NEW DELHI: With global energy firms refusing to participate in the ambitious TAPI gas pipeline, India may propose getting a Chinese company to lead a consortium that will build the USD 10 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan- Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline. French giant Total SA had initially envisaged interest in leading a consortium of national oil companies of the four nations in the TAPI project, but backed off after […]
By Sankar Ray If all goes well, India and Russia will shortly ink the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India & the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan & Russian Federation. The coming visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India next month is supposed to impart a new dimension to the bilateral ties between India and Russian Federation and speedy finalization of the FTA between the two […]
Brisbane: DRIVEN by a strong domestic political agenda of getting black money back home, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday managed to get the Group of 20 include a certain clause in the final Leaders’ Communique that will make it difficult for tax havens to give complete tax exemption to companies. This, along with the G-20’s endorsement of a global Common Reporting Standard for automatic exchange of […]
NEW DELHI: The Centre is likely to reallocate to state-run firms such — as NTPC and Damodar Valley Corporation — as well as state government utilities their captive coal blocks that had been cancelled by the Supreme Court. This leaves only half of the mines for auction to the private sector in the first phase in December. The coal ministry has assured most of the central […]
PANAJI: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is considering the introduction of a new policy on the vexed issue of blacklisting defence equipment suppliers accused of corruption as well as reforming rules for lobbyists to balance the needs of the armed forces with transparency. Speaking to ET in the state capital at the chief minister’s residence, Parrikar said, “One of the ideas the government is thinking about is […]
By Sankar Ray The grim battle waged by a small but well=meaning section in Pakistan for a sustaining and evolving democratic order has suffered a setback as some pseudo-democratic interests are working against the struggle for democracy. Needless to say, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and its chief Imran Khan serve as catalyst in favour of the unholy combine of a section of army, the ISI and […]
By Nantoo Banerjee It is heartening to note that out of the world’s 2000 largest companies, figured in Forbes Global 2000, and their 3,30,000 subsidiaries worldwide characterizing their influence in the global market, as many as 30 are India’s much neglected and criticized State-owned enterprises (SOEs). India’s SOE numbers are only next to the People’s Republic of China’s. The People’s Republic of China had 70 of […]
NEW DELHI: Eyeing joint-production of military and civilian items with a foreign partner, India and Russia could clinch deals on co-production of mid-range civilian aircraft as well as military helicopters during President Vladimir Putin’s trip to Delhi on December 11-12. During Putin’s maiden visit to Delhi for the annual summit after Modi became the Prime Minister the two sides might agree on joint production of the […]
By Kalyani Shankar The Congress split in Tamil Nadu spells trouble for the 129 year old Congress party. Although the Congress high command has described it as a result of factional fight, there is more to it than meets the eye as it has far reaching impact on the state as well as national politics. With the state assembly elections scheduled for 2016, political parties […]
New Delhi: India Inc on Wednesday pitched for a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), saying the central bank should be “more courageous”, since inflation had come down drastically and growth is not picking up. RBI is slated to come out with its policy review on December 2. “RBI has to be more courageous,” said Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director of Mahindra & […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
MUMBAI: Leading public sector banks have lowered some of their term deposit rates by up to 100 basis points as credit growth remains sluggish and liquidity in money markets has improved (100 basis points = 1 percentage point). The lenders who reduced deposit rates recently include the Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and Andhra Bank. The State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Central Bank of […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
By Alwyn Scott and Irene Klotz NEW YORK/CAPE CANAVERAL Fla. Sat Nov 1, 2014 6:22am IST A piece of debris is seen near the scene of the crash of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo near Cantil, California October 31, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Lucy Nicholson NEW YORK/CAPE CANAVERAL Fla. (Reuters) – The wait for paying passengers to see Earth from the vantage point of space looked a lot longer on Friday, […]
NEW DELHI: The government has relaxed the norms for allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in the construction development sector. It is expected the move will boost affordable housing projects and smart cities across the country. At a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, the minimum built-up area required to attract FDI was reduced from 50,000 sq m to 20,000 sq m, while […]
New Delhi: The geopolitical wrangling and heartburn over India’s mother of all defence deals, the lucrative $20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project, is still not over. First, it was the Americans, then the Europeans and now, the Russians. Even as India and France inch forward to stitch up the contract for acquisition of 126 Rafale fighters for the IAF, Russian ambassador Alexander Kadakin last […]
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’ […]
Storage giant EMC is making bold moves in the hybrid cloud market, acquiring three companies in the space and announcing that it has “redefined” the hybrid cloud for the enterprise with the roll out of the Enterprise Hybrid Cloud Solution. First, the acquisitions. EMC grabbed The Cloudscaling Group, Maginatics, and Spanning Cloud Apps for undisclosed amounts. The company said these acquisitions help forward its hybrid cloud vision […]
New Delhi: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Monday scrapped the selection of six chiefs of public sector banks, recommended under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, following a high-level panel finding irregularities in the process followed. The probe into selections for banks such as Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank followed the arrest of tainted Syndicate Bank Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) S K Jain […]
