The end of campaigning in Amethi in a cacophony of anger, derogation, and obloquy was briefly leavened by “Twitter joining Rajinikanth.” The Superstar’s followers piled up at the rate of 20,000 an hour. Not even Narendra Modi, one of the Thalaivar’s first followers, could have matched that. Fantasy had trumped politics. As if in affirmation,…
One word summed up the five-week election: certitude. From the very beginning, most of us were certain that the National Democratic Alliance would win power. It is fairly certain that the Congress party will suffer its worst defeat in 16 general elections. Over 300,000 kilometres, 440 rallies, 1,350 holograms, 4,000 chai pe charchas, and a…
I was hard put on Wednesday to find an advertisement remembering Rajiv Gandhi on the anniversary of his assassination. It was a telling contrast with a few months ago when the newspapers were flooded, just before the elections were announced, with ads extolling UPA II’s achievements. Political parties do suffer huge losses, but nothing has…
The Rajyabhishek in the magnificent Rashtrapati Bhavan forecourt was a sight for sore eyes, and understandably some of us went ape even if we were not among the 4,000 people attending Narendra Modi’s oathtaking. It was still a modest event compared with the 1.8 million people who attended Barack Obama’s January 2009 inauguration. Talking about…
If you believe in signs and omens, all the days and dates this year coincide with 1947, our year of independence (I have Amitabh Bachchan to thank for this nugget). The movie “Great Expectations” was also launched in 1947. That fits in with the sentiment nationwide. The expectations are scary because we have dug ourselves…
It seemed like the rhyming slogans, the election jingles, and the grandiloquence of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s manifesto were all that we needed to shake us out of our psychic numbing during the past few years. Alliteration hit you everywhere you turned. Narendra Modi told a small audience last Sunday that we needed to ramp…
Three weeks and counting, and besides a bit of soft power-mongering there is no flurry of executive actions to take away one’s breath. Our impatience is understandable, but then the new dispensation is taking its lumps. Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned party workers in Goa that we will have to swallow bitter medicine if we…
One of my prized possessions is a fossilised limpet, a kind of sea snail that attaches itself very, very tightly to rocks. The fossil must be hundreds of thousands of years old. It must have been prised off a rock with some force, the kind that is trying to get many of our privileged leaders…
To begin with, Modi is under microscopic watch and Deng never was. Modi has a good majority in the lower house of Parliament, but that does not mean lawmakers will blindly rubber-stamp his legislative efforts. If you do the arithmetic the National Democratic Alliance stands little chance of a majority in the Rajya Sabha, even…
Our members of Parliament sowed the wind in the 15th Lok Sabha and are reaping the whirlwind in the 16th Lok Sabha. The last Lok Sabha worked only for 61 per cent of its scheduled time, the worst in the past half-century. The Bharatiya Janata Party was in very aggressive opposition to the United Progressive…
When a little girl named Topsy is asked in Uncle Tom’s Cabin if she knew who made her, she says “I expect I grow’d.” This Thursday, July 10, Arun Jaitley will declare financial independence when he unveils the Union Budget for 2014/15 without the Planning Commission breathing down his neck. True, the budget drafters in…
Change comes stealing in on padded feet in the Narendra Modi government, and change is starting to happen in the offices of his ministers. One of them told me that when he took office, at least eight officials had to sign off on any file that came to him for approval; he has cut that…
This weekend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Nepal on his third foreign trip in ten weeks. By the end of September, he will also have visited Japan and the United States. Looming large on his itinerary will be China, which he visited four times as Gujarat’s chief minister in his quest for investments.…
We are hopefully in the last of this summer’s dog days, and Sirius (or Svana as it is known in Hindu astrology) will glow a little less brilliantly in the hot night sky. Dog days are said to induce all sorts of mental upheaval, agitation, and unpleasantness. Perhaps that is why much of Europe wisely…
It was a very Hindu week, starting with Raksha Bandhan and ending with Janmashthami, and midway through we were treated to fireworks by Yogi Adityanath, the bold new face of the Bharatiya Janata Party. A five-time member of the Lok Sabha from Gorakhpur, he was just 26 when he won his first parliamentary seat in…
Somewhere, through the unbearable din of television and anti-social media this week, I saw one tweet that plaintively asked why we were hearing so much from everybody but not enough from Narendra Modi at the BRICS summit in Brazil. Our prime minister met the leaders of China, Russia, Brazil and South Africa, but coverage back…
It is a war without end, a no-win situation in which nobody can provide answers to some questions: How long will this go on? Which side will eventually prevail? What is the cost to the nation in money, matériel, men?
