SAUDI ARABIA. Jadwa Investment, the Saudi asset manager focused on Sharia’ah compliant mutual and private equity funds, has just issued its Quarterly Global Oil Market Update (Q3 2014). Summary of the report · The combination of accelerating US supply, weaker than expected global demand, stabilization in geopolitics, and an appreciation of the dollar, led to oil prices dropping by 7.3 percent in Q3 2014, to an average of […]
ABU DHABI // Concerns about the UAE’s food security should not be believed, according to the chief executive of a food retail company. Wisal Ahmed, who heads the Alam Group, which owns the eponymous supermarkets, said the country had sufficient resources to take care of any unforeseen circumstances, whether man-made or natural. A UK-based research centre, Chatham House, published a report in November last year in which […]
The planned merger of the United Arab Emirates’ two main stock exchanges, home to the second-best performing share gauge in the world, will take more time to complete, according to a Dubai government official. “It’s still on the table,” Mohammed Al Shaibani, chief executive officer of Investment Corp. of Dubai, the emirate’s main state-owned holding company, said in an interview today at a Dubai conference. “We were […]
Regal position: escorting the Queen to Ladies Day at Royal Ascot Photo: Rex Features Forget Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs. This week, we have had a glimpse behind the scenes of a real-life royal household, with the news that The Queen has been advertising for someone to remove chewing gum from the floors and furniture at Holyrood House. Her Majesty’s chosen cleaner must be available to prise pink […]
By Kalyani Shankar While there could be debate about the success of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s five day visit to the US this week, there can be no doubt that he had conquered the 3 million strong Indian American community. The Madison square garden rock show on Sunday was a shining example to prove this. Although his meeting with the US President Obama was spent on substantive […]
By Subrata Majumder At the time when India unveiled its much hyped “Make in India” dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, China silently unleashed its “Made in China” programme to re-build its manufacturing hub. “Make in India” and “Made in China” sound similar in their perspectives. But, conceptually they are different. While “Make in India” was a call to establish world’s biggest manufacturing hub and increase share […]
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The cohesion of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) has been severely dented with the Kerala Congress (M) openly hinting at the possibility of the party having tie-ups with ‘like-minded’ parties outside the UDF. The KC(M)’s latest warning came in an interview party president and Finance Minister K. M. Mani gave to a TV channel. In the interview, Mani said that the […]
Nicolas Parasie for The Wall Street Journal In the past six months, the United Arab Emirates’ official credit bureau has ramped up its efforts to procure information: it collected two years of financial records for every single retail customer of each financial institution in the country. That process involved digesting some 100 million transactions, half of which are now fully uploaded into the bureau’s data vault. Marwan […]
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 […]
