While basic prices for transporting, storing and cremating bodies in China are supposed to be set and regulated by the state, "extras" including coffins, urns, wreaths, funeral processions and graves are all set by "the market".
India is the latest of several nations to raise the alarm about illicit capital flight. Following high-profile scandals involving Liechtenstein and Switzerland, the Group of 20 nations has demanded greater co-operation in tackling the shadow financial system.
ArcelorMittal is likely to have to make permanent cuts of up to 10 per cent in its steelmaking capacity as the industry reels from the impact of the worst global recession in decades, industry observers have warned.
The economic downturn in the world's jewellery markets has checked the growth of India's diamond export industry, cutting the workforce by as much as 25 per cent and forcing one of the country's most promising export sectors to seek government help.
The shift in consumer buying power towards emerging markets is not only giving Chinese brands a much better chance of breaking out of their domestic market but is also subtly altering how western companies develop and market global brands.
India's pay-television industry, a magnet for foreign investors for the past two years, is facing a shake-out amid intense competition during the economic crisis.
The global financial crisis has inflicted at least a year's delay on the Indian IT outsourcing industry's drive to reach its short-term revenue forecasts, with key markets in the US and Europe suffering from the financial downturn.
The deteriorating global economy means financial institutions now face total losses of $4,100bn on loans and other assets, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday, urging governments to take "bolder steps" to shore up institutions - including nationalising them where necessary.
A series of interest rate cuts in India has failed to lead to cheaper commercial lending, leaving Asia's third largest economy to grow at only 6 per cent this year, the central bank said on Tuesday.
India faces a shortfall of as much as $190bn in financing key infrastructure projects as the global crisis chokes off urgently needed capital, according to a study by McKinsey, the management consultants.
The Madoff case has become a powerful symbol. The odd thing is, no one is exactly sure what it is a symbol of.
The 12.5 per cent EM outperformance this year is surprising. As any market strategist will tell you -- in times of stress when safe haven trades are in fashion, emerging markets typically fall faster than developed ones as investors switch out of what they deem to be riskier assets.
Nowhere is this more the case than in communications, and social networking in particular. The arrival of the "Facebook generation" among the student population has highlighted how social networking websites can improve interaction and promote use of the schools' own online networks.
For thousands of expatriates lured to Dubai by the promise of year-round sunshine and a tax-free lifestyle, the party is over. Corporate restructurings have arrived hard on the heels of steep falls in property prices and plummeting consumer confidence; El Dorado is fading back into desert. As the cutbacks spread from finance and real estate to sectors such as tourism, media and retail, many are packing up and heading home.
It's been a tough few months for Rajesh Mehrotra, a Mumbai-based businessman with interests in shipping and travel. Freight rates are down, and the market for corporate incentive trips, his agencies' speciality, has all but dried up as India's economy decelerates in tandem with the global economic slowdown.
The global economic slowdown is rapidly changing the aspirations of India's most talented graduates, leading many to reassess what they want in life.
Key sectors of the Indian economy shed half a million jobs in the final three months of last year as the global slowdown took its toll on one of the world's fastest growing big economies.
Sugar prices reached a four-month high on Tuesday after India, the world's largest consumer, lifted duties on the import of raw sugar to bridge a shortfall in domestic production.
The growth of India's IT outsourcing sector, which contributes to about 25 per cent of the country's total exports, is expected to slow down sharply this year following a drop in demand due to the global financial crisis, India's software industry lobby predicted.
Areva, the French nuclear group, agreed on Wednesday to supply India with up to six nuclear reactors in one of the first deals since the subcontinent's nuclear programme was brought into the international fold last year after decades of isolation.
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