This was has no name. It is more an endless series of skirmishes than a sustained military confrontation. Yet, this war has been raging intermittently for 26 years in Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram.
Dhanbad’s dreaded Mafia gangs were riveting topics of conversation last fortnight, and for different reasons. Film actor Shatrughan Sinha, with the blessings of the ruling Congress(1), launched a film on the Mafia, swamping the town’s hotels with an entourage of 250. Sinha was not being foolish in filming so dangerous a subject-his chief patron is Laliteshwar Prasad Sahi, Bihar’s health and family welfare minister. And Union Irrigation Minister Kedar Pandey travelled all the way to Dhanbad to inaugurate the shooting of the film.
New Delhi, May 13 (Reuters) – Pakistan’s test launch of its longest-range missile last month triggered this week’s series of underground nuclear tests by India, a senior Indian official said on Wednesday.
In a briefing for Western news agencies hours after India stunned the world with two more underground nuclear blasts, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, set forth the rationale for the tests in unambiguous terms.
“No more tests are planned,” he said.
Calcutta, India, June 15 (Reuters) – The leader of the world’s oldest democratically elected communist government looked back on his 20 years in power, and said he was proud of his achievements in a “capitalist feudalist” society. Jyoti Basu, the 82-year-old chief minister of India’s West Bengal state, told Reuters in an interview late on Saturday…
New Delhi, Dec 8 (Reuters) – India’s Gujarat state aims to be a primary focus for foreign investors, particularly in infrastructure like ports, power and roads, the leader of the west coast province said on Monday. “The word industrialization is humming in Gujarat’s air. Above all the government is investor-friendly,” Chief Minister Dilip Parikh told…
It’s hard to be a couch potato in India because (a) most homes have stiff, unyielding sofas; (b) it’s not easy to set yourself up with a six-pack of beer and a bag of chips unless you go on a major shopping expedition; (c) your wife wants to watch Saraswatichandra threatened by a lynch mob…
MANILA, March 15, Reuters – A 288 million dollar syndicated loan for the Philippines Long Distance Telephone Co marks a major initiative by Manila’s commercial bank creditors to recycle existing debt, bankers said. BOT International (HK) Ltd, Citicorp International Ltd and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp are lead managing the loan. Syndication started…
Nowhere else in India do people engulf you as they do in Calcutta. From the moment you step off your train or plane, and begin the ride into the city, you will be surrounded by hundreds of thousands of them. Your car or taxicab will plough into the slow crowds like some tropical icebreaker. The…
INFORMATION & BROADCASTING MINISTER L.K. ADVANI
‘I Am Not Happy with The Pattern of Newspaper Ownership’
Transindia: Mr. Advani, many people feel today that the Janata Government’s image is quite clean, and that it is innately decent, but that its performance has been quite poor. Would you comment on that?
L.K. Advani: This impression is erroneous, though if people hold that impression, I wouldn’t blame them because we came into office in a situation in which the people expect- ed wonders from us.
Transindia: Mr. Chandra Shekhar, do you think you have one of the most thankless jobs in the country today, what with having to build up a party composed of such varied components as the Janata is?
Chandra Shekhar: I agree that we have had to create a party from scratch. But I would not say that my job is thankless. There are certain advantages which one cannot ignore and there are many difficulties, too.
