The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have decided to enhance cooperation in the economic, commercial, investment, educational, cultural and media fields.
The four million expatriate Indians in the six Gulf Cooperation Council states remit an incredible $5 billion annually, a study shows.
In a move which could pave the way for a Free Trade Agreement between India and the Gulf Cooperation Council, both the partners have concluded negotiations for a Framework Agreement expected to be inked soon.
India is vigorously pursuing for a free trade agreement with Gulf countries, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Monday.
Professional expatriates, including Indians, would be able to hold dual residency in the Gulf nations under a move recommended by top immigration officials of the six nations. According to him, GCC residents looking for new jobs would also be allowed to enter other Gulf states on visiting visas, before securing employment.
GCC consists of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates.
Gulf nations have postponed the six-year residency cap on foreign unskilled workers.
Hospital chain Aster DM Healthcare's plans to sell its Gulf business may run into rough weather with voting advisory firm Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS) raising concerns over the transaction. Recommending an 'against' vote on the resolution, IiAS has said there is no clarity on how Aster DM will utilise the proceeds that it will obtain by selling the unit, which contributes to bulk of its revenues. In November, Aster DM had announced its plans to sell its wholly-owned subsidiary Affinity Holdings, which conducts business in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, to Alpha GCC for $1 billion.
'Saudi-Pak defence pact is to anchor the defence and security of Saudi Arabia and not Pakistan, per se, with Islamabad being the junior partner.'
Software major Wipro has tied up with Sun Microsystems to widen its reach within the Gulf Cooperation Council countries such as UAE and Saudi Arabia.As part of the deal, Wipro would resell and integrate the entire suite of Sun systems, storage, software, and services to serve Sun's customers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has secured a 13-day custodial remand for Jawad Ahmed Siddiqui, chairperson of the Al Falah group, accused of generating over Rs 415 crore dishonestly from students. The ED claims Siddiqui has incentives to flee India as his family is settled in the Gulf.
The unemployment rate in the GCC reached 8.8 per cent in 2009 and is expected to increase to 10.5 per cent this year, said the report titled 'GCC Unemployment: Sustainable Economies'.
Qatar will lead growth in the region with around 8.7 per cent, while growth will be about six per cent each in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, 4.5 per cent in the United Arab Emirates, 4.2 per cent in Oman and 3.1 per cent in Bahrain, the report by Kuwait-based Gulf Investment Company said.
The era where nations thrived through rigid alignments is giving way to an age where the connective State defines power. For India, that era has arrived, points out Dr Nishakant Ojha.
During the discussions attended by Simon Williams, Chief Economist at HSBC, Chirag Shah, Head of Strategy and Corporate Planning at DIFC Authority, and Yousef Bazian, Head of Corporate Finance at PwC in the Middle East, a consensus emerged that the Gulf region has achieved considerable non-oil economic growth.
The Gulf Cooperation Council will consider a proposal to define a time-frame ceiling for residency of the workers in member states. The proposal says after the expiry of the six year-contract, the worker will go back home to his original country.
A survey by the Arabian Business weekly magazine shows that Landmark boss, Mr Micky Jagtiani, now has close to $1.5 billion more than his nearest rival in the wealth stakes, New Medical Centre Group boss, B R Shetty, who was second with a $1.72 billion fortune.
With US President Donald Trump "temporarily suspending" country-specific reciprocal tariffs until July 9, India sees the three-month window as an opportunity to renew its push for a proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) with the US and expedite finalisation of the first tranche of the trade deal.
Lulu Retail announced on Wednesday that its initial public offering (IPO) was oversubscribed 25 times across all tranches, excluding cornerstone investors, generating demand exceeding $37 billion-a record for a private sector IPO in the United Arab Emirates. The company is controlled by Kerala-based business tycoon MA Yusuff Ali. The final offer price for Lulu shares was set at AED 2.04 per share, raising a total of $1.72 billion (AED 6.32 billion), making it the largest IPO in the UAE in 2024 to date.
Investments from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to India remain negligible relative to trade flows and represent just a small percentage of total FDI from the region to the world, says a report.
