Gulf banks are feeling the pinch of rapidly shrinking corporate loan margins, with some predicting a bounce in lending rates as soon as the first half of 2015 as the escalating price war bites into profitability. Lenders are being forced to cut rates and loosen lending terms to secure business as local banks, flush with cash as their balance sheets recover from the global financial crisis, seek […]
By S. Sethuraman The Reserve Bank of India’s Fourth Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy Statement on September 30 does not offer any hint of monetary easing in the near future, again citing risks to lowering at present the policy lending repo rate from 8 per cent it has maintained since April, in the current fiscal year. This leaves all other policy rates and reserve ratios unchanged, (reverse […]
By Nantoo Banerjee Barely hours after Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaj Sharif harped before the world audience on its over-six-decade-old position, long discarded by India as ‘unacceptable’ and held ‘impractical’ by most nations deeply interested in peace in the region, that Kashmiris be allowed the right to ‘self-determination’ to decide whether or not to remain part of India, visiting Indian private channels were rushing to Pakistan’s National Security […]
By Surojit Mahalanobis It is better late than never. The news that the power minister Piyush Goyal has set up an inter-ministerial panel (IMC) to examine and move forward with effective allocation of the 214 coal blocks, after the Supreme Court’s recent order, is indeed acceptable. What is positive about the move is that the committee (IMC) would comprise engineers of power, steel, and mining sectors as […]
| By TAP Staff| A report titled Future of Travel by flight comparison website Skyscanner predicts that Lebanon will be the ‘new Dubai’ in a decade’s time. The report looks at how hotel rooms and holiday destinations could change over the next decade. It lists 50 destinations that could emerge as holiday hotspots over the next 10 years, ranking them according to the projected growth per annum […]
New home? Chelsea could move to Twickenham while Stamford Bridge is redeveloped Photo: PA YES, the sort of widespread disruption that once accompanied football matches is a thing of the past, says Jim White. The very idea of Chelsea fans arriving in Twickenham has apparently put some locals in a state of high anxiety. They are terrified for their hubcaps, petrified about their herbaceous borders, panicked about the […]
By Ashok B Sharma The likely face off between Indian and Chinese troops at the line of actual control (LAC) in Ladakh has been averted. Thanks to efforts of the Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her counterpart Wang Yi at the margins of the UN General Assembly. The Chinese troops have begun withdrawing from Chumar in Ladakh following the flag meeting between two sides. […]
ACT I. SCENE ONE A hotel in Northern England. Late morning. Ed, a 44-year-old politician, is posing for informal, behind-the-scenes photographs with his wife, Justine. He is due to make a speech in three hours’ time. It is being billed as the most important of his career. ED (talking like a ventriloquist, without moving his lips): Stop staring at my teeth, it’s making me feel self-conscious. JUSTINE […]
Turkish Kurds watched Kurdish forces battle with Islamic State militants across the border in Syria on Saturday. Turkey fears the fight against the Islamic State may embolden Kurdish separatists. By ANNE BARNARD and MARK LANDLER September 27, 2014 KARACA, Turkey — No American ally is closer to the threat of the Islamic State than Turkey, and no country could play a more important role in a coalition that President Obama is […]
Deloitte Middle East hires 700 new staff BEIRUT, 2 days ago Deloitte Middle East, a leading provider of audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services, hired 700 new people this year while continuing to deliver double digit growth, said the company’s chairman and chief executive. “The firm is also investing heavily in its internal systems and in developing world-class expertise in such areas as cyber security, Private […]
Stephen Fry has boasted of taking drugs in royal palaces and famous hotels Photo: REX FEATURES Someone once called Stephen Fry “a stupid person’s idea of what a clever person is like”. Which is unkind: there’s nothing wicked about being a bit stupid, or admiring celebrities who seem brainy and cuddly, or enjoying a faux-donnish, avuncular figure who admits his problems with depression and makes you feel as […]
A warning by Iraq’s prime minister that Islamist militants planned to attack New York City sent political leaders scrambling on Thursday to assure the public it was safe to ride the subways and travel the streets of the nation’s largest city. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio each had the same idea – take a subway ride to a busy […]
