Record wheat, rice reports hint agriculture may buck economic trend

At a time when the pall of economic slowdown is hanging over everything from industrial production to exports and consumer goods sales, the agriculture sector — which contributes about one-fifth of India’s GDP — may just buck the trend.

Read full article here.

US Fed announces $800bn stimulus

The Federal Reserve is to inject another $800bn (£526.8bn) into the US economy in a further effort to stabilise the financial system.
Read full article here.

The sun sets on BHP's bid

An audacious attempt by BHP Billiton to get control of Rio Tinto has fallen apart.
Read full article here.

Crisis will provide opportunities

Siemens Chief Financial Officer Joe Kaeser says that the company would take steps to increase its productivity to deal with the financial crisis rather than investing heavily in capacity.

Read full interview here

Financial crisis affecting India, Asia: Experts

The global financial crisis is far from over and it would have a major impact on India, opined the experts during a panel discussion at IIM-Ahemadabd's Confluence-2008.

Read their views on when will India be affected most and when will it recover, here.

Let foreign law firms into India?

For side: It can help put our legal services on world map .
Against side: It calls for fine-tuning several issues.

The article is here.

India still an attractive PE destination?

The "for" side says: Long-term investments will be rewarded.

The "against" side says: They’ve become more choosy about targets.

Read the debate here.

IMF favours new Bretton Woods Pact for financial stability

IMF has sough the support of the G-20 for a new Breton Woods Agreements, a reformed global financial architecture, to deal with the current financial turmoil and prevent its occurrence in the future.
For a primer on Bretton Woods read this wiki article.

For the new Bretton Woods read this article.

SBI, ICICI say no to RBI's dollars

The country’s two largest banks do not need to borrow dollar funds from the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) special window that was provided on Friday. Both State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI have excess liquidity in their overseas branches.
Read full article here.

Foreign B-school grads scout for jobs in India

The grave financial crunch in the West triggering an inclination of the top foreign B-school graduates towards the Indian companies for job opportunities.

Read the full article here.

Corus trims 400 jobs in UK, Ireland steel distribution

Tata Steel may have firmly ruled out any job cuts in India, but the steelmaker hasn’t been able to stave off the impact of the ongoing slowdown at its international unit Corus.
Read full article here.

New accounting prices: Taj Mahal at Re 1

The government is finalising a road map to move to a system of “accrual-based accounting” from the current cash-based accounting system to better reflect the nation’s assets and liabilities in its annual financial statement. The new system is meant to capture some of the government’s liabilities and assets that now find no mention in the annual budget.
Read the article here.

Corporate Layoffs: The Worst is Yet to Come

We are very sorry in sounding so gory, but truth has to be reported.

A new analysis by Goldman Sachs sounds a somber tone. It suggests that the downturn is still in its incipient phase, and that job losses could surpass 2 million in 2009, with unemployment climbing to 8%. The report suggests that over the next year, "lagging" sectors of the economy — like construction, manufacturing, financial services and retail — are likely to incur many of the coming losses. Necessities like health care will remain steady, and "Hollywood should do O.K.".

Read this article on lay-offs here.

China, Emerging Asia to Fight `Protectionist' Obama

Asia's leaders, led by an ascendant China, say they hope Barack Obama didn't really mean those campaign promises to protect American trade. And if he did, they are in better shape to object than ever before.

Read full article here.

Nannies Worse Off Than Hedge-Fund Guys in Rout

As Japan and the U.S. grapple with the ``R'' word, or recession, the Philippines is dealing with one of its own.

For Asia's 13th-biggest economy, the ``R'' word is remittances.

Read more here.

Will commodity exchanges help farmers in India, Ethiopia?

Can commodity exchanges change the fate of farmers in any country? This is a question which has been discussed world over by governments, analysts, traders and farmers for years. In fact, the answer to this query depends on which country you are talking about.
Find the article here.

Obama-Biden team will take India-US relationship to next level

"Though there is a perception that the India-US relationship would go backwards (under Obama presidency), there is no reason to think that way," Chatterjee, national financial chair of Asian Americans for Obama, told IANS after the Illinois Senator was declared winner of the presidential election. Read article here.

Interbank lending rates in US keep falling

Lending rates between banks in the U.S. fell further on Wednesday and to their lowest level in nearly four years as lower interest rates and government efforts to shore up confidence in the banking system continue to filter through. Read more here.

Barack Obama's victory: Three lessons for business

"This column is not about why John McCain should have won. The election is over. And while we believe John McCain is a great American whose economic platform made better sense for business, especially in terms of free trade, tax policy, and job creation, we look forward with hope to the Presidency of Barack Obama", say Jack and Suzy Welch. Read full article here.

Indian stainless consumption set to soar - ISSDA

Steel Insight reported that the stainless steel industry of India is likely to witness a boom owing to the development of some of the largest infrastructure projects on the cards.

The article.