CALCUTTA -THE CITY THAT REFUSES TO DIE
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…
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R. K. NARAYAN-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…
TOURISM – A NEW LOOK AT OLD PLACES
Been away from India for some years? Planning to go back this year, family in tow, for a long vacation? If the answer’s ‘Yes’ both…
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
The Best of intentions go awry sometimes. That aphorism has struck home at INDIA TODAY where the effort to do a job better and more…
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
NEWS does not have to scream from the headlines to be news. In fact, it is probably one of the failings of the media that…
Hosokawa has final fleeting moment among blossoms
20 April 1994 Reuters News English (c) 1994 Reuters Limited TOKYO, April 20 (Reuter) – “Blossoms in the air; unable to stay longer; and still…
BankAmerica committed to India wholesale banking
10 December 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, Dec 10 (Reuters) – BankAmerica Corp will sell its retail banking business in…
ASIAN RICE SUPPLY PLAGUED BY SHORTAGES, SOARING PRICES
24 May 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited LOS BANOS, Philippines, May 24, Reuter – Asia’s rice producers, reeling from the effects of…
INDIA LOOKING TO SUBSTANTIAL AID FROM IMF, DONORS, OFFICIAL SAYS
27 August 1991 Reuters News English (c) 1991 Reuters Limited TOKYO, Reuter – India hopes to receive substantial financial aid from a consortium of donors…
INDIA WILL ASK IMF FOR MORE FUNDS – MINISTER
13 April 1992 Reuters News English (c) 1992 Reuters Limited TOKYO, Reuters – India intends to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for more contingency…
Asia satellite TV successes prompt local response
28 December 1992 Reuters News English (c) 1992 Reuters Limited TOKYO, Dec 28, Reuter – Satellite and cable television is approaching rice status as a…
Satellite TV no pie in the sky in Asian megamarket
28 December 1992 Reuters News English (c) 1992 Reuters Limited TOKYO, Dec 28, Reuter – Satellite and cable television is approaching the status of rice…
The awesome explosion of Asia’s airwaves As viewers tune in to the cornucopia, some governments worry about foreign encroachment
29 December 1992 The Globe and Mail C3 English All material copyright Thomson Canada Limited or its licensors. All rights reserved. Tokyo SATELLITE and cable…
Vietnam urges Bush to build on Clinton’s work
29 May 2001 Reuters News English (c) 2001 Reuters Limited HANOI, May 29 (Reuters) – Vietnam urged President George Bush on Tuesday to build on…
Satellite and cable TV catching on fast in Asia
4 January 1993 Straits Times English (c) 1993 Singapore Press Holdings Limited Some govts feel threatened by foreign encroachment on airwaves TOKYO – Satellite and…
Japan drags itself towards an open rice market
13 December 1993 Reuters News English (c) 1993 Reuters Limited TOKYO, Dec 13 (Reuter) – Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Masayoshi Takemura said Tokyo had every intention…
RBI will not allow rupee volatility – Chidambaram.
29 August 1997 14:33 Reuters News English (c) 1997 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, Aug 29 (Reuter) – Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the rupee’s…
India raises import duties to fight deficit
16 September 1997 Reuters News English (c) 1997 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, Sept 16 (Reuter) – India’s government, clearly alarmed by a fiscal deficit that…
‘Our Way Of Life’
We’re a long way from solving Britain’s race riddle QUITE A few of my trips to London have been shadowed by death. or the portent…
The Dauphin and the Figurehead
Timing is everything, and with a number of state elections soon, leading to the general election next year, the cynicism and opportunism are manifest. The…
Garam hawa
India must construct an enlightened climate change policy ‘FOOD PRICES set to rise as floods ruin crops’. ‘Prime Minister promises aid to flood victims’. Does…
CALCUTTA IS FOEVER
Thirty years ago, a dishevelled man leaned across and shouted at me in the smoke-filled, raucous Olympia bar on Calcutta’s Park Street: “Calcutta is forever!”…
MANILA UNLOADS SUGAR STOCKS TO CURB PRICE RISE
17 July 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, July 17 – The Philippines” Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) has ordered all its reserve…
MANILA COUP BID SEEN DAMAGING BUSINESS CONFIDENCE
28 August 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Aug 28 – The Philippines’ latest coup attempt, the most violent in President Corazon…
CABINET RESHUFFLE SEEN AS LAST CHANCE FOR AQUINO AS CONFIDENCE WANES
10 September 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Sept 10 – Philippine President Corazon Aquino has been given a final chance to…
LIKELY CHOICES SEEN FOR NEW MANILA ECONOMIC CHIEFS
