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…
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JAPANESE COMPANIES STEP UP ASIA-PACIFIC INVESTMENT
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…
AQUINO AGAIN ON DEFENSIVE AFTER HONASAN ESCAPE
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…
MANILA’S DEBATED LAND REFORM PLEDGED 66 MLN DLRS
26 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 26, Reuter – The Philippines has received pledges of aid totalling 66 million…
JAPAN-U.S. TUSSLE LIKELY TO DOMINATE ADB MEETING
27 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 27, Reuter – The Asian Development Bank annual meeting starting on Thursday is…
AQUINO SAYS ADB LEADERSHIP SHOULD REMAIN ASIAN
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…
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…
Japanese says Indian bureaucracy very “inflexible”
24 July 1997 Reuters News English (c) 1997 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, July 24 (Reuter) – Japan is keen on expanding investment in India but…
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…
ASIAN STOCK MARKETS HUNT FOR INCENTIVES, DOLLAR WEAKENS VS MARK
17 September 1991 Reuters News English (c) 1991 Reuters Limited TOKYO, Reuter – Most Asian stock markets, casting around for fresh stimulus, weakened on Tuesday…
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…
JAPAN APPROVES $87 MILLION SPENDING PLAN
29 August 1992 Los Angeles Daily News Valley B2 English (Copyright 1992) The Japanese government Friday approved an $87 billion spending package – the nation’s…
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…
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…
Pound crashes in Tokyo, Asian stocks mixed
1 February 1993 Reuters News English (c) 1993 Reuters Limited TOKYO, Feb 1, Reuter – Currency speculators who sparked a fresh crisis in the European…
Japan breathes easier on yen but danger lurks
20 August 1993 Reuters News English (c) 1993 Reuters Limited TOKYO, Aug 20 (Reuter) – The Japanese government heaved a sigh of relief on Friday…
Japan’s economy sinks deeper into mire
14 September 1993 Reuters News English (c) 1993 Reuters Limited TOKYO, Sept 14 (Reuter) – Japan’s sickly economy has been contracting as its stubborn trade…
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…
Japan opposition leader said ready to press PM bid
15 April 1994 Reuters News English (c) 1994 Reuters Limited TOKYO, April 15 (Reuter) – A leading opposition politician is preparing to revolt against his…
India aims to give 6 pct of people phones by 2000
21 September 1994 Reuters News English (c) 1994 Reuters Limited TOKYO, Sept 21 (Reuter) – India’s new telecommunications policy will open the domestic market to…
Marxist says one-party rule in India is “finished”
15 June 1997 Reuters News English (c) 1997 Reuters Limited CALCUTTA, India, June 15 (Reuter) – India is not likely to see a return to…
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…
INTERVIEW-ADB chief not pessimistic over Yamaichi
24 November 1997 Reuters News English (c) 1997 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, Nov 24 (Reuters) – The collapse of Yamaichi Securities could signal the end…
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…
JAPAN PLEDGES MORE ECONOMIC AID FOR THE PHILIPPINES
3 June 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, June 3, Reuter – Japan will expand its assistance to the Philippines and encourage…
JAPAN SEES BETTER ECONOMIC TIES WITH PHILIPPINES
10 June 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, June 10 – Japan feels the political and economic situation in the Philippines has…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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.…
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…
TAKESHITA PLEDGES TO OPEN MARKETS TO ASEAN
15 December 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Dec 15 – Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita marked his first foreign trip by…
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…
TAKESHITA PROMISES TO SPEED AID TO PHILIPPINES
16 December 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Dec 16 – Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita promised President Corazon Aquino he would…
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…
Hello, Tomorrow
I had my epiphany on a Seoul subway in 2004. All around me, young men and women rode to work silently, mesmerised by television programmes…
Arriving in the 21st century
I Experienced my epiphany about consumer media a couple of years ago on a Tokyo subway When I lived in Japan in the mid- 1990s,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
TELLING NUMBERS
Look Carefully at all the Headlines, screaming or otherwise, that are popping up these days about corruption. How many of them feature women? Study after…
The Dog’s tail
There is no loophole that has not met an Indian taxpayer. A Hindi proverb says you can never straighten a dog’s tail (kutte ki poonch…).…