Indian consumer firms eye Africa as next growth driver
MUMBAI/JOHANNESBURG - Indian consumer goods makers are scrambling to buy assets in Africa, applying their knowledge of challenging, lower-income markets to a continent where spending power is on the rise.
Tapping Africa opens up new growth avenues for cash-rich Indian makers of personal care products such as soaps, shampoos, hair and skin care products, with rising costs and fierce competition squeezing profits at home.
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Karzai opens Afghan parliament, taunts West
KABUL - Afghan President Hamid Karzai inaugurated parliament on Wednesday, ending weeks of political infighting, but took a dig at the West saying "foreign interference" had been a serious problem.
Western diplomats called the event a "big day" for Afghanistan, but the comments exposed the often frayed ties between Karzai and his backers and in private officials warned of a bigger battle ahead between the president and his new parliament.
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India food inflation inches up in mid-Jan
NEW DELHI - India's food inflation remained sticky in mid-January on higher onion and fruit prices while fuel inflation eased, but it is unlikely to affect expectations of further rates increases by the central bank in coming months.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which on Tuesday raised policy rates for the seventh time since last March, had said the balance of risks had tilted towards stronger inflation and that it was ready to respond if price pressures increased.
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US risks wasting ${esc.dollar}12 bln in Afghan army aid-report
WASHINGTON - The United States risks squandering more than ${esc.dollar}11 billion if it does not come up with adequate plans for building and maintaining facilities for Afghanistan's growing security forces, a U.S. watchdog said.
A new audit released on Wednesday by the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, or SIGAR, said U.S. officials working to build up local police and soldiers, a key task in ensuring Afghanistan does not succumb to the Taliban when foreign forces withdraw, had failed to provide long-term construction plans for some 900 local security facilities. (Compiled by World Desk Asia, +65 6870-3815)
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