News related to
Japan

INDIAN OIL, BPCL, HPCL TO REVIVE PREMIUM PETROL BRANDS ON EXCISE CUT

MUMBAI: The state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) plan to revive branded petrol such as IndianOil’s XtraPremium and Bharat Petroleum’s Speed, backed by aggressive marketing, to make the most of a significant excise duty cut announced in the budget.

Sales of branded petrol, which contain additives that enhance automobile’s performance, had plummeted in recent years as they became Rs 7-10 per litre more expensive than the regular fuel, forcing companies such as Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) to pull out such products from most outlets. But with finance minister Arun Jaitley announcing a cut in central excise duty on branded petrol to Rs

SEARCHING FOR THE IDEAL FDI IN DEFENCE PRODUCTION

When Finance Minister Arun Jaitley kept the FDI cap in defence at 49 per cent, he said: “Our assessment of the market is that the 49 per cent FDI limit in the sector would be a significant step in establishing domestic defence market. The public opinion and Parliament’s opinion in India is ready to accept the proposal that I have made.”

Mr. Jaitley was also in consonance with the policy sentiment that has evolved within the government over many years. As far back as in 2004, key economists argued before the Planning Commission that 100 per cent FDI in high technology would enable India to reduce or limit its technology imports; in 2008, the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council constituted by former Prime Minister Ma

SIX BANKS MAY GET `TOO BIG TO FAIL’ TAG

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India has said that up to six banks will be designated as systemically important, or SIBs, for the domestic financial market and will need to have higher capital than their peers to prevent the financial system from collapsing if there is a crisis.

The central bank said it would now go about identifying these banks which are too big to fail and would release a list of names in August 2015, according to a report uploaded on its website on Tuesday evening.

State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank may be among the six, according to consultants and analysts. Banks falling in this category will have to set aside more capital per l

FUEL SUBSIDY SYSTEM REVAMP LIKELY, ONGC GETS REASON TO CHEER

NEW DELHI: The government plans to tweak the system of calculating fuel subsidies to make ONGC’s public offer more attractive for investors. It plans to make subsidy sharing more predictable and transparent so that analysts can properly assess the ONGC’s earnings outlook.

Currently they are unable to assess the amount and the timing of the huge subsidy payout. This diminishes the interest of top institutions in the stock.

The oil ministry may soon approach the Cabinet to overhaul the fuel pricing system to incorporate some of the observations of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, which recently submitted a report on the matter.

The pricing system has a direct impact on O

INDRA-2014 DRILLS ENDED SUCCESSFULLY IN RUSSIA’S FAR EAST

Russian-Indian international naval drills Indra-2014 ended in Russian far eastern city of Vladivostok. “Russian and Indian naval sailors fulfilled all tasks completely,” head of the press service of the Russian Pacific Fleet Captain First Rank Roman Martov told Itar-Tass on Sunday.

At the final meeting aboard the guards missile-carrying cruiser Varyag Assistant Commander of the Pacific Fleet Rear Admiral Andrey Ryabukhin noted that interoperability and trust between two fleets reached a very high level.

For his part, Commander of the Indian Eastern Fleet Rear Admiral Atul Kumar Jain said at this meeting that naval sailors had acquired a very good experience and were on the way back home with the posit

Obama’s words prove UK’s worth on the world stage

HE doesn’t live here and doesn’t have a vote but Barak Obama’s decision to throw his weight against the break up of Britain is undoubtedly one of the best bits of news that the opponents of separation could have wished for. There probably won’t be a rash of Better Together stickers in the windows of the White House or in the presidential limousines but his words in […]

Dubai tops global house price index

Dubai saw the steepest house price growth globally over the past year despite government cooling measures, Knight Frank’s Global House Price Index shows. House prices grew 27.7 percent over the 12 months to March 2014, the fastest pace among the 54 countries tracked on the index. However, house prices only climbed 3.4 percent in the first quarter, much slower than 9.2 percent growth in the same period […]

Asian shares ride Wall Street optimism; dollar down

Asian shares edged higher on Friday, catching a lift from another record close on Wall Street, while the dollar groaned under the pressure of slumping U.S. yields. The S&P 500 index .SPX posted its third record closing high in four sessions, as investors shrugged off the first quarterly contraction of the U.S. economy in three years and focused on signs of a strengthening labor market. MSCI’s broadest […]

Asian shares hit one-year high on Wall Street rally

Asian shares hit one-year high on Monday thanks to a strong session on Wall Street and a decisive win for billionaire Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine’s presidential election. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.15 percent while Japan’s Nikkei share average gained 0.7 percent to hit one-month high. Investors took their cue from upbeat U.S. hosing data on Friday, with sales of new single-family homes […]

Modi struts global stage even before assuming office

Even before his inauguration, India’s Prime Minister designate Narendra Modi made waves on the global stage, where once he was treated by many with suspicion – and by some as a pariah – for a rash of Hindu-Muslim violence that erupted 12 years ago in Gujarat, the state he ruled. Modi, 63, has spoken with the presidents of the United States and Russia, and he has become […]

