INDIA

Coca-Cola Co said on Wednesday that its quarterly net profit rose a better-than-expected 13 percent, helped by strong sales of noncarbonated drinks and the weak dollar.

India's No. 2 lender, ICICI Bank, expects to sustain 70 percent growth in its private wealth management business this year on the back of rising affluence, a senior official said on Monday.

Central Europe has evolved from a collection of Soviet Communist satellite states into the most dynamic part of the capitalist European Union in less than a generation.

Japanese Carmakers intend to export their hybrid models to emerging countries like India and China, anticipating these countries’ growing appetite for environmentally friend models, especially among the wealthy.

A sickly dollar and firming oil prices swept gold to 28-year highs on Thursday, while platinum was set in London at a record high of $1,407 per ounce, aided by rising bullion prices and worries over supply.

Infosys Technologies Ltd, India's No 2 software services exporter, said quarterly profit rose by nearly a fifth but its shares tumbled 7 percent on market concerns over the rapidly rising rupee and the risk of a U.S. downturn.

Indians stay home as investors choose local hot stocks and lower tax domestic funds.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog head Mohamed ElBaradei met India's prime minister on Thursday in a long-scheduled trip as time started to run out for the government to press forward with a nuclear deal with the United States.

The United States urged Brazil on Wednesday to use its influence with developing nations to ensure that the long-running Doha round of global trade talks do not end in a stalemate.

India's diversified Mahindra Group is entering the retail sector, the latest deep-pocketed, family-run Indian company to jump into the fast-growing market.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog's head is in India as a debate rages over the country's nuclear deal with the United States.

The India government and its communist allies stepped back from the brink on Tuesday, agreeing to meet again this month to resolve a row over a nuclear deal with the United States that threatens to spark a snap election.

Even before its official launch in China, Research In Motion's BlackBerry faces daunting challenges from low-cost rivals and a thicket of regulations that could trip up its advance into the world's largest mobile market.

Morgan Stanley is unleashing a major drive to tap India's domestic wealth next year, hiring 100 private bankers in a bid to manage $1 billion in assets by the end of 2010.

BNP Paribas, France's biggest bank, is building up its onshore private banking presence in China, India and Taiwan and expects total assets under management in Asia to grow by 20 percent a year in the next few years, the head of its Asia private banking operation said.

Microsoft Corp plans to increase its share of the technology business in India as retail and small- and medium-sized firms step up investment in a booming economy, the chairman of its Indian unit said on Monday.

His trip to India on Monday has turned into a political flashpoint as a nuclear energy deal with the United States threatens to spark snap elections.

Beyond the ongoing 'short-term' subprime crisis, the 'mega trends' that will shape banking and its growth in the long term will be globalization, the growth of capital markets and global asset growth and its impact on how it's managed, said Deutsche Bank's top corporate and investment banker.

The Indian government has received about 300 applications from about 30 companies vying to tap growth potential in the world's hottest wireless market, the telecoms minister said on Wednesday.

Taiwan's Synnex Technology, the world's No.3 electronics distributor, forecasts its annual sales will grow by a fifth in 2007 and 2008, a touch below market estimates, as it aims to sell more products in China's fast-growth market.

Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, India's top drugmaker by sales, will raise its stake in Zenotech Laboratories Ltd to 45 percent to expand into the global biogenerics market, it said on Wednesday.