Business

The best place to do business is Singapore, says a World Bank index which ranks economies on their ease of doing business. Among others in the Top 10 are Hong Kong, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, Denmark, Canada, Norway, Ireland and Australia, says the report titled Doing Business 2011. Overall, doing business remains easiest in the high-income economies of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and most difficult in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The...

The Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB), labelled as the world's largest diamond trading centre, opened Sunday in India's financial capital Mumbai, more than 20 years after the idea was first mooted. The Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB) is spread over 20 acres, with eight towers of nine storeys each, housing 2,500 offices in addition to the customs department, banks and other service providers who cater to the gems and jewellery trade. An extra space of 2 million sq ft has also been provided for auditoriums...

Survival International has named its ‘Top 5 Hall of Shame’ – the key companies violating tribal peoples’ rights worldwide. But Vedanta Resources has missed out by a whisker – more by default, than by design. After the Indian government scrapped its mining project in the Niyamgiri Hills of Orissa, it is not getting the chance to trample on tribal peoples. But there are others who continue to do so with impunity around the world. Survival International has named them in its Top 5 Hall of Shame...

Energy giant Shell's new Brazilian joint-venture partner is producing biofuels from land taken from an impoverished Indian tribe. Last month, Shell signed a $12 billion deal to produce biofuels from sugar cane with Brazilian biofuels giant Cosan. But some of Cosan’s sugar cane is grown on land officially recognised as belonging to Guarani Indians. A Brazilian prosecutor with constitutional powers to defend indigenous rights in court, has written to Shell warning that its involvement in the joint...

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a copyright violation plea of US-based Archie Comic Publications, saying that that the company does not have any office in India. A division bench said, "This Court has no territorial jurisdiction to entertain the (com)plaint." It said, "Where a Court has no jurisdiction over the subject matter of the suit, the order passed would be a nullity." The Division Bench of Justice Mukta Gupta and Justice Vikramkjit Sen was hearing the petition of Archie Comic...

Half of UK consumers have no idea that the paper and wood products they are buying may be contributing to the destruction of the world’s forests. But two-thirds believe authorities should commit to buying sustainable wood and paper products. The findings are from a survey carried out as part of WWF’s ‘What Wood You Choose?’ campaign. The two-year, EU-funded project, aims to help people make the right choices when buying wood-related products such as a new bed, flooring or paper for their printer...

Hershey, one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the US, is lagging behind other companies in taking steps to ensure decent working conditions in its supply chain, a report has said. The company has even been linked to child labour. The report, titled 'Time to Raise the Bar: The Real Corporate Social Responsibility for the Hershey Company', said that Hershey dominates 42.5 per cent of the US chocolate market, even though it lags behind every major competitor in terms of programmes...

The ongoing India-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations have been non-transparent. They are a threat to the livelihoods of millions of people, and any hasty conclusion of the talks will only fuel poverty, inequality, and environmental destruction. The terms of a new deal between the EU and India, negotiations of which have been “hijacked” by big business and vested interests on both sides, will jeopardise the livelihood of millions of small farmers and patients, a joint study by...

On August 10, a frantic message landed in the mailbox of members of a Facebook group called Save Niyamgiri. Two leaders of the Dongria-Kondh tribe’s resistance to a controversial mine in Orissa’s Lanjigarh were said to have been abducted, and had subsequently gone missing. The two men were reported to have been ambushed at the base of the hill range where they live, bundled into a vehicle at gunpoint, and driven away. They were not being held at local police stations, Lanjigarh or Muniguda. A...

It ought to be counted as one of India’s most downplayed stories of the day. It is about the struggle to save an ecosystem called Niyamgiri in Orissa from mining, deforestation and devastation. It is about indigenous people and the rights over their land. Vedanta Resources, a stinking rich British company owned by NRI Anil Agarwal, intends to dig an open-pit bauxite mine in Niyamgiri. This mine will destroy the forests on which the Dongria Kondh depend and wreck the lives of thousands of other...