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Nigel Farage: David Cameron’s EU benefits diatribe fools no one

The European Commission has already said it will investigate the new policy statement from the Prime Minister to see if it complies with European law Photo: REUTERS The Prime Minister has scored a brilliant summer hit with the headline writers. “EU migrant benefit curbs fast-tracked”; “Government announces limits on EU migrants’ benefits access”; “New rules on migrant benefits to be announced as UK makes system more robust against […]

US, EU add Russian banks in sanctions list

The U.S.  sanctioned three Russian banks and a state-owned shipbuilder that serves Russia’s navy and oil and gas industry, joining with the European Union in escalating the penalties for Russia over its actions in Ukraine. “Russia is once again isolating itself from the international community, setting back decades of progress,” President Barack Obama said at the White House. “We can’t, in the end, make President Putin see […]

POWER MINISTRY MULLS RS 5,700 CRORE SUBSIDY FOR OPERATIONALISING GAS-BASED IDLE POWER CAPACITY

NEW DELHI: In a big push to 31,000-MW of electricity generation plants stranded without fuel, the power ministry has proposed a Rs 5,700 crore subsidy to help operationalise idle gas-based capacity, a loan restructuring scheme for such plants and the supply of coal to projects that will be commissioned before March 2015.

The proposals will benefit 24,148 MW of gas-based projects and 7,230 MW of plants that run on coal, set up at a total investment of about Rs 1,50,000 crore.

An additional 10,930 MW of coal-based plants that will be commissioned before March are also likely to gain. The ministry will approach the Union cabinet with a proposal to pool prices of imported gas and coal with domestic fuels to help stran

GAIL TO BUY 1/3 OF LNG SHIPS FROM INDIAN BUILDERS

New Delhi: GAIL (India), under a petroleum ministry directive, has decided to buy a third of the LNG ships it plans to acquire to ferry the fuel from the US to India, from Indian shipbuilders. Considering that the PSU, whose massive LNG imports from the US would start in 2017, has lined up investments to the tune of $7.6 billion for hiring the required specialised vessels, the move would give a big boost to the Indian shipbuilding industry.

Domestic players such as L&T and Pipavav are among the obvious beneficiaries of the decision, which is in line with the Modi government’s thrust on the domestic manufacturing sector. Although some analysts are doubtful about the feasibility of Indian ship makers meeting such huge demand g

EU edges closer to economic sanctions on Russia

The European Union reached outline agreement on Friday to impose the first economic sanctions on Russia over its behavior in Ukraine but scaled back their scope to exclude technology for the crucial gas sector. The EU also imposed travel bans and asset freezes on the chiefs of Russia’s FSB security service and foreign intelligence service and a number of other top Russian officials, saying they had helped […]

FIRST INDIAN AIR FORCE, NAVY ATTACHES TAKE CHARGE IN CHINA

BEIJING: In a sign of expanding military-to-military engagement between India and China, permanent representatives of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Navy have, for the first time, taken office in Beijing.

Group Captain Ashish Srivastava of the Indian Air Force and Captain Sushant Dam of the Indian Navy will begin their terms as the Air and Naval attachés in the Indian Embassy in Beijing on Friday.

Earlier, India only had a Defence attaché from the Indian Army, along with a Deputy Defence attaché, posted in Beijing.

The question of expanding India’s military representation had been discussed by both sides over several years, with China finally agreeing to the move this past year. Tr

New role-models for mid-size companies

More than 90% of enterprises in the Arab world can be considered small and medium-sized enterprises. The growing importance of small and medium-sized firms requires a need to help those enterprises and to develop sustainable growth, networks for change and management development. In this column I will introduce new role-models for small and medium-sized companies. An emerging role-model for medium-sized companies is Germany with its more than […]

Ukraine detours make flight tickets more costly

The extra cost from rerouting hundreds of airliners around Ukrainian airspace, shut down following the downing of a Malaysian Air flight last week, is set to translate into higher ticket prices for passengers. “If you lengthen routes, you use more fuel so it is more costly,” Air France-KLM Group (AF) Chief Executive Officer Alexandre de Juniac said in Paris today. “At the end of the day, we […]

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

Why working longer could leave you with less

By removing the boost to people who stay in work, the government will now be penalising those who it should be rewarding Photo: Alamy Britain’s state pension has never been known for its generosity. But one of the lesser known perks of the system is that it’s possible to get a very generous bonus if you decide to carry on working and take your state pension later. As […]

