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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The defendants, in a courtroom in Cairo on Friday, were convicted of “inciting debauchery.” By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS November 1, 2014 CAIRO — An Egyptian court convicted eight men on Saturday of charges of “inciting debauchery” after their appearance in a video of a same-sex wedding party on a Nile riverboat, sentencing each to three years in prison. The Internet video shows two men exchanging rings and embracing among cheering […]
By Garga Chatterjee Convicted war criminal Ghulam Azam is dead. He died last week. He was 91. In the subcontinent, many political figures enjoy interesting lives after death. There is a peculiar way in which death accords respectability even to the worst scum on earth. Important people declare somber condolences. Concrete memorials come up overnight in the middle of the street. The number of such memorials corresponds […]
India will launch an unmanned crew module in December onboard a heavy rocket to test its re-entry into the atmosphere for the country’s future maiden human space flight, the space agency chief said Thursday. “We will send an unmanned crew module on the experimental GSLV-Mark III rocket in December and test its re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere for a human space flight plan in future,” Indian […]
A tie-up between Malaysian and Hong Kong asset managers aims to market Islamic funds in mainland China, helping expand sharia-compliant investment products outside the industry’s core centres in southeast Asia and the Middle East. The asset management arm of Malayan Banking Bhd and Hong Kong-based Bosera International will jointly develop Islamic investment products, Nor’ Azamin Salleh, chief executive of Maybank Asset Management Group Bhd, told Reuters. The […]
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 […]
Israeli police officers arrested a right-wing activist on Thursday after he tried to access the sacred plateau revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary in the Old City of Jerusalem. By ISABEL KERSHNER and JODI RUDOREN October 30, 2014 JERUSALEM — Under heavy pressure and the threat of new Israeli-Palestinian strife, Israel announced on Thursday that it would reopen a contested holy site in […]
Tunisians celebrate the results of the country’s recent elections. Reuters A heavily oversubscribed IPO by one of Tunisia’s key companies and smooth parliamentary elections held last weekend are helping the country attract more attention from foreign investors. Shares in Delice Holding, a consortium of companies that make dairy products, started trading on October 16 following an IPO that was almost 16-times oversubscribed. The company, which has a […]
ERP platform….improve company’s overall performance Qapco teams with IBM and SAP to drive growth DOHA, 21 hours, 20 minutes ago Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco), a leading petrochemical powerhouse in the region and a pioneer in petrochemical production, has teamed up with IBM and SAP for the development and implementation of an innovative enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform that will improve the company’s overall performance. Dr Mohammed Yousef […]
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 […]
Rashid bin Ali Al-Mansoori Qatar SE chief named board member of WFE SEOUL, 10 hours, 0 minutes ago Rashid bin Ali Al-Mansoori, CEO of Qatar Stock Exchange, has been elected as a board member of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) during the 2014 annual meetings held in Seoul. The meetings also resulted in the election of a new board chairman, vice chairman, chairman of the Working […]
NEW DELHI: Private-sector power plants with a combined capacity of over 1 lakh MW, including plants of 36,500 MW that have been deprived of their captive coal blocks thanks to a recent Supreme Court verdict will get “firm coal linkage” if the Cabinet approves a plan put forth by the power ministry. Pooling of domestic (Coal India) and imported coal will be done to ensure these […]
NEW DELHI: ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp, on Tuesday signed an agreement to pick an up to 50 per cent stake in PetroVietnam’s two exploration blocks in the South China Sea. OVL will take a 40 per cent stake in Block 102/10 and 50 per cent in 106/10 that lie outside the sea territory claimed by China. PetroVietnam, […]
Global SWFs: Assets under Management (USD billion), 2014 GeoEconomica The sovereign wealth funds of the energy-rich Arab Gulf are some of the world’s largest pools of capital, collectively holding more than $1 trillion of assets. But their strategies, returns and approaches to risk aren’t often disclosed, something political risk consultancy GeoEconomica singles them out for in a new report. Gulf funds lag global peers in compliance with […]
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 […]
Look at computer models for the Venice-like Arabian Canal proposed for central Dubai, or the plans for the world’s biggest shopping mall, and it seems as if the collapse of the United Arab Emirates real estate market six years ago never happened. Citibank estimated earlier this year that there were already two thirds of a trillion dollars worth of construction projects underway in the UAE. That was […]
DIFC Investments, the commercial operator of Dubai’s financial free zone, plans to meet fixed income investors from Thursday for a potential benchmark size dollar-denominated sukuk issue, a document from the leads showed on Tuesday. The company has picked Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD, Noor Bank and Standard Chartered for the sukuk sale, according to the document. In September, DIFC said it was seeking to raise as much […]
Twenty years after Israel and Jordan signed a historic peace agreement, the absence of progress toward an independent Palestinian state continues to weigh heavily on ties between the two Middle East neighbors. Widespread public sentiment in Jordan to downgrade relations over Israeli policy for the Palestinians makes it awkward for government officials to openly embrace Israel. But at a Tel Aviv ceremony marking the treaty anniversary on […]
Gulf Cooperation Council countries may see their current-account surplus decline by $175 billion next year if oil prices stay about $80 a barrel, according to the International Monetary Fund. The projected surplus for the six GCC countries may plunge from $275 billion to about $100 billion next year, Masood Ahmed, director of the Middle East and Central Asia department at the IMF, said in an interview in […]
|By TAP Staff| International Monetary Fund is pleased to note the moderation in the prices of Dubai’s properties, a senior IMF official said. The IMF has previously warned that rapid rises in Dubai real estate prices, which earlier this year were in some cases a third higher than they were 12 months previously, could lead to another bubble and then a crash in the emirate. But Masood […]
