […]
NEW DELHI: Eyeing joint-production of military and civilian items with a foreign partner, India and Russia could clinch deals on co-production of mid-range civilian aircraft as well as military helicopters during President Vladimir Putin’s trip to Delhi on December 11-12. During Putin’s maiden visit to Delhi for the annual summit after Modi became the Prime Minister the two sides might agree on joint production of the […]
Dubai’s Limitless will pledge its future revenues to service debt repayments as it attempts a second restructuring of a $1.2 billion Islamic loan which banking sources said should be completed ahead of a December deadline. The state-owned property firm is on track to restructure the debt by the end of the year, when a payment worth a third of the total comes due, two sources familiar with […]
OCI NV hired Barclays Plc and Bank of America Corp. to advise on the listing of its construction business in the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The company, controlled by billionaire Nassef Sawiris, is also working with Egyptian investment bank EFG-Hermes Holding SAE, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. The company […]
|By TAP Staff| Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Court of First Instance hast confirmed its jurisdiction over a lawsuit by an expatriate investor, resident in Dubai, against India’s ICICI Bank, registered in the DIFC. In May, Indian citizen Kishanchand Gangaram Bhatia filed suit in the DIFC Court of First Instance alleging that ICICI Bank induced him to invest in an unsuitable fund and had not disclosed material […]
A view of the Dome of the Rock, which along with Al Aqsa Mosque is on the site in Jerusalem known as the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims and Temple Mount to Jews. By JODI RUDOREN November 6, 2014 JERUSALEM — One cartoon circulating on social networks on Thursday depicted a car as the barrel of an automatic weapon, captioned in Arabic, “Revolt and resist, even by your car.” Another […]
NEW DELHI: Suresh Prabhu is set to play a key role in drafting policy on natural resources and infrastructure in the Narendra Modi government. The Shiv Sena member has been given an office in South Block, where the Prime Minister’s Office is located, and is expected to be given cabinet rank. Prabhu is also expected to look after the organisation that will succeed the Planning Commission […]
New Delhi: India Inc on Wednesday pitched for a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), saying the central bank should be “more courageous”, since inflation had come down drastically and growth is not picking up. RBI is slated to come out with its policy review on December 2. “RBI has to be more courageous,” said Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director of Mahindra & […]
KATHMANDU: India and Nepal are holding negotiations to sign a second Project Development Agreement (PDA) to generate hydorelectric power in the Himalayan nation endowed with rich water resources. The negotiations for the 900 MW Arun-III project between Investment Board Nepal (IBN) and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd, India, which began here yesterday, continued today, Indian Embassy sources said, adding, they are set to continue tomorrow as […]
Five years after collapsing, Dubai’s strengthening real-estate industry is getting a vote of confidence from investors in the emirate’s stock market. In September, Dubai’s flagship developer Emaar Properties spun off its malls business in a $1.6 billion initial public offering that enjoyed strong demand from investors. The IPO of Emaar Malls—whose main asset is Dubai Mall, one of the largest shopping centers in the world—marked the biggest […]
Video | Aftermath of Attack in Jerusalem A witness and a spokesman for the Israeli police described the scene after a Palestinian man rammed his car into people near a light-rail station in Jerusalem on Wednesday. By ISABEL KERSHNER November 5, 2014 JERUSALEM — Amid heightened tensions over an important holy site, two drivers, in separate incidents, plowed their cars into Israelis on Wednesday, and Jordan recalled its ambassador […]
By Ashis Biswas KOLKATA: In the end, the outcome of the high level Trinamool Congress (TMC) meeting last month was disappointing. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is usually at her attacking best whenever she feels politically cornered. There was no better time like the present, if she wanted to take on her critics, who have been tearing into her over the multi-crore rupees Saradha chit […]
NEW DELHI: The National Democratic Alliance government is planning to exempt public-private partnership (PPP) projects from the need to obtain consent of affected families and the mandatory social-impact assessment, through amendments to the land acquisition law. In the Bill put up by the previous government and passed by Parliament, PPP projects need consent of 70 per cent of affected families and have to study the social […]
Mumbai: Non-performing assets (NPAs) in the banking system are set to increase in the range of R60,000 crore to 1 lakh crore in the next five months, rating firm India Ratings and Research said on Tuesday. With the Reserve Bank of India’s forbearance on classification of restructured asset to end after March 31, 2015, no fresh restructured accounts can be classified as standard after the deadline. The […]
NEW DELHI: The Centre has prepared a detailed roadmap in consultation with states to make India “diesel generator and inverter free” in the next five years, and fulfill the Narendra Modi government’s promise to provide 24×7 power to every home, factory and farm and put the country back on the high-growth trajectory. Power, coal and renewable energy minister Piyush Goyal recently held meetings with ministers of […]
Mumbai: It’s exactly 125 years since the first oil deposits were discovered in India. The big push to India’s oil and gas sector came after the early 1990s, when it was opened up to private players. Yet, the sector is still dominated by public sector undertakings (PSUs) such as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) in oil and gas exploration and production; […]
Peer-to-peer lending has been around for roughly a decade, sprouting in the U.K. and quickly catching on in the U.S., but it hadn’t existed in the Middle East until the launch this week of Beehive, a new business that aims at securing financing for small businesses in the United Arab Emirates. The peer-to-peer lending concept is simple. It cuts out banks and lets people lend directly to […]
Qatar will become the Middle East’s first hub for clearing transactions in the Chinese yuan, in a step that could over the long run help Gulf oil exporting countries reduce their dependence on the U.S. dollar. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s Doha branch has been appointed as the clearing bank for yuan deals in Qatar, China’s central bank said on Tuesday. “The signing of the MoU […]
