If you have an Xbox and you’re having a hard time signing on to Xbox Live, there may be a nefarious reason for that. A hacker group that made a name for itself by attacking online gaming services has apparently struck again. In a Twitter post, Lizard Squad claims it took Xbox Live down. This is the same Lizard Squad that executed a distributed denial of service […]
North Korea is an astonishing survival into the 21st century of 19th century traditions of oriental despotism. Just as the old kings of Korea were demigods, beyond mortal criticism and revered as infallible by their awed subjects, so the present-day rulers of North Korea are presented as geniuses who can make no mistakes. Moreover, in this tradition, the monarch personifies the nation – to mock Kim Jong-un […]
Abu Dhabi’s crown prince paid a brief visit to Qatar on Friday, official media said, to cement reconciliation between the two Gulf Arab states before a regional summit they are to hold in Doha next month. The trip by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan was the first since the United Arab Emirates along with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar in March, accusing Doha […]
I recently reached out to my Twitter followers, asking “What can I, as a VOA reporter in Washington, write about that you need/want to know?” The responses were varied and interesting, but one topic dominated: U.S. policy in Syria. Why hasn’t the U.S. done more to help the Syrian people? “There is lot of frustration with the Obama’s administration’s ambiguous, vague and often incoherent strategy regarding dealing […]
NEW DELHI: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Thursday approved an outlay of Rs 43,033 crore to fund an ambitious initiative to supply electricity through separate feeders for agricultural and rural domestic consumption, aimed at providing round-the-clock power to village households. In addition, the cabinet also approved spending Rs 32,612 crore on an integrated power development initiative, which involves strengthening sub-transmission and distribution systems, according […]
New Delhi: India has signed a euro 13 million deal with Airbus Defence and Space for the delivery of a dedicated facility in the country for the maintenance and repair its submarine fleet periscopes. The project is due to be completed in September 2016. “When a product is serviced, a lot of time is lost during the transport between different facilities. Once maintenance work can be […]
NEW DELHI: The government will decide on Saturday whether to press ahead with the Rs 13,000 crore mega project for the private sector to supply 56 medium transport aircraft to the IAF despite only a single bidder, the Tata-Airbus consortium, being in the fray. Though the defence acquisitions council (DAC) chaired by Manohar Parrikar will take the final decision, MoD sources on Tuesday said the “emerging […]
By Ashok B Sharma If South Asia plans to consolidate and further integrate itself, it needs to learn much from the experiences of South-East Asian countries that are moving towards an ASEAN Economic Community hopefully by 2015. About 80 per cent of the spadework have been done for the process of integration, only 20 per cent of the efforts are needed. The ASEAN group was of course […]
Kolkata: The fear of bad loans and limited lending opportunities to top companies have prompted several banks to shift focus towards the retail (individual loans) and small & medium enterprises segments. India Inc’s reluctance to borrow money is keeping bankers worried. While lenders were able to stem fresh impairment in their credit quality in the July-September period, low demand for corporate loans has decelerated the growth in […]
KOLKATA: State-run NTPC, the country’s biggest power generator and thermal coal consumer, plans to acquire at least 26 per cent stake in coal mines abroad to secure longterm fuel supplies for all its power plants, a senior executive said. This is a shift from the company’s earlier stance of seeking only minority stakes in such mines to ensure fuel for plants that operate only on imported […]
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 […]
NEW DELHI: A few weeks before the Reserve Bank of India announces the monetary policy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has made his preferences clear in the raging debate over whether governor Raghuram Rajan should cut interest rates on December 2. “Reduction in the cost of capital will give a good fillip to the Indian economy,” Jaitley said at the Citi Investor Forum, but added that the […]
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 Barun Das Gupta KOLKATA: Way back in 1994, the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao formulated India’s ‘Look East’ policy. Its aim was to strengthen economic ties, increase trade and commerce between India and her eastern neighbours and provide greater market access to one another for mutual benefit. Several projects like the 3200 km long India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway were taken up to accelerate the implementation […]
By Ashok B Sharma The annual feature, G 20 Summit, has turned out to be a mere talk shop. No substantial effort has been done at the multilateral level to salvage the global economy. Whatever efforts are been made, are at national level for generating more demand to keep up the growth pace of their economy. But with the emergence of strong leadership in India, […]
By S Sethuraman As the Modi Government completes its first six months with a record of hesitant, incremental moves on the economic front, growth recovery has at last become visible and looks to gain momentum to hit the targeted 5.5 per cent or slightly above, in fiscal ’15. Business sentiment is being bolstered by falling inflation and output modestly growing by 2.8 per cent in the […]
By S Sethuraman A Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), by no means a new concept, was successfully pushed by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the APEC Summit in Beijing on November 11, projecting it as ‘historic’, in a move aimed at countering US-dominant trade moves in the region. The 21-member APEC, of Pacific rim nations, including the United States, China and Japan, now […]
From L.S. Herdenia BHOPAL: More than three thousand persons will reach Bhopal on December 4, 2014. They will be part of a “Nation-wide Yatra”, which has commenced from November 2. These yatras have started from states in the north-east, south, east, west and north parts of the country. After passing through various states, they will reach Bhopal on December 4 to coincide with the 30th anniversary of […]
From Ashis Biswas KOLKATA: Under severe political pressure and feeling vulnerable, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee has reacted characteristically, by going on the offensive against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). During the last few weeks, Ms Banerjee, as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, has been keeping away from the media. Her leadership and the role of her party, in the multi-crore Saradha chit […]
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: HDFC Bank will not be able to raise much money by way of foreign investment even as the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) on Friday regularised its current overseas investment structure. That is because the board turned down the bank’s plea to not treat the promoter stake as foreign investment. Besides, the bank will also have to deposit a penalty as it was in the […]
NEW DELHI: After cementing trade ties with China, energy-rich Russia is now looking to strengthen its relationship with India by reviving discussions on a hydrocarbon pipeline, in addition to inviting ONGC Videsh (OVL) to invest in oil and gas projects in the Russian Federation. India and Russia have decided to form a joint working group to study laying a ‘hydrocarbon’ pipeline connecting the nations. Preliminary discussions […]
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 […]
India on Thursday achieved a major victory with the US agreeing to its proposal on food security issues at WTO, a development that will pave the way for a breakthrough to end the three-month long stalemate. The agreement comes two days ahead of the G-20 Summit in Australia, which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other world leaders including the US President Barack Obama. […]