Demonstrators outside the Barbican make their views clear during a protest against ‘Exhibit B’ Photo: Demotix On Wednesday night, I was planning to visit the Barbican with a couple of artist friends, two African Americans from New York. We wanted to see Exhibit B – an installation which involves actors in various tableaux depicting the degradation and the horror suffered by the victims of the Atlantic slave trade. […]
Hackers have already launched attacks aimed at exploiting the Shellshock Bash bug, according to Security researchers at AusCERT and MalwareMustDie. That means administrators should patch vulnerable systems as soon as possible. Shellshock is the name given to a vulnerability that exists in GNU Bash (Bourne-Again Shell) versions 1.14 through 4.3. Unix and Linux systems — as well as the Mac OS X (which also uses bash) — […]
Demand for aircraft leasing is expected to stay steady. Aircraft lessors wary as new rivals crowd into aviation ISTANBUL, 1 days ago By Tim Hepher Aircraft leasing companies voiced confidence in steady jetliner demand, but warned new aviation investors that they may take a painful hit when central banks start unwinding their efforts to stimulate the economy. Deterred by poor returns elsewhere as interest rates remain at […]
When Apple’s new operating system debuted, some were wondering whether they should upgrade to iOS 8 right away or wait a little while to make sure the mobile operating system was stable. Others were confident the upgrade would be flawless. Now, Crittercism, a mobile analytics firm, is showing why some had pause. When Crittercism analyzed data across iOS users from September 17 to September 22, the firm […]
| By Peter Garnry| What is clear post the Alibaba IPO is that the market is presumably mispricing Yahoo. Basically, it does not make sense if we assume markets are rational. Yahoo closed at $40.93 last Friday but based on a sum-of-the-parts (SOTP) analysis the stock should trade closer to $45. The table below outlines the SOTP analysis behind Yahoo’s fair value. The company has $3,408 million […]
The gold price dropped on Monday September 22nd to USD 1212 and EUR 942. Dollar gold is close to retest its bottom for the third time since mid-2013, a price level which was seen only in the summer of 2010. For readers seeking to understand what is going on, we are providing a comprehensive view on the gold market. We take all perspectives into account: price and chart patterns, […]
|By TAP Staff| The success of Emaar’s malls IPO has prompted Nakheel to consider a flotation on the local stock market. Such a possibility was indicated by top Nakheel official Sanjay Manchanda, who spoke to reporters at the sidelines of Cityscape. “The market is definitely very receptive to Dubai IPOs now. The success of Emaar will be an encouraging sign for us. Should we decide to list […]
Just when you thought the drama was over. Apple is taking the iCloud hack that revealed naked selfies of celebrities seriously, adding new security tools to keep its cloud safe. But there’s still fallout from the early-September iCloud hack. Indeed, headlines report a new wave of naked photographs of celebrities leaked online. This wave includes movie star Gabrielle Union, pop star Rihanna, Disney Channel star Vanessa Hudgens, […]
Image: Bigstockphoto. For illustration purpose only How UAE’s private sector can improve Emiratisation DUBAI, 1 days ago There has been an increasingly competitive talent attraction landscape amongst UAE businesses for some time now, with many companies, particularly in the private sector, struggling to recruit enough Emirati nationals to fulfil goals laid out by the government. Gavin Smith, managing director of ReThink MEA, a specialist recruiter in the […]
David Cameron has said he will keep the Barnett Formula but Scotland must expect extra responsibility and any deal must be fair to all parts of the UK Photo: FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA/EPA The Scottish inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, coined the phrase “When one door closes, another opens”. His fellow Scots’ nail-biting rejection of independence shelves the debate on secession. But it prises open the possibility of […]
Do U.S. Internet users want the so-called “right to be forgotten” that’s been a hot topic in Europe? And is such a scenario plausible stateside? It appears those questions have very different answers. Europe’s highest court ruled last spring that individuals had the right to ask that certain online data deleted so that third parties could no longer trace them. Despite the ruling, several questions on the […]
In an effort to make open source security tools more user friendly, Google and Dropbox announced Thursday that they have teamed up with the Open Technology Fund to form “Simply Secure.” The goal of the new non-profit organization is to “help craft usably secure technologies and make them available for everyone.” This is the second time this week a major technology company has launched an open source […]