The Indian arm of the Norwegian investment company Orkla ASA, which owns spice brands like MTR and Eastern, is exploring the possibility of launching an initial public offering (IPO) in 2025, said a top company executive. "The ASA board just cleared the proposal. "We had done a pre-IPO study last year to understand what we need to do and based on that the board said, 'okay, let's go ahead and explore capital markets'," Sanjay Sharma, CEO, Orkla India, told Business Standard.
In a condolence message sent to the families of the victims of the fire incident in Mangaf, the Emir expressed his sincere sorrow and deep sympathy to the families of the victims and wished a fast recovery to the injured.
US President Donald Trump spoke with Saudi Arabia's King Salman amid the Arab world's biggest diplomatic crisis in years over Qatar's alleged support to extremists, reports Lalit K Jha.
Exports of high-quality basmati rice from India grew by 22 per cent to $5.2 billion during April 2023-February 2024, amid robust demand, primarily from West Asia. According to data compiled by the commerce department, exports of basmati rice increased to 4.68 million metric tonnes (MMT) in April-February, from 4.1 MMT during the same period a year ago, registering a growth of 14 per cent.
'Christians, for example, make up 2 per cent of India's population but an estimated 16 per cent of those who were born in India now reside elsewhere,' said Pew.
India is expected to be the top recipient of remittances in 2023 as inflows increase 12.4 per cent to $125 billion, said a World Bank report on Tuesday. Mexico will come next by receiving $67 billion and China will follow it at $50 billion. The key drivers for remittance growth in 2023 are a tight labour market in the United States, high employment growth in Europe reflecting extensive leveraging of worker retention programs, and a dampening of inflation in high-income countries. India's growth in remittances is expected to halve to 12.4 per cent in 2023 from a historic peak of 24.4 per cent in 2022.
Acutely conscious that he's left with less than four years to create his legacy, Trump is undoubtedly a man in a hurry, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Private sector lender ICICI Bank on Monday launched I-Express, an instant cross-border money transfer option for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs).
The Gulf Cooperation Council countries -- Bharain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates -- present a lot of trade opportunities for India, he said. The Assocham has been promoting India as an investment destination for infrastructure, biotechnology, power, roads, IT and allied sectors. It has also created an Andhra Pradesh Investment Cell to attract investments to the state.
Condemning human rights violations and the excessive use of force by the Yemeni authorities against peaceful protesters in the country's eight-month uprising, the Security Council said all sides should quickly implement a regional plan for an orderly transition of power.
He is also likely to meet his counterparts from key countries like Russia, China and Israel.
Embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Friday rejected a plan for his exit mooted by Gulf states. Plunging his strife-torn nation into a new crisis, Saleh told a pro-regime rally in capital Saana that the exit plan mooted by Gulf Cooperation Council states is "blatant interference in Yemeni affairs". A defiant Saleh said, "We reject any coup against democracy, the constitution and our freedom."
India is pushing for greater disclosures by credit card companies, fintech firms, and payment aggregators (PAs) at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), so that the sender and recipient in a cross-border financial transaction can be easily identified and the information shared with law enforcement agencies. Separately, the inter-governmental group, which sets standards to curb money laundering, will release the fourth round of its mutual evaluation report on India on September 19. FATF in June had adopted the mutual evaluation report on India and placed the country in the "regular follow-up" category - the highest rating given by the global watchdog and a distinction shared by only four other G20 countries.
Another priority in the first 100 days could be the launch of an e-platform -- Trade Connect -- to help exporters connect with stakeholders of international trade.
The government allowed qualified foreign investors (QFIs) from six member-countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and 27 countries of the European Commission (EC) to invest in the Indian capital market to enhance foreign capital inflows.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the transition of power in Yemen, saying all sides should now honour their commitments to immediately bring to an end all violence and refrain from further provocations.
According to the latest data revealed by GulfTalent.com, the number of expats employed in the kingdom rose by 2.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009.
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Money exchangers and bankers in Muscat said that non-resident Indians have started resorting to personal loans as rupee touched an all-time low of 62.03 against the US dollar on Friday, Times of Oman reported.
India and Bahrain firms have formed a JV to provide solutions for telecom infrastructure.
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