The Man From Malgudi It took me some time to discover Rasipuram Krishna Swami Narayan’s house. Yadavagiri, the suburb of Mysore City, where Narayan stays, is an incredibly quiet area, with long, neat streets, tree-shaded bungalows lining them. It was late afternoon, and the neighborhood was just emerging from its siesta. “R. K. Narayan?” asked…
‘One has to learn new competencies’ Few of us know that KUMAR MANGALAM BIRLA, Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, produced the critically acclaimed Hindi movie Black. Or that he has taken up pistol shooting as a hobby. Or that his teenage son is a keen photographer, but he knows a thing or two about…
Is Drinking A Ritual? Then I Think It Is Better to Close Our Diplomatic Missions! The appointment is at 1 pm at the Prime Minister’s Office in South Block. These imposing stone buildings, a few hundred yards away from Rashtrapati Bhavan, contain the offices of most of India’s government leaders. A surprisingly courteous Reception Officer enters…
The Government Is Helping Create A Privileged Class!’ Professor C.N. Vakil, eminent economist, formerly Director, School of Economics and Sociology, University of Bombay, and Director, Central Board, Reserve Bank of India: “The Janata government was suddenly thrust into power, and there was hardly any coherence between the various constituents of the Party. So decisions were…
‘My view has always been I don’t care about the topline’ Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy has seen it all: bootstrapping an enterprise with what is loose change today, going on sales calls riding pillion on a Vespa scooter, walking away from a GE deal because it was leaving little profit on the table, setting…
“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.” – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Gandhi must have been passing through an extremely clairvoyant phase when he came up with this statement in the Thirties. In the thirty years that have passed since Jawaharlal Nehru was sworn in as the first Prime Minister…
Poor Manmohan Singh is caught between the Pros and the Cons. The Pros in the Opposition are telling the prime minister, who has never seemed sullied by money politics, that he should be resigning. The Congress, led by A. Raja, is telling him that he is allegedly complicit in the 2G scandal. The sad part…
Eighteen hours after Haryana Governor Ganapatrao Devji Tapase committed the most undemocratic faux pas in India’s political history, he was cowering on a sofa in the Chandigarh Raj Bhavan’s large reception hall. “This is Haryana!” yelled apoplectic Lok Dal MLAs, eyes blood-shot, neck veins bulging, pressing around the diminutive Tapase in a knee-touching, eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation.…
Been away from India for some years? Planning to go back this year, family in tow, for a long vacation? If the answer is ‘Yes’ to both questions chances are you’d like to meet old friends, and relatives; to visit remembered places; most of all, you’d love to ‘do the country’—a trans-subcontinental jaunt to catch…
CONGRESS PARTY PRESIDENT- BRAHMANANDA REDDY “We Will Return to Power Soon” Transindia: Mr. Reddy, many people feel that the Congress Party has had a great past, but does not have a great future. Would you like to comment on that? Brahmananda Reddy: That the Congress Party had a great and glorious past is accepted by…
“Going in quest there of, one of our Soldiers, a Youth, killed a Tigre-Royal; it was brought home by 30 or 40 Combies (Koonbee), the Body tied to a long Bamboo, the Tail extended…it was a Tigre of the Biggest and Noblest Kind, Five Feet in Length beside the Tail, Three and a Half in…
Violence is an unfortunate fact of life in Delhi University. That was bloodily emphasized on February 16 when Dilip Simeon, 32, history lecturer at Ramjas College, was savagely beaten up by six men on his way to work. The lecturer’s multiple fractures came as the flash-point of an acrimonious feud between college Principal Dr. Kartar…
Union Home Minister Prakash Chand Sethi has elevated the art of governance to a fine degree of pettifoggery. Political interference in the bureaucracy is not unusual, but Sethi is exhibited a penchant for intervention in personnel promotions. In the process, he has heightened the siege mentality of the Central Secretariat Service (CSS), which is constantly…
“I have said that we will never take to nuclear weapons even if this country is going to be destroyed in the absence of (such weapons). I will not take to it, even if the whole world takes to it.” …
So much is being written about political prisoners in India these days, that the layman might succumb to the temptation of focusing more on the issue than on its human aspect. Jayaprakash Narayan’s Prison Diary, as well as that of Snehlata Reddy, for instance, have offered some glimmer of the goings—on behind India prison walls.…
The Right Honorable Enoch Powell, PC, MBE, has been a major catalyst in racialist ferment for a long time now. Powell, who celebrated his sixty-fourth birthday on June 16, has had an illustrious career. He received his M.A. degree from Trinity College, Cambridge. Between 1937-39, he taught Greek at the University of Sydney, New South…
Optimism is good, but let’s not be foolhardy. It is good that we are feeling bucked up at the beginning OF 2018. Major economies expect growth in tandem for the first time since the global financial crisis of 2008. World trade is seen growing at a decent clip after two slow years. Commodity prices are firming…
6 January 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Jan 6 – The options available in solving the global debt crisis had broadened dramatically with U.S. government backing of a Mexican plan to retire a large part of its foreign debt, Philippine Finance Secretary Vicente Jayme said. “I feel that the Mexican package…
7 January 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Jan 7 – The Philippine government will issue treasury bills and notes totalling 29.8 billion pesos in 1988 and depend mainly on domestic resources to finance its projected budget deficit of 27.1 billion pesos, Finance Undersecretary Victor Macalincag said. The government planned to float…
