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INDIA JAPAN ECONOMIC COOPERATION BEST FOR BOTH NATIONS

STRATEGICALLY TWO COUNTRIES NEED TO BE CLOSER

By Nantoo Banerjee

Trust is the key. Japanese Prime Shinzo Abe seems to have finally recognized that India could be fully trusted with technology transfer and large fund investments. It may have taken almost a quarter of a century since Osamo Suzuki chose India for small car production in equity collaboration with the government-owned Maruti Udyog for Japan to finally trust India to engage itself with the country for civil nuclear cooperation. But, Japan today is convinced that slow-and-steady-moving democratic India is probably the most trusted country for economic and technology cooperation outside the USA. The huge $12-billion Japanese long term soft credit commitment for a single project in India – the 550 km Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train service – along with proposal of technology transfer in defence production among 14 other ec

Dubai enters a new phase of development

|By K Raveendran| With the new Public-Private Partnership law having come into being last month, Dubai is set to witness a new phase in its development, as private investments begin to flow into further development of the emirate’s infrastructure. This would mean the private sector directly getting involved in projects like airport expansion, extension of the Dubai Metro and similar infrastructure projects and sharing the risks in […]

Musk, other tech chiefs back artificial intelligence startup with $1 billion

Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks about new Autopilot features during a Tesla event in Palo Alto, California October 14, 2015. Reuters/Beck Diefenbach SAN FRANCISCO Tesla Motors Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and other prominent tech executives are pouring $1 billion into a non-profit aimed at creating artificial intelligence that augments humans’ capabilities, rather than making them obsolete. The effort announced on Friday, called OpenAI, joins significant […]

PRAGMATISM NEEDED TO TACKLE KASHMIR ISSUE

SUSHMA’S TALKS IN KABUL HAVE POSITIVE NOTE

By Harihar Swarup

Kashmir always remains the core issue whenever India-Pakistan dialogue is resumed or breaks down. This time also, in the breakthrough in Islamabad with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s visit and the decision to resume of a comprehensive bilateral dialogue, Kashmir remained the key issue. The Manmohan Singh Government had tried to kick-start stalled discussion through “the resumed dialogue” process, which met with the same fate of the composite dialogue following the killing of Indian soldiers almost three years ago. In the past, every time there was forward momentum in India-Pakistan ties, particularly on Kashmir, there were attempts by militants or the army to derail the process.

India and Pakistan were in striking range of an agreement on Kashmir in 2007 when Pervez Musharraf was swept from power

Yahoo Mail Debuts Support for Gmail

Two months after adding support for Microsoft Outlook, Hotmail and AOL Mail to its email app, Yahoo announced today that Gmail has also joined that list. The app can now connect users’ Gmail and Google Apps accounts to Yahoo Mail. Multiple mailbox support for Gmail within Yahoo Mail was launched in both the mobile app for Android and iOS and in a desktop browser version. Gmail is […]

An open letter to Thomas Friedman

|By Dr Alaa Alghamdi| Dear Mr. Friedman, While I would like nothing better than to thank you for your concern for our youth and our country, as expressed in your Nov. 25 piece in the New York Times, I find I cannot in good conscience do so. You made certain observations during your stay in Riyadh, observations which no doubt may sound fresh and even enlightened to […]

Twitter looks to make money from ads aimed at logged-out users

The Twitter logo is shown at its corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California April 28, 2015. Reuters/Robert Galbraith/Files Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) said it was testing a feature to show advertisements to people who read tweets without logging in, as it tries to make good on its long-time ambition to monetize non-active users. The company said the feature will help it cash in on an additional half a […]

BJP, CONGRESS STANDOFF UNDEMOCRATIC

POLITICS HOLDS PARLIAMENT TO RANSOM

By Kalyani Shankar

After a cordial meeting between the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, it was expected that the Winter Session of Parliament might run smoothly and the reform bills might go through. Modi began with a conciliatory note not only in his speeches in Parliament but also made a rare gesture of inviting the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for tea to break the ice. The Congress too climbed down and showed signs of supporting the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, which the Modi government desperately wants to push through this session. A week later, the Congress leaders are now talking of a “touch and go” scenario even though the government has responded positively to the Congress demands.