16 September 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Sept 16 – A veteran development banker and the former head of one of…
AQUINO DROPS CLOSE AIDES TO END GOVERNMENT PURGE
17 September 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Sept 17, Reuter – Philippine President Corazon Aquino, under pressure from a disgruntled military,…
MANILA SHAKE-UP WILL RESTORE INVESTOR CONFIDENCE MINISTER
18 September 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Sept 18, Reuter – President Corazon Aquino’s shake-up of top posts in her government…
PHILIPPINE’S SAN MIGUEL PREDICTS BULLISH YEAR
22 September 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Sept 22 – Philippine food and beverage giant San Miguel is doing “magnificently well”…
Breakout Companies
Raghuram Govind Rajan is a lucky man. Two weeks into his new job as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India his friend Ben Bernanke,…
The Best Companies to Work for
At Business Today we write about companies all the time. Often, it is a top-down view. We meet the Chief Executive Officer, the senior members…
HUMAN RIGHTS A THORNY ISSUE IN ASIA DESPITE OFFICIAL SILENCE
30 September 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Sept 30, Reuter – Charges of widespread human rights violations in Asia met silence…
LAND REFORM, DEBT ACTION GATHER PACE IN PHILIPPINE CONGRESS
1 October 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Oct 1, Reuter – The Philippine Congress on Thursday pushed forward an ambitious program…
PHILIPPINE SENATE BILL PROPOSES DEBT COMMISSION
1 October 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Oct 1 – Members of the Philippine Congress want to set up a commission…
Cheat Funds
Sometimes India’s economy resembles a rambunctious teenager brought up short by a finger-wagging headmaster. Our finance minister can now recite with his eyes closed a…
GROWING LABOUR MILITANCY ADDS TO PHILIPPINES’ WOES
2 October 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Oct 2, Reuter – The number of strikes in the Philippines is down this…
PHILIPPINE PESO FALTERS AS SPECULATORS SNAP UP DOLLARS
13 October 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Oct 13, Reuter – The Philippine peso has been battered over the past month…
Ready For Battle
I remember sticking an aluminium one-yen coin and a copper one-US-cent coin to my computer screen in Tokyo around the mid-1990s and watching in fascination…
MANILA FUTURES EXCHANGE PLANS NEW CONTRACTS
14 October 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Oct 14 – The Manila International Futures Exchange Inc (MIFE) hopes to start trading…
The Luxury Issue
Looking down at my bowl of gazpacho at dinner one recent night. I realised that I do not own a single moustache spoon, with guards,…
PHILIPPINES REVISES DEBT/EQUITY PROGRAM
22 October 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Oct 22 – The Philippine government has made major changes in its debt-to-equity conversion…
MANILA RESOLVES ROW OVER PLANTERS PRODUCTS INC’S DEBT AHEAD OF DEADLINE
30 October 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Oct 30 – The Philippine government and creditors of a private fertiliser firm have…
ASCOPE MEETING
5 November 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Nov 5 – The heads of national oil companies of the Association of Southeast…
DOUBTS RUN HIGH AS MANILA RECOVERY FLATTENS OUT
11 November 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Nov 11 – Near the end of her second year in office, Philippine…
PHILIPPINE TRADE GAP WIDER THAN EARLIER REPORTED
19 November 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Nov 19 – National Statistics Office (NSO) figures show the Philippines’ trade deficit stood…
PHILIPPINE DEBT ACCORD AGAIN IN JEOPARDY
20 November 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Nov 20 – The Philippines’ restructuring of 13.2 billion dollars of foreign debt has…
PHILIPPINES TO BORROW SUGAR FROM THAILAND TO MEET SUDDEN RISE IN DEMAND
20 November 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Nov 20 – The Philippines will borrow between 30,000 and 100,000 tonnes of…
Watch Your Step
Three economists are gazing at a glass half full of water. The optimist sees a glass half full. The pessimist sees a glass half empty.…
PHILIPPINES CENTRAL BANK CURBS DOLLAR TRADING
24 November 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Nov 24 – The Philippines has moved to defend Its foreign exchange reserves by…
PHILIPPINES EXPECTS MINIMAL U.S. SUGAR QUOTA CUT
25 November 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Nov 25 – The Philippines has been warned that the United States is planning…
ENVOY SAYS COMMUNIST ATTACKS WILL BOOST U.S.- PHILIPPINE TIES
25 November 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Nov 25, Reuter – The communist rebel killings of three Americans near a U.S.…
MUCH RHETORIC, FEW GAINS IN ASEAN COOPERATION.