17 January 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Jan 17, Reuter – Monday’s local elections are billed as President Corazon Aquino’s last step in returning the Philippines to democracy, but bloody campaigning has left many here wondering if there has been genuine change. Analysts polled by Reuters said the elections would bring…
13 February 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, Feb 13 (Reuters) – The resemblance to Indira Gandhi is eerie—the sari draped over the head, the dark glasses, the high-pitched oratory, the imperious wave of the hand. Even her signature “Jai Hind!” (Victory to India) at the end of every campaign…
19 January 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Jan 19, Reuter – The Philippines has emerged from a tumultuous year with democracy apparently firmly in place after Monday’s local elections, but there is no euphoria among analysts over the country’s economic prospects. The economy has turned in its best growth in seven…
14 February 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, Feb 14 (Reuters) – The leader of India’s main opposition party said on Saturday he was the target of a series of car bomb blasts that killed at least 31 people, wounded up to 100, and triggered rioting and arson in the…
20 January 1988 The Globe and Mail B24 English All material copyright Thomson Canada Limited or its licensors. All rights reserved. The Philippines has experienced its best growth in seven years, but it still faces a daunting array of problems. Analysts say President Corazon Aquino must now demonstrate that she can manage the economy. …
15 February 1998 The Washington Post A30 Copyright 1998, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved The leader of India’s main opposition party said today he was the target of a series of car-bomb blasts that killed 32 people, wounded as many as 100 and triggered rioting and arson in the city of Coimbatore. The…
22 January 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Jan 22, Reuter – The United States is committed to helping the Philippines achieve economic recovery by stepping up investments, keeping its doors open to imports, and maintaining the flow of aid, Ambassador Nicholas Platt said on Friday. He told a meeting of American…
16 February 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, Feb 16 (Reuters) – Indian voters queued up early on Monday to cast their votes as the world’s largest democracy launched the first phase of a mid-term election that is widely predicted to return another hung parliament. At least 250 million adults are…
22 January 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Jan 22 – Sugar industry officials said the Philippines might not be able to sell extra sugar to the U.S. because the U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) was delaying the issue of guidelines for a re-export plan approved by the U.S. Congress. Sugar Regulatory Administration…
22 February 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, Feb 22 (Reuters) – “Watch this space.” The website of India’s 112-year-old Congress party promises to introduce the “most popular, most charismatic and most dynamic political figures” in India—but there are no names. “This section will be up soon,” the page says limply.…
25 January 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Jan 25 – Developing nations are more likely to attract foreign investment by easing curbs on share ownership and employment of expatriates than through incentives such as tax holidays, said William Ryrie of the International Finance Corp, a soft-loan arm of the World Bank. …
1 March 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, March 1 (Reuters) – Indians waited uneasily on Sunday for official results from a drawn-out election that looks set to confirm their worst fears of more political instability in a hung parliament. State television Doordarshan forecast large gains for the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya…
27 January 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Jan 27 – The yen’s rapid appreciation has led many Japanese companies to step up investments in the Asia-Pacific region, but the expansion has been tempered by a variety of obstacles in host countries and Japanese fears of an unchecked outflow of capital, a…
3 March 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, March 3 (Reuters) – India’s Bharatiya Janata Party appeared tantalisingly close on Tuesday to realising its dream of ruling this vast nation, but its leaders were not rapturous. With results in for 504 of the 545 seats in parliament’s lower house, the…
1 February 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Feb 1, Reuter – The Philippines is exploring ways of reducing its massive foreign debt burden and the two U.S. military bases in the country could be a possible bargaining lever, Finance Secretary Vicente Jayme said on Monday. Jayme told Reuters in an interview…
10 March 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, March 10 (Reuters) – India was set on Tuesday for a new coalition government led by Hindu nationalist leader Atal Behari Vajpayee. Vajpayee, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was invited by President K.R. Narayanan to form a new federal government, ending…
8 February 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Feb 8 – U.S. Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng is in a quandary over a sugar re-export plan passed by the U.S. Congress doubling the Philippines’ sugar exports to the United States this year, a senior U.S. official said. Philippine officials said at the weekend…
15 March 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, March 15 (Reuters) – Atal Behari Vajpayee received the green light on Sunday to form India’s next government, but his coalition is likely to be even more shaky than the one it replaced. Vajpayee’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will take power…
