Economy: News & Insights

Youtube Shorts enables users to utilize their smartphones to shoot, edit and post videos of up to 15 seconds on YouTube. (App screenshots)

Technology

YouTube sets India for test launch of TikTok-challenger 'Shorts'

Developers compete for users of Chinese app as it faces regulatory trouble

15 September 2020

Technicians of State Grid Corp. of China check power transmission facilities in Zhoushan on Aug. 16: trust is all-important.

Opinion

Asia taps alternative energy sources as China fears grow

Energy security debate now focused on who will control electricity supply future

9 September 2020

Pakistani troops arrive to repel an attack on an air force base in Peshawar in late 2015.

Belt and Road

Reunified Pakistani Taliban threatens China's Belt and Road

Factions regroup under an al-Qaeda umbrella with foothold near Xinjiang

8 September 2020

Coronavirus

India surpasses Brazil as No. 2 in COVID-19 infections

Modi government sticks to reopening as nation now trails only the US in infections

7 September 2020

Black smoke billows after an explosion outside the provincial police headquarters in Kandahar in July 2019: Taliban fighters are advancing ever closer to Kabul.

Opinion

Rushed US exit from Afghanistan will reward Taliban drug barons

Extracts from locally occurring plant now being used to produce crystal meth

4 September 2020

India, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, pictured at top left, and China under President Xi Jinping, lower right, are seeking to cement closer ties with Bangladesh through delivery of coronavirus vaccines. (Nikkei montage/Source photos by Reuters and AFP/Jiji)

International relations

China and India vie for clout in Bangladesh with COVID vaccines

Russia also seeks a foothold as powers jockey for geopolitical influence

4 September 2020

Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves at the 150th-anniversary celebration of Kolkata Port Trust on Jan. 12 in Kolkata, India.

Economy

Modi calls for 'trustworthy' supply chains, in alternative to China

Japan adds India and Bangladesh as eligible sites for relocation subsidies

4 September 2020

Workers assemble air conditioners for Japan's Daikin Industries at a plant in Neemrana, India.

Economy

Japan adds India and Bangladesh to 'China exit' subsidy destinations

Industry ministry launches second round of program to diversify supply chains

4 September 2020

PUBG Mobile, a popular online game, has been targeted in India's latest crackdown on mostly Chinese apps.

International relations

India bans Tencent's PUBG Mobile game in latest app crackdown

Nearly 120 mostly Chinese software titles shut out amid Himalayan border tensions

3 September 2020

Zuckerberg continues to struggle with how to balance his company's role as an international tech giant with the complex realities of local politics.

Opinion

Can Facebook conquer India without upsetting the rest of us?

Mark Zuckerberg appears unwilling to trade financial gains for political neutrality

2 September 2020

Ships at Tokyo's Oi container wharf. Japan wants to combine its supply chain cooperation with ASEAN and the new initiative with India and Australia.

Trade

Japan, India and Australia aim to steer supply chains around China

Three nations call on Asian neighbors to join 'free and fair' initiative

1 September 2020

A man pulls his auto rickshaw through a flooded street during heavy rains in New Delhi. India suffered its biggest slump on record since publishing quarterly data in 1996.

Economy

India's GDP shrinks 23.9% in worst quarter on record

Coronavirus lockdown batters an already slowing economy

31 August 2020

Modi relies too heavily on a select group of bureaucrats to implement his vision.

Opinion

Narendra Modi has left India's economy a shattered mess

Instead of bold reforms, PM has relied on cash handouts and divisive culture wars

31 August 2020

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, is expected to visit India and meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October as a part of their annual summit mechanism.

International relations

India and Russia in talks over co-manufacturing Sputnik V

COVID-19 war expanding ties from national defense to public health worldwide

28 August 2020

Economic Ministers from the 15 countries taking part in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership talks met online on Aug. 27. (Photo courtesy of the ASEAN Secretariat/Kusuma Pandu Wijaya)

Trade

India's absence looms over 'progress' on RCEP Asian trade deal

Members aim to sign pact at November summit, but New Delhi stays aloof

27 August 2020

Narendra Modi, center, and other leaders shake hands at the third RCEP summit in Bangkok in November 2019: hope of India's return has not entirely faded.

Opinion

India's return to RCEP is in everyone's interests

New Delhi concerned over opening its markets but should recognize strategic gains

26 August 2020

India pulled out of the RCEP negotiations over concerns that the pact would hurt the South Asian country's domestic producers. (Nikkei montage/source photos by Reuters and Rie Ishii)

Trade

Talks on Asian trade megadeal RCEP resume in COVID shadow

India likely to remain absent as Vietnam leads push for year-end agreement

26 August 2020

Bhutan has relaxed its tobacco ban to combat the coronavirus pandemic, whose most worrisome case entered the Himalayan kingdom from across the border. (Photo by Phuntsho Wangdi)

Politics

Bhutan lifts tobacco ban to block COVID spillover from India

After pandemic, Thimphu may ease centuries of control of 'sinful' weed

25 August 2020

The border post in Torkham, Pakistan, in December 2019. The Khyber Pass Economic Corridor project includes construction of a 48km four-lane expressway between Peshawar and the Torkham border crossing.

Belt and Road

China pushes Pakistan to open trade routes with Afghanistan

Beijing wants to extend Belt and Road by readying export paths to India

24 August 2020

Small businesses, like this food stall in Bangkok, “are the backbone of most economies” in Asia, according to Vivek Pathak, director for East Asia and the Pacific at the International Finance Corp. (Photo by Akira Kodaka)

Economy

World Bank arm backs Asian small businesses to stem COVID job loss

IFC channels $1bn to keep companies afloat through economic slowdown

24 August 2020

A truck hauls coal out of Pakistan's Tharparkar region, the world's seventh largest coal deposit.

International relations

China pivots to old ally Pakistan for coal after Australia spat

Thar field designed for domestic power but might increase Beijing's options

19 August 2020

A medical personnel uses a bag-mask valve at an isolation facility in Metro Manila on May 1: few problems are insurmountable when collaborative science rise to the occasion.

Opinion

Reimagining Asia's response to COVID-19

Purpose-driven leadership, digital transformation and collective effort are critical

19 August 2020

Is India's move toward greater self-reliance a wise step or not? It seems to be conducting an economic experiment on a grand scale.

Comment

Can India economically decouple itself from China?

Boycotts of Chinese goods echo fight for economic independence from UK

18 August 2020

Chefs wearing protective face masks and gloves prepare dishes in the kitchen of JW Marriott hotel in Kolkata, India, July 15, after authorities eased lockdown restrictions imposed to slow the spread of coronavirus.

Economy

India tests normal economic activity by lifting night curfew

Freedom of life returns in phases while COVID-19 continues to spread

16 August 2020

Three of India's indigenous Akash missiles, mounted on a truck, are displayed during a rehearsal for the Republic Day parade in New Delhi on Jan. 23.

Politics

India's arms import embargo hits makers in Russia, US and Israel

'Late but good step' pushes self-reliance in defense but unlikely to create jobs

14 August 2020