13 December 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Dec 13 – South-east Asian leaders gather in Manila this week to try to…
ASEAN DEPLORES PROTECTIONISM, URGES DEBT SOLUTION
14 December 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Dec 14 – The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) criticised rising protectionism,…
JAPAN-ASEAN TRADE, INVESTMENT DECLINING
15 December 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Dec 15 – Japan’s trade and overseas investment with South-East Asia, which accounts for…
Are Indian CEOs Overpaid?
The day before this issue of Business Today hits news stands, America will vote for a new president. The day after you invest less than…
Deal Chahta Hai
A laughter club in Mumbai is forced to “zip it” because a humourless neighbour is disturbed, not long after a 63-year-old cartoon unleashes a cleansing…
IT’S THE ELECTION, STUPID
The economy is whirling around in a populist spiral Pranab Mukherjee is starting to look worryingly like a feckless heir squandering his generous inheritance while…
Prem Ji Is Back
By the time this issue of Business Today hits the news stands, voting for new governments in three Indian states will be completed. The seven-…
Buy Me, Buy Me Not
Stock markets and their behavior are an inexact science. Technical analysts will study head and shoulders patterns, Fibonacci retracements, stochastic oscillators and sundry chicken entrails…
The Best Companies To Work For
Know one’s onions” means to know one’s subject well. But do we really know why our economy fares as it does, how supply and demand…
Going Nowhere
I remember my first car with great fondness. It was a Fiat 1100D, and I crashed it barely a month after my wife and I…
Pester Power
Remember when mall meant a tree-shaded promenade in Shimla or one of those picturesque cantonment towns, and plastic was when your grandmother graduated from tin…
Do Not Miss trade Bus to India, PM tells S Africa
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told a group of senior Indian and South African businessmen on Monday that he was confident India can accelerate economic growth…
RESERVE BANK-MONEY TO BURN
Of all the functions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), there is one routine task crucial to the health of the economy: incinerating the…
TYRE PRICES – VASTLY OVER-INFLATED
Tyers are one essential commodity over which the Government seems to exert no control whatsoever. In the last six months prices have risen twice. And…
From Flood To Trickle
Large advertisements in Delhi newspapers-last fortnight announced that Mother Dairy was being forced to dilute the fat content of milk supplied to the capital’s citizens…
UTTAR PRADESH – PEACE OF THE GRAVEYARD
I know no one can do me no harm because happiness is a warm gun. Yes it is. Vishwanath Pratap Singh had cause to be…
UNTIL DEATH DO US PART
No Amount of civilised debate can take away from the savagery of the traditional Indian marriage. In the last few weeks, eight women have died…
SHARING LOSSES
Last week-end the seesaw battle being waged by Swraj Paul to take over Escorts and DCM slowed to a less suspenseful motion when the London-based…
THE TIGHTENING NOOSE
On Summer nights all over north India. people put out hundreds of thousands of cots in the open air to sleep on. Most of the…
Lemmings or Llamas?
The US is on life support, and Asian creditors led by China, which holds $1.16 trillion of US treasuries, control the intravenous drip. Asian central…
Most Powerful Women in Business
“In India, I See a Lot More Acceptance of Gender in the Workplace” Do you think the India-us CEO Forum you are a member of…
BANK THE RESERVE
The Reserve Bank Of INDIA (RBI) IS the best-run company in India: transparent, diligent, accountable, and (ostensibly) in dependent. Its official capital is a paltry…
HINDI-CHINI BUY BUY
Sushma swaraj said it simply in parliament in early august when she ruled out war with China over the Doklam plateau: “China has contributed to…
A FIRST-RATE PROBLEM
India’s economy is lurching like a car with two flat rear tyres. The monsoon has been better than expected: a bumper kharif crop is expected,…
KEEP THE BALLAST
Narender Modi’s first term in office will be bracketed by malodorous stand-offs with two governors of the Reserve Bank of India. The bad blood between…
Glass Half-Full?
We can hope that in the run-up to the next general election we will not suffer the type of jolts to our nervous systems that…
FUTURE TENSE
So let’s see: 2018 is supposed to be a good year for India. We have low inflation, the monsoon may be normal, manufacturing is finally…