16 March 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, March 16 (Reuters) – The leader of India’s Hindu-dominated Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) embarks on Monday on the difficult task of cobbling together a cabinet coalition to head a shaky minority government. BJP supporters celebrated late into the night with sweets and fireworks…
10 February 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Feb 10, Reuter – A sword poised over a Gordian knot is the official symbol of the Philippine body charged with selling about 6.8 billion dollars in bad debts accumulated by the country’s two major government banks. “That’s an appropriate symbol for the work…
16 February 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Feb 16 – A stream of unsettling news from the Philippines has held back many potential small and medium-sized European investors, European Chamber of Commerce secretary-general Christian Roehr told Reuters. Roehr said several large European multi-nationals had long been in the Philippines and “are…
16 February 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Feb 16, Reuter – West German Minister of Economics Martin Bangemann is expected to explore ways of expanding trade and investment ties with the Philippines in talks here this week, a West German diplomat said on Tuesday. Hans-Wilhelm Verbeek, First Secretary in the West…
19 February 1988 Reuters News (c) 1988 Reuters Limited English MANILA, Feb 19 – The Philippines plans to speed up its sluggish debt/equity swap program, Central Bank Governor Jose Fernandez said. “Our policy is to get rid of the large backlog,” he told a news conference. “We think the people who have applied deserve to…
19 February 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Feb 19 – The Philippines’ 27.8 billion dollar foreign debt makes it a bit player in attempts to find solutions to the debt crisis and Manila prefers to let large debtors take the initiative, Central Bank Governor Jose Fernandez said. “I think anybody who…
8 March 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, March 8, Reuter – The Philippines will have a 1989 deficit of 28.5 billion pesos on a projected budget of 190 billion, Budget Secretary Guillermo Carague said. He told Reuters this compares with a projected deficit of 27.1 billion pesos for the 1988 budget…
19 March 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, March 19 (Reuters) – Hindu nationalist leader Atal Behari Vajpayee took office on Thursday as India’s new prime minister at the head of a minority coalition government. Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and over a dozen regional allies will have to face a…
3 May 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, May 3 (Reuters) – India’s defence minister said on Sunday China had built a sophisticated electronic surveillance base in Myanmar’s Coco Islands and was beefing up airfields in Tibet to take supersonic fighters. “China has installed sophisticated electronic surveillance equipment in the Coco…
11 May 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, May 11 (Reuters) – India’s three underground nuclear tests on Monday were heralded by plentiful portents and a steady rise in the political temperature on the subcontinent. One day before he took power in March, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee served notice…
9 March 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, March 9, Reuter – Fewer staff members taking fewer siestas may help the Philippines boost South-East Asia’s poorest tax-collection effort, Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Bienvenido Tan said on Wednesday. Tan told Reuters the country’s tax revenues as a ratio of gross national product…
11 May 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, May 12 (Reuters) – India prepared on Tuesday to face the world’s shock and dismay over its three underground nuclear tests, and its faltering government appeared to have won sweeping domestic backing for its bold and defiant step. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya…
12 May 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, May 12 (Reuters) – India was engulfed by waves of international anger and revulsion on Tuesday, but its leaders dug in their heels and appeared ready to pay the price for audaciously stepping over the nuclear threshold. Monday’s stunning trio of underground nuclear…
14 May 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, May 14 (Reuters) – India woke up on Thursday to the first full day of biting sanctions ordered by a furious United States after a series of underground nuclear tests provoked outrage from around the world. Global condemnation continued to rain down on…
17 May 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, May 17 (Reuters) – “If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst forth at once in the sky, that would be like the splendour of the Mighty One…I am become Death, the shatterer of worlds.” These words from the Hindu…
27 May 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, May 27 (Reuters) – India’s nuclear tests alone will not make the country a major power unless twinned with rapid economic development, Defence Minister George Fernandes said on Wednesday. “I believe that India has remained a very soft state, soft in every sense…
27 May 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, May 27 (Reuters) – In June 1976, after a year in hiding, George Fernandes was arrested on Charges of waging war against the state and paraded in manacles before the cameras. The firebrand chairman of India’s Socialist Party was accused of being a…
29 May 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, May 28 (Reuters) – The Indian government reacted calmly on Thursday to news of Pakistan’s tit-for-tat nuclear tests and said Islamabad had forced New Delhi to embark on the road to nuclear deterrence. “India is ready to meet any challenge,” Prime Minister Atal…
29 May 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, May 28 (Reuters) – India’s defence minister said on Thursday he did not think nuclear deterrence would help resolve the dispute over Kashmir and dismissed Pakistan’s nuclear tests as “ping-pong balls”. Asked if “equal deterrence” would pave the way for India and Pakistan…
