Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid last year referred to Israeli expats in Berlin as willing to throw Israel “in the garbage” for a cheaper cost of living. Bloomberg News Back in 2011, rising dairy prices sparked a cottage cheese protest in Israel. Now there’s a pudding protest. The first campaign, which called for a consumer boycott of dairy goods, eventually helped bring hundreds of thousands of middle […]
By S. Sethuraman The world economy is yet to make a full exit of the 2008 financial crisis and its recessionary aftermath, so that growth prospects for 2014, the sixth year, have had to be revised down, with the disappointing and uneven recovery, mainly among advanced nations. And geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, with limited impact so far, may hold greater risks […]
IMF’s Christine Lagarde says the fund is already talking with Egyptian officials about its economic outlook and value-added tax policy. Reuters The International Monetary Fund may soon take a thorough look at Egypt’s economy for the first time since its revolution in 2011, potentially paving the way for greater cooperation on President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi’s reform agenda and renewing talks about long-delayed IMF financing. The IMF […]
By Harihar Swarup Few persons have seen so many ups and downs in politics and personal life as Jayalalithaa. She touches the lowest ebb and yet bounces back with renewed vigor. She has enormous capacity to turn an adversarial situation to her advantage. Recall the March 1989 episode in Tamil Nadu assembly where she was manhandled and even attempt was made to disrobe her by some […]
By Nora Chopra There is a saying that great men think alike so does Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi and his man Friday Amit Sharma. Rahul who is all set to take over from his mother the reins of the Congress Party does not want to have any pre poll alliance. He wants to start from scratch and go alone so that the Congress base which it […]
By Ashok B Sharma Engulfed with scams and scandals in the functioning of the government, the Odisha Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik is finding himself difficult to manage the growing dissatisfaction within his own party. There is no other option left for him but to expel anyone who raises voice against him. The party vice president and former finance minister Prafulla Ghadai was expelled from the party […]
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The cohesion of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) has been severely dented with the Kerala Congress (M) openly hinting at the possibility of the party having tie-ups with ‘like-minded’ parties outside the UDF. The KC(M)’s latest warning came in an interview party president and Finance Minister K. M. Mani gave to a TV channel. In the interview, Mani said that the […]
|By TAP Staff| DIFC-based Henyep Investment Bank announced the addition of a large selection of international stocks, into its product list. Clients looking to invest in stocks of companies listed in matured equity markets like the US, UK and Hong Kong will now be able to trade over 100 international stocks, according to a release. Equity markets are riding a wave of renewed investor confidence due to […]
By Amulya Ganguli Since Maharashtra is the first state to go to the polls after the general election and the subsequent by-elections, it is not surprising that it is experiencing the fallout from these contests in full measure. If the Congress is paying the price for its weakened condition after the May debacle, the BJP is facing the consequences of its poor showing in the recent […]
While Microsoft has had retail stores across the U.S. for many years now, it has not had a prestigious address that could compete with rival Apple’s store on New York’s Fifth Avenue. That will soon change. Microsoft said Monday it had signed a lease to open a flagship store at 677 Fifth Avenue. That will put it just blocks away from Apple’s famed location beneath the giant, […]
By S. Sethuraman Tamil Nadu, noted for stability and good governance through decades, may be in for political uncertainty, without a robust leader at the helm like Ms. Jayalalithaa, the convicted and jailed Chief Minister. But this is dependant on the outcome of the 2016 assembly elections. Meanwhile, her ruling AIADMK will hold the fort firm. The space for political rivalry may open wide especially if […]
Defiant pro-democracy demonstrators remained on the streets of Hong Kong’s financial center early Monday, after a day of protest-fueled clashes that left at least 38 people injured. Despite calls from organizers for them to return home, many of the protesters continued to jam streets of the business district. The demonstrations, which authorities have intermittently attempted to disperse by force, follow a week of student-led boycotts and protests […]
More and more places in Hong Kong now accept Chinese yuan Photo: ALAMY Lord Patten was the last governor of Hong Kong, and still, it seems, has a keen interest in its affairs. He has written a piece for The Financial Times, extolling his views on Britain’s “moral and political obligation” to its former colony. But his words, like his actions as governor, reveal that he never understood […]
President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden Photo: AP Were it any other US president in recent memory, delivering a rousing White House address promising to “vanquish” the bloodthirsty militants of the Islamic State from the face of the earth would be dismissed as the “easy part”. Recall Joe Biden, the vice president with half an eye on a run for the top job in 2016, […]
President Barack Obama told Americans on Wednesday he had authorized U.S. airstrikes for the first time in Syria and more attacks in Iraq in a broad escalation of a campaign against the Islamic State militant group. Obama’s decision to launch attacks inside Syria, which is embroiled in a three-year civil war, marked a turnabout for the president, who shied away a year ago from airstrikes to punish […]
Valérie Trierweiler, the high-heeled hellcat whose memoir of their time together has plunged the surreally unpopular president into the biggest crisis anyone at the Elysée Palace can recall Photo: REX FEATURES Beneath the twinkling chandeliers of Cardiff Castle’s banqueting hall last week, François Hollande wore the pale, sweaty look of a man in big trouble. Back home, the economy was collapsing, the public was in revolt, the government […]
By Pradeep Kapoor LUCKNOW: BSP decision to back independents has made the by-elections for 12 assembly seats and one Lok Sabha constituency more interesting. With BSP backing powerful independents now, it is going to be four cornered contest with BJP, SP, Congress and independents. When BSP supremo Mayawati realized that her earlier decision not to contest by-elections would help BJP she changed her plans. […]
Barack Obama got a warm reception in Rhode Island last week, yet his lack of strategy has dismayed many others Photo: AP Just in case you thought that the Leader of the Free World was secretly harbouring a calculated, well-developed plan for bringing Isil under control and putting Russia’s imperial leader back in his box, Barack Obama banged that idea firmly on the head last week. He gave […]
KUWAIT. A recent report issued by KFH Research, a subsidery for KFH Group, sees continued positive outlook for the Kuwaiti construction industry, on the back of strong domestic demand in the Kuwaiti economy and a pick-up in government capital spending. Overview and Outlook “While we remain fundamentally cautious about the country’s medium-term investment outlook, we note that higher growth in bank lending over the last few months […]
By Kalyani Shankar Just a week before the Modi government competes its 100 days, the by-election results have come as a jolt to the BJP. The saffron party, which witnessed a spectacular victory in the Lok Sabha polls, has faced a setback too soon. No doubt by- elections are fought and won mostly on local factors, but the results have certainly punctured the feel good factor […]
By Nora Chopra There will be no organizational reshuffle in the Congress till after the assembly polls. There are indications that the Congress leadership will wait for the results of the Assembly polls on the hope that the results of these states may not be as bad as predicted by the media and may boost the image of the party vice president Rahul Gandhi who is under […]
By Upendra Prasad The results of ten Assembly Constituencies by- polls are certainly a setback for Bharatiya Janata Party, which was overconfident to repeat its Lok Sabha election performance in the state.. BJP could win only 4 seats out of ten and two of them with narrow margins, while out of the 10 seats, where by poll was held, its candidates had led in 8 Assembly […]
From Pradeep Kapoor LUCKNOW: Mayawati’s decision that her party BSP will not contest by-elections for 12 assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, will help BJP in a big way. It would be worth mentioning here that former chief minister and BSP supremo Mayawati had earlier announced that her party would not contest by-elections as Samajwadi Party will misuse the official machinery in […]
From L.S. Herdenia BHOPAL: Supporters of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan heaved a sigh of relief when Nand Kumar Chauhan was appointed President of the Madhya Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party. The search for the new chief of the state party began after Narendra Singh Tomar was inducted into the Union Ministry. Tomar was president of the State BJP during the last two general elections to the […]
