INDIA

India needs to develop its market for securitised assets and allow foreigners and pension funds to invest in the sector if it wants to free up funds to finance its rapid growth, industry experts said on the Thursday.

HSBC Holdings, Europe's biggest bank, is entering insurance markets in China and Taiwan as part of its broader strategy to tap the fast-growing Asian region.

The luxury unit of Nokia has started selling a phone designed jointly with Ferrari for about 18,000 euros ($25,400) at its stores in London, Paris, Hong Kong and Singapore, it said on Thursday.

India's Unichem Laboratories is in talks with a few Brazilian drug firms for a $20-25 million acquisition, after it failed to seal a takeover deal there, a top official said, forecasting a faster revenue growth for FY08.

World leaders signaled on Tuesday that a long-awaited global trade deal could soon be within reach, reviving some hopes that the Doha trade talks may finally move beyond years of deadlock and discord.

The head of Wal-Mart Store Inc's India operations said on Monday that the retailer is confronting issues securing real estate and talent, but it remains reasonably confident it can open its first cash-and-carry store in the country by the end of 2008.

Incredible India@60, a four-day celebration commemorating the 60th anniversary of Independence of the world's largest democracy, kicked off in New York, US, Sunday, September 23.

Four firms remain in the race to buy Ford's European luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover after India's Mahindra & Mahindra and vulture fund Cerberus pulled out, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Europeans' interest in watching mobile television is as tiny as cellphone screens, a new study showed on Monday, even though the industry has been buzzing about offering TV on handsets for years.

Talks on global warming in the United States next week may be complicated by differences among developing countries as their climate policy positions diverge.

A unit of POSCO, the world's fourth-largest steel maker, said on Thursday that it had won a $350 million order to build India's biggest blast furnace from state-run Steel Authority of India Ltd.

India's No. 2 private power producer, Reliance Energy Ltd, is scouting for coal mines overseas and sees infrastructure projects such as road and rail as key growth drivers, a senior official said on Thursday.

Indian communists are not expected to budge on a nuclear deal with the United States, left leaders said.

India's nascent $30-million gaming industry is set to grow to $700 million in the next five years, driven by global companies that are pushing new generation gaming consoles in the Indian market, industry watchers said.

A new Bollywood film is aiming to lash out at the attitude of sensationalizing news by the Indian media and present the negative impact it can have on the lives of people.

India's top drug makers are in the race to acquire U.S.-based generic drug maker, Par Pharmaceutical Co Inc, two Indian newspapers reported on Tuesday.

Indian outsourcing companies are shifting some of their operations to China, the Philippines, Vietnam and Kenya in a bid to stay competitive as higher wages, expensive property prices and a rising rupee eat into profits.

Female consumers are spurring much-needed growth in Chinese consumption and helping offset the country's high savings rate, a source of tension with its trading partners.

Large-scale cultivation of transgenic crops is a necessity if India is to feed a growing population and use more of its farmland for industry and homes, a senior government official said on Monday.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf plans to quit as army chief to become a civilian leader, removing a main objection to his proposed re-election in October, a senior ruling party official said on Monday.

Tokyo must keep a thaw in ties with China on track, the frontrunner to be Japan's next prime minister said on Sunday, while urging Beijing to better explain its ballooning military spending.