18 March 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, March 18, Reuter – Volatile penny oil stocks have raised trading on Manila’s two exchanges to fever pitch this year, and analysts said the trend seemed likely to continue. “Rumours are the heart and soul of the (oils) market. It’s a casino,” Noel De…
22 March 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, March 22, Reuter – Falling sugar and coconut production is expected to lead to little or no overall growth in Philippine agriculture in 1988, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in its annual report on the Philippines. It forecast overall growth of 0.5 pct…
29 May 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, May 29 (Reuters) – India and Pakistan must now sit down and talk peace seriously, Indian analysts said on Friday, adding they saw little chance of a new Cold War on the volatile subcontinent after Pakistan’s nuclear tests. “Deterrence” and “nuclear arms race”…
2 June 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, June 2 (Reuters) – India’s Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha put up a spirited defence of his “investor-friendly” budget on Tuesday and said he was not unduly worried about inflation so long as the economy grew strongly. In an interview with Reuters Television a…
25 March 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, March 25, Reuter – Philippine banks have largely recovered from years of crisis, but high intermediation costs still constrain lending, bankers and analysts say. The industry’s total assets grew to 259.9 billion pesos at end-1987 from 236.4 billion a year earlier, according to a…
3 June 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, June 3 (Reuters) – India’s fiscal targets for the current year are not just a “hope and a prayer” even if there is a trade-off between growth and Inflation, the government’s chief economic adviser said on Wednesday. Shankar Acharya told Reuters he did…
3 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 3, Reuter – Coup leader Colonel Gregorio Honasan’s escape from captivity on Saturday has dramatically revived threats to Philippine President Corazon Aquino’s power, analysts said. “Honasan’s escape couldn’t have occurred at a less convenient moment for Aquino,” an Asian diplomat said. Aquino is…
4 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 4, Reuter – The Philippines’ gross national product (GNP) is expected to expand by 6.1 pct in 1988 after 5.1 pct growth in 1987, the Central Bank said in its annual report. Key sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, mining, construction and services are…
18 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 18, Reuter – China is negotiating with the Manila-based Asian Development Bank for six loans this year, a Chinese official said on Monday. Li Dongqun, alternate executive director on the ADB board, told Reuters in an interview that Peking wanted to move slowly…
18 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 18, Reuter – Filipino and foreign businessmen have launched a sharp attack on the Philippines’ 20-month-old debt/equity swap program, charging it is too restrictive and arbitrary and actually deters investors. “Disillusioned investors are the worst possible advertisement for the Philippines,” said a statement…
20 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 20, Reuter – Japan’s attempt to use the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to recycle part of its 30 billion dollar private-sector surplus is not meeting with much success, banking officials and diplomats said. Japan, with 15 pct of the 47-member ADB’s 22.8…
20 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 20, Reuter – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is still awash with funds, with liquid assets of 4.5 billion dollars, 74.2 pct of its undisbursed loan balances, at the end of 1987, Treasurer Alan Gill said in an interview. This compares with liquid…
26 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 26, Reuter – The Philippines has received pledges of aid totalling 66 million dollars from the United States, the Netherlands and Italy to support its ambitious land reform program, Agrarian Reform Secretary Philip Juico told Reuters. The broad outline of the program was…
27 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 27, Reuter – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has found it difficult to identify suitable projects to assist in China because of Peking’s centrally planned economy, bank president Masao Fujioka told Reuters in an interview. China became the 47-member bank’s newest member in…
27 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 27, Reuter – Taipei has ended a two-year boycott of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) but its dispute over a name-change by the bank continues, Central Bank Governor Chang Chi-Cheng said on Wednesday. The boycott was triggered in 1986 when China was admitted…
27 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 27, Reuter – The Asian Development Bank annual meeting starting on Thursday is likely to be dominated by a power-struggle between Japan and the United States, officials said on Wednesday. ADB officials said the three-day meeting would also be marked by the presence…
28 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 28, Reuter – South Pacific island nations want to form a new regional development bank to increase their access to financial resources, a Western Samoan official said on Thursday. The idea was put to the management of the Asian Development Bank on the…
28 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 28, Reuter – The Asian Development Bank’s annual meeting opened with a call from Philippine President Corazon Aquino to keep the bank’s leadership Asian and to temper its policy prescriptions. “(The bank) must continue to view banking, especially development banking, as a relationship…