So what has happened to change this scena

BJP MAY BE SURELY AFTER POLITICAL RIVALS

BUT, CONGRESS CHIEF MUST EXPLAIN LAND GRAB CHARGES

By Nantoo Banerjee

One would expect a late Indira Gandhi’s daughter in law to show greater respect to her mother in law by respecting the democratic system and to judicial summons instead of loudly protesting against them in Parliament to stop its normal function. The massive land grab charges against the president and the vice-president of the party pending before the court need to be fought there legally and not in Parliament. Indira Gandhi fought her election perjury case in the Allahabad high court, which she lost in the end, instead of trying to stall Parliament proceedings using her party representatives. The Delhi high court has found substance in the massive land grab allegation against the Congress president, her son and associates. They were directed to appear before the trial court. Like good citizens, they should have

Why is gold price so depressed?

|By Lawrence Williams| The ‘Nobody Cares’ quote was the theme of Grant Williams’ polished performance at Mines & Money London last week.  Grant (no relation) is a Senior adviser to Vulpes Investment Management in Singapore – but is perhaps better known as the author of the always entertaining and enlightening Things that make you go hmm… newsletter.  This has been published since 2009 and has become one […]

SME SECTOR TO PLAY A BIG ROLE IN JOBS CREATION

MODI GOVERNMENT HAS TO BOOST SKILL DEVELOPMENT

By K.R. Sudhaman

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced from the ramparts of Red Fort on the Independence Day that the two mantras of his government’s economic strategy would be job creation and to tackle farmers’ woes. In a country, where 10-12 million enter job market every year, no government can ignore this fact and rightly Modi from the day he assumed office in May 2014, has been laying emphasis on job creation. This is all the more important as 65 per cent of the vast 1.25 billion population in the country are below the age of 35.

If India were to cash-in on this demographic dividend, it needed to give a fillip to labour intensive technology, infrastructure and micro, small and medium enterprises. The make-in-India campaign, the digital India coupled with Skill India launched by Modi is aimed at cr

FAST SHRINKING EXPORTS, LESS IMPACT ON IMPORTS

INDIA IS NOT MAKING ENOUGH FOR ITSELF

By Nantoo Banerjee

Notwithstanding the GDP growth projection of 7.5 per cent for the current fiscal, India’s $350-billion export manufacturing is fast shrinking. The export downtrend continued for 11 months in a row toll October. There is no immediate sign of improvement. Making in India does not seem to make much sense at least for Indian exporters at this moment. With export orders shrunk and prices falling in the global market, India’s export manufacturers are in a quandary. The loss of exports during this financial year could be close to $80-90billion. The export earnings could at best reach $270 billion. This could mean a massive loss of production and jobs in the export sector. The country would be lucky if it ends 2015-16 with a 20 per cent loss of export earnings compared to the last year.

Unfortunately, around 4

RUSSIA-FRANCE ALLIANCE AGAINST ISIS IS A POSITIVE MOVE

TURKEY’S LINKS WITH TERROR FUNDS EXPOSED

By Arun Srivastava

French President François Hollande entering into an alliance with the Russian President Vladimir Putin with the objective to build a global military coalition to defeat Islamic State following the Paris attacks has unnerved the USA.  This is yet another major setback for the USA. The two leaders agreeing to share intelligence information and cooperate on selecting targets in the fight against ISIS has turned the Obama administration scared of losing its authority and policy of hegemony.

The French president has won public approval and international backing for his handling of the crisis so far. His poll ratings are up by eight points to 33%. Foreign leaders have lined up to express solidarity. For the USA coming together of the leaders does not augur well. So far France has been close to the USA. Fr

How much does FEAR determine your career choices?

