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 […]
New Delhi: India is not likely to get a futuristic stealth fighter anytime before 20242025. Technical and price wrangles continue to bedevil the joint project with Russia to develop the fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA). India, in fact, has conveyed its deep concerns to Russia about being denied “full access“ to the FGFA project despite the fact that it is supposed to be an equal partner in […]
The government of the emirate of Abu Dhabi is looking at ways to reform its system of subsidies for electricity and water, a senior International Monetary Fund official told Reuters on Wednesday, in what would be a landmark move by the emirate. “We discussed it here at the policy level, particularly with the Abu Dhabi government, which indicated they are now looking at ways to streamline their […]
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 […]
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; […]
Delhi: The infamous VVIP helicopter scandal has claimed another victim. The defence ministry has ejected the European NH-90 chopper, linked to Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica, out of the race to supply 16 multi-role helicopters to the Navy . The commercial bid of the other contender in fray , American Sikorsky-70B choppers, will now be opened this month after a long delay. “Both NH-90 and Sikorsky-70B choppers had […]
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 […]
|By TAP Staff| Tecom Investments, a unit of Dubai Holding has mandated banks to raise a syndicated loan, with two banking sources saying the facility would be worth 4 billion dirhams ($1.1 billion). The banks are Citi, Dubai Islamic Bank , Mashreq, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and Noor Bank. Tecom Investments is expected to use the proceeds for its growth plans, while some of the cash will […]
The shine may be wearing off for high-end real estate investments by sovereign wealth funds, according to a new report, a consequence of perceived market frothiness and increased competition for property assets. Sovereign wealth funds collectively closed $5.9 billion in real estate deals in the first half of this year, according to the report from Institutional Investor’s Sovereign Wealth Center. That was a 43% decline in value […]
Dubai’s luxury hotel segment is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of business opportunities, says Accor CEO Sebastien Bazin. Reuters Dubai has always had a penchant for luxury hotels and some of the best-known ones such as the sail-shaped Burj al Arab have come to be an integral part of the city’s skyline. As Dubai’s economy has firmly picked up again following the infamous 2009 […]
NEW DELHI: The Finance Ministry has asked Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan to provide greater flexibility to banks funding stalled infrastructure projects, after concerns were raised by senior bankers that some lending requirements were too ‘stringent’. A department of financial services communication to Rajan sought to de-link the extent of cost overruns as a condition for classifying any project as a restructured asset. […]
KOLKATA: Power shortage in India remained lower last week than during the corresponding period in previous years even as six out of 10 thermal power plants were running with coal stocks adequate for less than a week. Officials said this must have happened as utilities did not properly report demand or the plants generated additional power only during the peak period when the demand surged. According […]
NEW DELHI: In an attempt to force local consumers such as power projects and fertilizer plants to finalize their purchase plans, state-owned gas supplier GAIL (India) Ltd is set to increase the domestic price of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by 10 cents per unit. Of the total 5.8 million tonnes (mt) of LNG it contracted with US suppliers, GAIL has found Indian buyers for only 2.5 […]
New Delhi: The attorney-general (A-G) has recommended cancellation of a proposed defence deal for the acquisition of eight minesweeper vessels, estimated to be worth about Rs 6,000 crore, from the South Korean Kangnam Corporation after allegations of involvement of middlemen, official sources in the ministry of defence (MoD) have confirmed. The MoD had sought the view of A-G Mukul Rohatgi in the matter. The government may […]
Dubai redeemed $1.93 billion of Islamic bonds that were sold in 2009 before the emirate roiled global capital markets by seeking to freeze debt payments. The government settled a 2.5 billion-dirham ($681 million) sukuk and a separate $1.25 billion security complying with Shariah that matured today, the state-run WAM news agency reported. The yield on Dubai’s dollar-denominated Islamic bonds due in January 2023 fell two basis points […]
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who prefers to cut hierarchy and have direct interaction – be it bureaucrats or students – will next meet chiefs of public-sector banks. The proposed meeting comes amid rising bad loans and reports of various irregularities in state-owned banks. The prime minister is likely to take stock of the banks’ performance – an exercise usually undertaken by the finance minister. “Credit […]
NEW DELHI: The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (Aptel) delivered a technical knockout to 1,424 MW Adani Power over the weekend, quite similar to the one it delivered against 4,000 MW Coast Gujarat Power Limited (Tata Power) on September 15. The main case about giving compensatory tariffs to the two companies, however, continues in Aptel. Given the 18-month delay in the case already, a quick resolution is […]
Gold traded within 40 cents of a four-year low after the Bank of Japan boosted stimulus and the Federal Reserve ended asset purchases, highlighting divergent central-bank policies and hurting bullion demand as the dollar climbed. Silver retreated to the lowest level since 2010. “One printing press stops and another one cranks up,” Felicity Emmett, senior economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., wrote in a […]
The scope of Britain’s Islamic finance market is widening with several initiatives from the government and private sector, although the country is about to lose one of its six full-fledged Islamic banks. In June, Britain became the first Western country to sell sovereign sukuk (Islamic bonds), helping boost its industry credentials as competition intensifies among global financial centres for a slice of Islamic business. Britain has 22 […]
By Barun Das Gupta The Union Cabinet has just cleared a Rs. 80,000 crore proposal for modernization of our defence forces. Earlier it had sanctioned another Rs. 40,000 crore for the same purpose. The decision has come not a day too soon. Defence has been the proverbial Cinderella of the Government ever since independence. Even the Chinese aggression of 1962 failed to make us realize the importance […]
