Tough job kicks off for India’s new governor September 4, 2013 INDIA’S new central bank governor Raghuram Rajan arrived at his new post yesterday, beginning the difficult job of organising monetary policy for the country’s struggling economy. The country has suffered from a rapid depreciation of the rupee over recent months, with foreign investment leaving the country as expectations for the tapering of the Federal Reserve’s [...]
Private pensions have become a piggy bank for spendthrift states September 10, 2013 FIVE years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and the fallout from the financial crisis is far from over. Across Europe, private pensions have become a targets for politicians seeking to reduce the pressure to rein in spending and manage excessive debt after the crisis. While governments are encouraging or forcing citizens to participate in [...]
Ex-Rio chief Tom Albanese joins Vedanta September 16, 2013 TOM ALBANESE has been hired for a senior advisory role at Vedanta Resources, returning to the mining sector after being ousted from Rio Tinto earlier this year. The India-focused resources group said yesterday that Albanese has been hired as chairman of Vedanta Resources Holdings, a subsidiary of the FTSE 100 company. In his new role, [...]
Luton Airport snapped up by Aena and Axa August 1, 2013 LUTON Airport is set to expand after the rights to run the airport were snapped up by Spanish infrastructure group Aena and Axa’s private equity arm. Aena has teamed up with Axa to buy the remaining 90 per cent from fellow Spanish firm Abertis in a deal worth £433m. State-owned Aena already held 10 per [...]
Competition Commission orders Ryanair to sell off Aer Lingus stake August 28, 2013 The Competition Commission has confirmed that budget airline Ryanair will need to reduce its 29.8 per cent stake in Aer Lingus to just five per cent. In its final report published today, the CC confirmed its provisional findings that Ryanair’s minority shareholding had led or may be expected to lead to a substantial lessening of [...]
Barack Obama should make Donald Kohn the next Fed chief September 16, 2013 IT WAS pretty sickening, to say the least, to see so many investors cheer the prospect of even easier US monetary policy yesterday. The news that Larry Summers was pulling out of the race to be the next Fed chairman led to a boomlet across a slew of asset classes, bolstering emerging markets in particular. [...]
Traditional university is on the cusp of a digital revolution – but it should survive August 26, 2013 VISIT any British university this autumn and you’ll see Britain’s fresh-faced youth being taught by academics in lecture halls, seminars, and (at the swanky end) tutorials. Although we live in an age when industry after industry has been transformed by the internet, almost all the teaching in our universities goes on face-to-face, in person. But [...]
CNBC Comment: Why it could now be time to buy gold August 19, 2013 GOLD kicked off 2013 trading just below $1,700 per troy ounce, only to see central banks and investors push its market value down to around $1,180 in late June. Since then, it has steadily risen in value, putting on its best performance in months last week, when it broke through the psychologically important $1,350 level. [...]
Letters to the Editor – 22/07 – Keep Heathrow, Broken housing, Best of Twitter July 21, 2013 Keep Heathrow [Re: Heathrow expansion is our best option and it doesn’t have to be loud, Thursday] One justification for an Isle of Grain airport is that London is moving east. That may be true for several thousands of people, but many hundreds of thousands in the west and south west of London depend on [...]
Interserve’s boss keen to take outsourcing firm to new heights June 29, 2013 Adrian Ringrose sees fresh opportunities WATCHING the former head of Virgin Galactic give a presentation to Interserve’s top management last year, Adrian Ringrose was struck by the public trust placed in a brand with no track record in a given sector. “You can get people to believe that you really are going to build a [...]