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INDIA, NEPAL HOLD NEGOTIATIONS FOR 900 MW POWER PROJECT

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 […]

STEALTH FIGHTERS UNLIKELY TO LAND IN INDIA BEFORE 2025

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 […]

Jordan Recalls Ambassador to Israel as Tensions Rise in Jerusalem

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 […]

Chuka Ummana is the only mainstream politician with the guts to take on Ukip. Good for him

Labour MP for Sreatham and Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna Photo: Andrew Crowley By Dan Hodges 11:12AM GMT 05 Nov 2014 Chuka Umunna is starting to break the rules. Up until recently Labour’s shadow business secretary had become a byword for political caution and calculation. “He’s good, but it’s not clear what he stands for”, a shadow cabinet colleague told me a few month’s ago. Well, Umunna is […]

ABBOTT GEARS UP TO LAY RED CARPET FOR MODI

By Ashok B Sharma One might not have expected the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to be so quick in responding to the hospitality he received in India last month. In fact the G20 summit slated in Brisbane middle of next month has given this opportunity. Abbott is preparing to lay the red carpet for the Indian Prime Minister Narendrabhai Damodardass Modi.   Abbott’s special welcome is […]

LAND ACQUISITION LAW MAY BE EASED FOR PPP PROJECTS

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 […]

BANK NPAs MAY RISE BY RS 1 LAKH CRORE IN NEXT FIVE MONTHS

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 […]

GOVT ROPES IN STATES TO MEET 24X7 POWER GOAL IN 5 YEARS

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 […]

OIL PSUs LEARN TO SWIM IN ROUGH WATERS

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; […]

FINMECCANICA OUT, US’S SIKORSKY JOINS NAVY COPTER ACQUISITION RACE

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 […]

Qatar to become hub for yuan transactions

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 […]

Microsoft, Dropbox To Team on Office Suite

You might say Microsoft is acknowledging there’s more than OneDrive in this cloud — with the other drive being Dropbox, which is teaming up to allow users to access its storage service directly from Office apps and edit Office files from the Dropbox app. Here are a few of the features promised to users of the two joined services: Users can edit Office files via the Dropbox […]

Sprint Laying Off 2,000; More Changes Coming

In the wake of yet another poor earnings report, Sprint is laying off thousands of workers. The telecom giant said it would cut loose about 2,000 workers as part of a cost-cutting program that aims to turn around the ailing company. In summary, Sprint reported operating revenues of $8.5 billion for its second fiscal quarter of 2014, which represents a $192 million operating loss. Marcelo Claure, the […]

Real Estate Investments Less Attractive for SWFs, Report Says

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 […]

DILEMMA OF INDIAN LEFT MOUNTS

By Amulya Ganguli The history of communism in India is one of strategic miscalculations at the national level as a result of blinkered tactical manoeuvres in the states. The outcome is that while  the comrades have remained a marginal force at the centre, their main ideological adversary, viz. the BJP, has made major gains.   Arguably, the roots of this fallout lie in the initial premise of […]

POWER SHORTFALL IN INDIA COMPARATIVELY LOWER DESPITE PAUCITY OF COAL

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 […]

GAIL SET TO HIKE DOMESTIC PRICE OF LNG

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 […]

AUDITOR NO TO NAVY’S RS 6,000 CRORE DEAL

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 […]

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BJP’S RISING AMBITION FOR POWER IN 2016

By S. Sethuraman   Tamil Nadu political scene is now astir, with BJP and other state-level parties looking ambitiously for a hold on power through new alignments in the run-up to the 2016 Assembly elections, and thus hoping to open a new chapter in the State’s chequered politics, hitherto dominated by two Dravidian majors alternately.   Undoubtedly, political space dramatically opened up in the wake of the […]

MODI’S BUDDHA DIPLOMACY ON ANVIL

By Ashok B Sharma A definite shift in India’s Look East Policy is underway with added emphasis on Buddha diplomacy under the new dispensation. Prime Minister Narendrabhai Damodardass Modi plans to market the Buddha card to the countries in the region as India is the place of origin of Dhamman and Sangham. He indicated such a change in emphasis by his first official visit abroad to a […]

CONGRESS SIGNALS SUPPORT FOR THREE KEY REFORM LEGISLATION

NEW DELHI: The Congress has decided to back three crucial economic reform legislation that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will bring in the winter session of Parliament beginning November 24. These are the constitution amendment Bill for implementing the Goods & Services Tax (GST), the insurance laws (amendment) Bill and the coal ordinance.   NDA needs the support of the Opposition party to pass important legislation, as […]

NOW, PM TO MEET PSU BANK CHIEFS

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 […]

APTEL DELIVERS ADANI POWER A TECHNICAL KNOCKOUT

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 […]