/By Nitten Nair/Life is a constant journey of self-realization and most importantly, continuous self-improvement. I personally believe that a life that has refused to evolve during its existence is one that is wasted. I’ve had people of the previous generation tell me proudly how they have been “consistent” and not changed one bit in the past 30 years. They are extremely proud of their fixed routines and […]

Weirdest things I have heard my bosses say

|Nitten Nair|Over the years I consider myself extremely lucky to have worked with a myriad of bosses who range from the utterly incompetent to the perfect role model. Regardless of their skills and temperament, I had the good fortune of establishing a rapport with almost all of them. This rapport also gave me the opportunity to witness some of the most absurd things to come from their […]

Gold price falls despite Asian demand rise

|By Lawrence Williams| Let’s face it, the gold price seems to bear little correlation to global physical metal demand.  In the face of reducing supply (low gold prices keep scrap sales depressed, new mined gold supply is plateauing and beginning to fall and sales out of the big gold ETFs this year are a fraction of those seen back in 2013) and increasing demand – China, India […]

Termites Are Teaching Architects to Design Super-Efficient Skyscrapers

|By Shara Tonn|WHEN A GREEN architect does a particularly good job, you’ll know it by the bling: the silver, gold, and platinum LEED certifications that emblazon buildings’ exteriors. But the best eco-conscious constructions don’t need a seal of approval—and their builders probably wouldn’t appreciate it anyway. Mound termites, native to Africa, South Asia, and Australia, are pros at building self-regulating structures that maintain oxygen levels, temperature, and humidity. And […]

OPEC revenues could further fall by a quarter

|By Arabian Post Staff| A scenario of continued fall in oil prices, OPEC oil export revenue could fall by a quarter despite the higher output, according to International Energy Agency outlook for oil. In the Low Oil Price Scenario, the Middle East’s share in the oil market ends up higher than at any time in the last forty years, it says. According to IEA, lower prices are […]

PowerPoint Gets New Tools To Spiff Up Your Presentations

Gone are the days when Microsoft waits for entirely new versions of its software products to make updates — and the latest PowerPoint upgrade is once such example. After hitting the market two months ago as part of the Office 2016 suite, Redmond is rolling out a new wave of monthly updates for Office 365 subscribers. In November, PowerPoint is front and center. The updates include tools […]

Over 100 killed in Paris terror attack

Gunmen and bombers attacked restaurants, a concert hall and a sports stadium at locations across Paris on Friday, killing at least 120 people in what a shaken President Francois Hollande called an unprecedented terrorist attack. A Paris city hall official said gunmen systematically slaughtered nearly 100 people attending a rock concert at the Bataclan music hall. Anti-terrorist commandos eventually launched an assault on the building, killed the […]

How much did “they” pay you to give up on your dreams?

|By Nitten Nair|I had never watched the movie “Up in the Air” starring George Clooney. Not because I don’t watch his films, but I found reading of the initial synopsis a little depressing. A guy who lives out of a suitcase because he has to fly around the world firing people – not so exciting. Nor did I come across any reviews which strongly stated otherwise. The […]

Order famine at Dubai Air Show

Airbus Group SE escaped order oblivion at the Dubai Air Show after negotiating a last-minute agreement to sell 30 narrow-body planes to VietJet Aviation — prompting the European planemaker to take a swipe at Boeing Co. over the announcement of a deal that had already been booked. VietJet agreed to buy nine current-generation A321s and 21 upgraded A321neos worth $3.6 billion at list prices after negotiations that […]

Google Reportedly Wants To Design Its Own Smartphone Chips

Unlike Apple, which exerts start-to-finish control over the chips and software that go into its iPhones, Google must deal with a far more diverse hardware/software environment for Android smartphones. But the tech giant might be looking to increase its influence over the systems-on-chip (SoCs) that go into Android devices. An article published yesterday in The Information noted that Google has recently talked with different chip-makers to give […]

Toyota Putting $1 Billion into Artificial Intelligence Research

Two months after announcing a $50 million investment in artificial intelligence (AI) research, Toyota is more than doubling down on its bet. At a press conference in Toyko today, the car maker unveiled plans to spend $1 billion over the next five years to establish a new company — the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) — focused on AI and robotics. The institute will be located in Silicon […]