Samsung chairman stable after heart attack

Samsung Electronics Co Chairman Lee Kun Hee, who leads Asia’s biggest technology company and helps generate about a quarter of South Korea’s economic output, remains in stable condition after emergency surgery following a heart attack. Lee, 72, is at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul after being resuscitated following an acute myocardial infarction, Rhee So Eui, a spokeswoman for Samsung Group, said in an e-mailed statement. Lee, who […]

Son makes $58 billion with Alibaba windfall

With Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. filing to go public, the biggest winner won’t be founder Jack Ma or his fellow executives or even venture capital backers like Silver Lake Management LLC. It’ll be Japan’s Masayoshi Son. Fourteen years ago, Son’s SoftBank Corp.  started with a $20 million bet on a then-unknown Web portal connecting Chinese manufacturers with overseas buyers. That site evolved into China’s biggest Internet shopping […]

Money’s never been a problem for Dubai

It is now clear that the chances of a fire sale of Dubai’s ‘jewels in the crown’ — a reference to blue-chip assets such as Emirates airline and Jebel Ali Free Zone — stand completely mitigated as the emirate takes firm control of its financial situation. Analysts are in near agreement that Dubai’s sovereign debt is stabilising and deleveraging is progressing. A definite improvement has happened in […]

TAKA signs yen loan to repay debt

Abu Dhabi National Energy Co (TAQA) said on Thursday it had signed a 20.5 billion yen ($200.4 million) loan with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi which would be used to refinance an existing obligation. The majority state-owned energy firm said it had swapped the loan, priced at 60 basis points over Japanese Libor, into U.S. dollars and would use the funds to refinance a portion of a $1.2 billion […]

Women edge into Gulf board rooms

Amina al-Rustamani, a member of a prominent UAE family, raised eyebrows among friends and relatives when she started her career in Dubai 13 years ago as an electrical engineer, becoming one of few females in the Middle East to enter the profession. Success in a male-dominated environment helped give her the confidence to rise up the career ladder and break more barriers. She is now chief executive […]

Asia rides Wall Street rebound

Asian shares rose in early trade on Wednesday after Wall Street reversed a three-day losing streak, but Japanese stocks dropped sharply after the yen surged on fading hopes of near-term stimulus from the Bank of Japan. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan advanced 0.9 percent, taking heart from a recovery in U.S. stocks overnight. Japanese stocks, on the other hand, had a tough day on […]

Asian stocks edge up on China stimulus hopes

Asian stocks were up slightly in a cautious start to the week on Monday, with investors holding out hopes that China would take steps to stimulate the economy. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS tacked on 0.1 percent after rising to a 3-week high on Friday on the back of heightened speculation Beijing will launch new spending measures and reduced tensions in Ukraine. Australian […]

UN climate report paints gloomy future

A UN panel on Monday morning released its much awaited report which assessed impacts of climate change on human lives, natural resources and marine ecosystem across the globe. It predicted a gloomy picture for Asia where most of the countries, including India and China, will not only have to face more extreme weather events but also have to experience severe stress on drinking water and food-grains by […]

US judge rules against banks in rate rigging

A federal judge in Manhattan has ruled that a group of international banks must face complaints that they violated the U.S. Commodity Exchange Act by manipulating yen-denominated interest rate benchmarks between 2006 and 2010. In a ruling on Friday, U.S. District Judge George Daniels also granted the banks’ motion to dismiss related claims against them for antitrust violations and unjust enrichment. The banks, which included Mizuho Bank […]

Asian crude prices seen too high

| By Clyde Russel | The price of Middle East crude oils being supplied to Asia appears too high given an increase in supply from Iran, Iraq and rival Russia and muted demand from refiners. While benchmark Oman futures have declined 5 percent since the start of the year to end at $102.93 a barrel on Wednesday, the price relative to global marker Brent has been rising. […]

Alibaba IPO: Hong Kong loss is US gain

After a year of waiting, the man running what could be the biggest-ever technology IPO finally lost patience with Hong Kong. Joe Tsai, the Alibaba Group Holding executive in charge of plans for the highly anticipated deal, only abandoned hope of a Hong Kong listing in the last few weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. The company’s shareholding structure, giving senior managers sway over board […]

Abu Dhabi to implement gold standard in nuclear safety

Abu Dhabi, drawing lessons from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster, is building “gold-standard” safety procedures into its plan to develop four nuclear reactors, a foreign adviser to the government said. The United Arab Emirates, of which Abu Dhabi is the capital, is investing in facilities for nuclear power, renewable energy and liquefied natural gas to cut its reliance on oil. The U.A.E. will be the first Arab state […]

Toyota declares lockout at India units

Toyota Motor Corp’s  Indian unit has declared a lockout of its workers at two car plants after strained salary negotiations spurred workers to stop production lines. Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) in a statement said it has locked out workers at the plants near Bangalore since Sunday. It did not state for how long the lockout will continue. Over the past 25 days, some workers have stopped production […]

Honda recalls 900,000 US Odysseys for fire risk

Honda Motor Co is recalling nearly 900,000 Odyssey minivans that could catch fire, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a recall notice posted on Friday. In a March 13 filing with NHTSA, Honda said 2005-2010 Odysseys built in Alabama have a fuel-pump part that could crack and cause a fuel leak, increasing the risk of fire. The company said it has no reports of […]