Saudis to open stock market to foreigners next year

Saudi Arabia plans to open its stock market, the Arab world’s biggest, to direct investment by foreign financial institutions in the first half of next year, the market regulator said on Tuesday. The opening of the Saudi market, capitalized at about $530 billion, is one of the most keenly awaited economic reforms in the largest oil exporting nation. The bourse would be one of the world’s last […]

EU and Israel agree on controversial research

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso is to formally sign a controversial EU-Israel research programme with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The outgoing head of the European Union executive will hold talks with Netanyahu on Sunday before taking part in a signing ceremony the next day allowing Israel to become the only non-European country to benefit from the EU’s Horizon 2020 scientific research programme. After months of dispute, the […]

Etisalat bond may set record for tight pricing

An impending bond issue by Abu Dhabi-based telecommunications firm Etisalat may not only be the region’s largest deal so far this year, but also set a record for tight pricing as the Gulf becomes more of a mainstream investment destination. Etisalat’s debut bond will replace some of the debt used to fund its 4.2 billion euro ($5.7 billion) purchase of a majority stake in Morocco’s Maroc Telecom […]

Golan Diary: A View into Syria

A view of southwestern Syria in late April, from an Israeli lookout post in the Golan Heights. Israel has placed soldiers in the Golan to stand guard against any Syrian attack. Nicholas Casey/The Wall Street Journal GOLAN HEIGHTS—Each morning after sunrise, soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces stand on a hill and look into their binoculars over two parallel fences topped in barbed wire that stretch out […]

Losing Election Not an Option for Syrian President

WASHINGTON — As Syrians go to the polls this week amid civil war, the presidential victor is all but assured: Bashar al-Assad. So why bother holding an election at all? Analysts say Assad has more to gain than votes. He is trying to display political solidarity to the world and to ignore the apolitical transition that the West has called for. Watch related video report by VOA’s […]

That standing ovation is not about you, Kathleen Turner. It’s about me, me, me

Whoop, whoop: Kathleen Turner and Ian McDiarmid in ‘Bakersfield Mist’ at the Duchess Theatre  Photo: Alastair Muir “They applaud, even when it is good,” said Artur Schnabel, the great Austrian pianist. These days, they stand to cheer, even when it is poor. The standing ovation, which used to be a Broadway phenomenon, something we used to snigger at, has become an increasingly unpleasant feature of theatrical life […]

UAE students tasked with generating drone ideas that could net them Dh1 million

DUBAI // Engineering student Chibuke Enekwechi has plans to develop a drone that could be used to monitor pupils sitting exams instead of relying on teachers to do the job. The final-year student from the American University in Dubai said on Tuesday that he hoped to come up with a winning design that could help him bag Dh1 million and possibly a further US$1m (Dh3.6m) in the […]

David Cameron’s next EU challenge: renegotiation

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Cameron. Photo: AFP Tory MPs may have agreed not to panic in the light of Ukip’s big win, but that doesn’t mean David Cameron isn’t going to come under a huge amount of pressure from them in the coming days and weeks to do something, anything, to show he’s got the message. One of their demands is bound to be that the […]

Separation at a cost

The referendum on whether Scotland should be an independent country will take place on September 18, 2014 Photo: Getty Images Alex Salmond has based his campaign to break up the Union on the idea that the creation of an independent Scotland will be as cost-free and friction-free as possible. But as the referendum approaches, that idea grows less tenable by the day. This week, for example, the Treasury […]

China, Middle East Economic Partnership to Develop Beyond Oil, HSBC Says

The Middle East’s oil boom was made in China HSBC As the world’s second-largest consumer of oil, China in the past decade has relied heavily on the Middle East to secure the resources required to fuel its ascendancy to become an economic superpower. In doing so, it overtook the U.S. as principal investor in the Middle East and played a pivotal role in transforming the region by […]

Pope Calls for Solutions to Conflicts in Mideast Visit

ON THE EAST BANK OF THE JORDAN RIVER — After visiting a site on Saturday where Jesus is believed to have been baptized, Pope Francis spoke about Jesus’s humility, “the fact that he bends down to wounded humanity in order to heal us.” So when some burly men prepared to carry a doctor in a wheelchair up four steps to the stage for a blessing, perhaps it […]

Syrian Rebels Claim Attack on Assad Supporters

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Rebels in southern Syria killed more than 20 people in a mortar attack on a tent put up as part of presidential elections next month, antigovernment activists said on Friday. The overnight attack appeared to be the first by opponents of President Bashar al-Assad directly targeting the election and raised the specter of further rebel assaults on rallies and other events. The vote, scheduled […]