Saudi Arabia’s shares retreated to the lowest level since March as the nation’s oil minister said no one should cut output to stem falling crude prices. Dubai’s measure declined. The Tadawul All Share Index (SASEIDX) lost 1.7 percent to 9,081.27 at the close in Riyadh, the lowest since March 3 and about 162 points away from entering a bear market. Samba Financial Group led the decline with […]
In its bid for the wearables market, Sony Corp. is developing a watch made out of electronic paper for release as soon as next year, reported Bloomberg. Although not yet officially announced, the move is considered a trial of the company’s new venture-style approach to creating products. The face and wrist band of the watch will be made from a patented material that lets the surface area […]
As so often in Britain, the Dutch case involves the system colluding with a dysfunctional and absent father Photo: ALAMY Anyone wishing to see just how shocking the behaviour of our “child protection” system can be should watch an utterly chilling video on YouTube (see below: “Kidnap of children from their mother by Dutch social services…”). It shows 11-year-old twins screaming in protest as they are seized by […]
To better its customer service, Comcast is pulling out at least some of the stops. One of the initiatives the cable giant is undertaking has to do with the frustration customers experience while waiting around for technicians who may or may not show up exactly during the two-hour window the company offers. And who wants to wait around for two hours, anyway? Comcast CEO Brian Roberts demonstrated […]
By Nantoo Banerjee War is not all about attack. History has shown that tactical retreat as a war strategy had succeeded in winning more wars by entrapping advancing enemy than the show of blind belligerence by a brigade. Unfortunately, the use of tact is not a very strong point of this last Lok Sabha poll defeated Sonia-Rahul led Congress party. Its leaders are speaking in babel of […]
NEW DELHI: The T S R Subramanian committee, constituted about three months ago to review laws related to environment and forest protection, has recommended some big-ticket changes to the rules and legislation. These include a complete overhaul of certain laws, special fast-track dispensation for power, mining and linear projects, self-certification of compliance by industry and diluting the powers of the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The committee’s […]
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 […]
By Kalyani Shankar Why is Prime Minister Narendra Modi wooing the Indian Diaspora? While Modi’s critics say that he is building up the brand Modi abroad, Modi is clear that with their support he could build a better image for himself. There are about 100 million Indians living abroad and he obviously feels that their power should be harnessed for the growth of India and for his […]
By Nora Chopra The erstwhile commerce minister in the UPA government Anand Sharma is the man to watch. Sharma who is known to be a man without roots is tipped to become the leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha if the present leader Ghulam Nabi Azad does not get re elected from any state by February next year. Congress leadership wanted to give Azad the Rajya […]
NEW DELHI: The government will soon relax the rules so that road developers can sell their completed or stuck project, which will free them up to invest in other road projects that have found few takers in recent years. The current rules say developers have to hold at least 26 per cent stake in highway projects, tying them to projects executed by them. The road ministry […]
Mumbai: The board of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Wednesday cleared big-bang market reforms, including a move to replace the two-decade-old insider-trading rules with the new prohibition of insider trading (PIT) regulations, and amending the existing delisting regulations. Additionally, Sebi approved new reforms in consent mechanism under which it will give entities found violating securities laws the option of settling the matter before the […]
NEW DELHI: The government is working on big-ticket financial package for about 1,30,000-mw thermal and hydro power plants worth over Rs 6,00,000 crore that are hit by severe funds crunch while continuing to face cost and time overruns. Officials said the Department of Financial Services will shortly recommend a series of steps to the Reserve Bank of India. These include lenders providing additional debt to […]
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 […]
New aircraft and fresh routes will help Dubai’s flagship carrier Emirates grow profit by no less than eight to ten percent in coming months, its president said on Wednesday. “We will continue to grow at a percentage which is never going to be less than about 8-10 percent, and that’s a conservative figure,” Tim Clark said on the sidelines of an aviation conference in Dubai. Clark warned […]
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 […]
By Ashis Biswas While prospects for improving Indo-Bangladesh relations have brightened following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s discussion with his Bangladeshi counterpart Ms Hasina Wazed on pending issues, working out the Teesta river water sharing arrangement may take some time. A strong indication to this effect was available in a section of Bangladeshi media recently. In an interview to a Dhaka-based website, former Indian High […]
NEW DELHI: Bids in the February 2015 spectrum auction are likely to skyrocket as the department of telecommunications (DoT) plans to auction just 800/900/1800 MHz spectrum bands, and not the vital 2100 MHz band spectrum that telcos were hoping for. Auctions for spectrum in the 2100 MHz band will take place only in May, and with no certainty about how much 2100 MHz spectrum would be available […]
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 […]
By Nantoo Banerjee Given the size of the country’s domestic market of goods and services, the prime minister’s vision of manufacturing in India is no doubt a very practical idea not only from the point of view of the scale of local consumption but also the opportunity it holds for the export of surplus production. No country can sustain an import-led economy forever. However, its success will […]
From L.S. Herdenia BHOPAL: Both the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress are in serious trouble. The reason is mounting discontent over the distribution of tickets for the three-tier urban bodies which will go to polls during the current month and also during December this year. How much serious situation is in both the parties can be appreciated by the headlines in a local English newspaper. The […]
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 […]
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 decision […]
