By Praful Bidwai All those who expected Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deliver on his election-campaign promise of cleaning up Indian politics of money power and crime, making a break with short-term caste-and-community calculations, and placing merit above personal loyalty, would be sorely disappointed at his cabinet reshuffle, including the induction of 21 new ministers. The composition of his team also reflects a great paucity […]
Uh-oh, folks, this is starting to look serious. There really does appear to be a plot to remove Ed Miliband. One paper has reported that there are 20 shadow ministers who are “on the verge” of asking him to step down. Nameless Labour MPs have said that the rebellion against Ed has reached “critical mass” – and one has a vision of fuel rods starting to shudder […]
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 […]
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; […]
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 […]
U.S. authorities are investigating London-based Standard Chartered for potential U.S. sanctions violations connected to its banking for Iranian-controlled entities in Dubai, according to people familiar with the probe. The latest investigation involving the bank is based, in part, from evidence that emerged during a separate probe of BNP Paribas, the French bank that pleaded guilty this summer to charges related to sanctions-busting and agreed to pay $8.9 […]
Asian traders are split on whether Saudi Arabia will deepen the crude price cuts that propelled oil into a bear market this month. State-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co. will announce official selling prices for supplies to buyers in Asia for December next week after cutting prices to the lowest in almost six years for a month earlier. The world’s biggest oil exporter will further discount supplies, according […]
By Nora Chopra The much awaited reshuffle of the Congress party is likely to be deferred indefinitely till the organizational elections next year. Disillusionment is fast taking over within the party in the wake of a defeat after defeat since 2011 when state after state started falling like nine pins. The worst was of course the Lok Sabha polls where the party faced a defeat like never […]
Iran’s revenue from crude sales, the OPEC member nation’s most important export, dropped 30 percent because of the recent drop in global oil prices, according to President Hassan Rouhani. “International conditions are such that the country’s main source of income, i.e. oil revenues, has been cut by some 30 percent,” Rouhani said in remarks to the nation’s parliament that were published today by the Oil Ministry’s news […]
Alongside the Dubai Mall, one of the world’s largest shopping centers, sits an ersatz version of what would be an authentic retail experience in most Persian Gulf cities: an Arab souk. If, in the evening, you stroll through this air-conditioned, hassle- and haggle-free caricature of a market, staffed mostly by smiling South Asians, you can amble out onto the shores of man-made Burj Khalifa Lake, named after […]
Mumbai: In the first big boost to the government’s “Make in India” initiative, aimed at making India a manufacturing hub, Airbus Defence and Space and Tata Advanced Systems (TASL) on Tuesday announced a joint bid for a government contract to supply military aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF). The IAF is looking to replace its fleet of Avro aircraft and the joint venture will supply Airbus’ […]
AP It’s not just Wall Street banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that got it wrong. Energy consultants and even the U.S. government didn’t foresee the sharp slide in oil prices, which have tumbled 25% since June. Goldman shocked the market yesterday with a call for U.S. prices to fall to $70 a barrel in the second quarter of 2015. Barclays just released its second price update in […]
By Nora Chopra Rahul Gandhi will contest the party president post next year. Before July 2015, Sonia Gandhi is likely to abdicate In favour of her son and will hold the post of some kind of local guardian of the party depending on the name being given to her position on the liens of the kind of a Marg Darshak in the BJP. In a meeting with […]
By THOMAS ERDBRINK October 25, 2014 TEHRAN — An Iranian woman convicted of murder for killing a doctor she said had tried to rape her was executed on Saturday morning, despite international condemnation of what Western human rights organizations described as a miscarriage of justice and efforts by the Iranian president to commute her death sentence. The woman, Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26, admitted during her trial in 2009 that she […]
The United States has condemned Iran for executing a woman convicted of killing a man to defend herself from an alleged sexual assault. The 26-year-old woman, Reyhaneh Jabbari, was hanged Saturday morning. The death penalty went ahead after the family of her alleged assailant, a former Iranian intelligence agent, refused to pardon her or accept financial compensation. At the U.S. State Department, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said there […]
NEW DELHI: In order to make India a better place to do business, the government is working to cut down the time for registering a business from 27 days to a single day. Towards this end, it has readied a raft of measures, such as, single registration for all labour laws, overhaul of tax systems, reduction in the number of permits required, easing up property registration, quick […]
Saudi Arabia’s closure of an offshore oilfield it shares with Kuwait has revived speculation of renewed tensions between the two, and put Chevron’s role in the shared Neutral Zone in focus. Crude output from their jointly-run offshore Khafji oilfield has been halted temporarily to comply with environmental rules. “Little things lead to big things, it’s an accumulation of the past. Each party says a different story,” said […]
New Delhi: The government on Monday allowed private companies in the defence sector to sell equipment to state-run entities without prior approval of the defence ministry, a move that could attract investments in the sector. The decision came after the government opened the sector for higher foreign direct investments (FDI) and relaxed compulsory licensing for a number of equipment. “The licencee shall be allowed to sell […]
Iran, which faces sanctions on crude exports, sees no need for OPEC to hold an emergency meeting, a sign that markets may need to wait a month before the world’s biggest producer group responds to falling prices. Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has consulted with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani about political and economic reasons for the collapse in prices, the ministry’s news website Shana reported today. No […]
NEW DELHI: India is likely to next month sign a deal to lay an oil pipeline to Nepal for supply of petrol, diesel and ATF, said Sunil Kumar Thapa, Commerce Minister of the Himalayan nation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Nepal in August had “assured that India will assist in putting up a pipeline,” he told reporters after meeting Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan […]
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was a momentous occasion worthy of a celebration. And the Kerala Congress(Mani) did celebrate the fiftieth year of its formation in grand style. But the celebrations were marred by an acrimonious war of words and articles between the KC(M) and ‘big brother’ Congress, allies in the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) in the State. The proximate cause for the […]
By Nora Chopra Congress is supposed to have conceded defeat both in Haryana and Maharashtra even before the results are out. The general secretaries in-charge of Haryana and Maharashtra Shakeel Ahmad and Mohan Prakash have submitted their reports to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and are supposed to have made the submission that the Congress does not stand any chance to win in any of the two […]
Hyderabad: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan has said the central bank is in talks with the Centre to set up a financial resolution authority (FRA). “We really need a financial resolution authority so that we can close financial institutions in trouble, without necessarily merging those and taking the losses. We need to clean institutions…while resurrecting those functioning well. FRA will be the entity that […]
New Delhi: Oil companies’ gains on diesel sales jumped 87 per cent within a fortnight on a historic slide in global crude prices. Their profits from diesel, recorded for the first time ever, continue as the government delays a decision on deregulating its price. “The over-recovery on high-speed diesel (HSD), applicable for the second fortnight effective October 16, is now Rs 3.56 per litre. The over-recovery […]
