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NEW DELHI: Inflation is forecast to have risen to uncomfortable levels for policymakers in October due to stubbornly high food prices, adding to the pressure for further interest rate rises despite slowing economic growth. Data on Tuesday is forecast to show annual consumer inflation at 9.9 percent in October, up slightly from September, and figures on Friday are expected to show wholesale inflation running at an eight-month high of 6.90 percent, according to Reuters polls of economists. In a more positive sign, factory output is forecast to have risen 3.5 percent in September from a year earlier, much faster than...

Asserting that India's policy on Palestine issue remains unchanged, government on Monday refused to take sides over the Gaza conflict as it said Israel and Palestine should have peace talks and forestalled a resolution in Rajya Sabha which was demanded by the opposition. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said the House should not be divided but send out a joint message that wherever there is violence, it is condemnable and both Israel and Palestine should accept Egypt's offer of peace talks. She was replying to a short-duration debate on Gaza situation during which opposition condemned the violence in Gaza, pressed...

The results of India's election, which are rapidly appearing today, seem to show a huge win for the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A victory had been expected, but this looks like a massive landslide. The next prime minister is almost certain to be Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, a state in western India. He is known for his economic agenda, which is seen to be relatively business-friendly (expect stocks to react very positively to the news), and his controversial brand of Hinduism. Modi's ideology is certainly going to be important over the next several years, but his...

New Delhi: The oil deals in which Natwar Singh and the Congress party are allegedly "non-contractual beneficiaries" could have direct and indirect links with Marc Rich, an American fugitive who faced a potential 300 years in prison. Marc Rich was most controversially pardoned by President Bill Clinton in 2001. According to the Volcker report, the contracting party in both contracts (M/09/54 in the case of Natwar Singh and M/10/57 in the case of Congress party) was Masefield AG, an oil trading company based in Zug, Switzerland. The Masefield Group's website merely says that it privately-owned and based in Zug, but...

(CNN) -- Investors in India are dumping shares on fears the country's new Congress-led government will slow or halt the economic reforms that have delivered 8 percent growth to the world's biggest democracy. The country's biggest stock market, the Bombay Stock Exchange in Mumbai, closed down 11 percent in Monday trading. That came after it fell almost 16 percent and was closed twice earlier in the day to try to stem the rout.

The surprising return of India's Congress Party to power is potentially a major social, economic, and geopolitical development. The change of power in the world's largest democracy, which followed an election that lasted three weeks, has confounded not only outgoing Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but also pundits, pollsters, and diplomats worldwide. Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991, was widely expected to lose an election that was called ahead of its original date by a government that was sure of its victory. With gross domestic product growing last year...

Does Shift of Political Power in India Fuel Islamic Menace? Confusing reports are coming in regarding the election results, and impact of the changes in Lok Sabha. Perhaps input from others, political consultants or international affairs analysts can provide more information to elucidate more clearly the recent developments for the conservative American audience, such dialog is welcome. The bad news is, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA, consisting of the conservative and center BJP and alliances) has lost the elections. The loss is a surprise, polling as recent as May 6, 2004 showed the NDA would met the magic number of...