■ Stocks
Infosys to join NASDAQ-100
Infosys Technologies, India's second-largest software firm, said it was to be included on the NASDAQ-100 index from yesterday, putting it among the biggest listed tech companies in the world. The Bangalore-based firm said in a press statement to the Mumbai stock exchange that inclusion in the closely followed index brings it into the mainstream of globally recognized software firms. "We are delighted to be part of the NASDAQ-100 index," chief financial officer V. Balakrishnan of Infosys said in the statement. The inclusion comes after the company converted 30 million shares worth US$1.6 billion held by Indian investors to US depositary receipts traded on the NASDAQ.
■ Macroeconomics
Inflation speeds up in China
China's consumer inflation picked up speed last month, rising by 1.9 percent from a year earlier, official data showed yesterday. The figure, published by the National Bureau of Statistics, compared with a 1.4 percent increase in October. The consumer price index, the country's main measure of inflation, rose 1.3percent in the first 11 months of the year, the bureau said in a statement. Consumer prices for the full year are also likely to rise 1.3 percent, Ma Kai (馬凱), the head of the National Development and Reform Commission, was quoted as saying in the state-run China Daily newspaper yesterday. The pick-up in inflation last month was led by higher prices for food, which still take up a large proportion of the average Chinese consumer basket. Prices of food rose 3.7 percent last month, with non-food items up just 1 percent, the bureau said.
■ Credit
ADB lends US$1bn to India
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said yesterday it is lending US$1 billion, its biggest ever regular loan, to India to improve credit facilities for its hard-up farmers. The program aims to reform India's cooperative credit structure, the Manila-based ADB said in a statement. Set up 102 years ago, the cooperative structure has evolved into one of the largest rural finance systems in the world. However, it now suffers from poor governance, weak portfolio management and recurring losses, the ADB said. "The weaknesses of the cooperative credit structure have immense adverse economic, social and political impacts on the rural sector," said Kunio Senga, director-general of the bank's South Asia department.
■ Energy
Shell revises Sakhalin offer
Royal Dutch Shell PLC has made a new offer to OAO Gazprom on terms for the state-controlled Russian natural gas giant joining a Shell-controlled energy project off the Pacific island of Sakhalin, a Russian news agency reported yesterday. Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov was quoted by Interfax as saying that Shell chief executive Jeroen van der Veer made "a number of proposals" to Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller about the massive liquefied natural gas project at a meeting on Friday, but he gave no details.
■ Casinos
Genting unveils funding plan
Genting International Ltd said yesterday the development of its S$5.2 billion (US$3.38 billion) casino-resort on Singapore's Sentosa Island will be one-third funded by equity. Term loans will provide the balance of the funding for the Resorts World at Sentosa project, the company said in a statement.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique