‘s flagship outsourcing sector hits tough times

NEW DELHI, August 6, 2009 (AFP) – These are tough times for India’s flagship outsourcing industry whose skilled, low-cost workforce helped plant the country on the global business map.With the world in the grip of the worst economic slump since the 1930s, revenue growth from outsourcing — subcontracting work to a third-party company — is […]

Sri Lanka tea processor June profits up marginally

Aug 05, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Tea Smallholder Factories, which processes tea grown mainly by small farmers, said net profit for the June 2009 quarter rose four percent to 53 million rupees from a year ago.Sri Lankan tea producers were hit hard by a severe drought earlier this year and the effects of last […]

Sugar price hits record high

LONDON, August 3, 2009 (AFP) – The price of sugar reached a record high here on Monday, aided by a weaker dollar amid more positive signs of economic recovery and the commodity’s weak supply situation, traders said.In London trade, white sugar for delivery in October reached 505.9 pounds a tonne — the highest level since […]

Sri Lanka Kelani Valley almost out of the red

Aug 03, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Kelani Valley Plantations (KVPL) said it made a net profit of 41 million rupees in the June 2009 quarter, down 37 percent from a year ago, enabling it to almost erase losses in the previous quarter.Sales in the June 2009 quarter fell 18 percent to 674 million rupees […]

Sri Lanka Tata tea unit June net falls 37-pct

Aug 03, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Watawala Plantations said net profit in the June 2009 quarter fell 37 percent to 37 million rupees from a year ago with the bottom line buoyed by palm oil and retail marketing earnings. Sales rose three percent to 1.1 billion rupees in the period, the company, a unit […]

Treasury Case

Aug 03, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s former Treasury chief P B Jayasundera is to file a confidential affidavit in an application to release him from an undertaking given to Supreme Court not to hold public office, lawyers said.The bar on public office came following an order to reverse the sale of land and a […]

No Variation

Aug 03, 2009 (LBO) – Several applications asking to vary orders made following a landmark judgment which reversed a transfer of state land to build a golf course were refused by Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court, lawyers said.Court was also asked to award compensation by others who had bought land in a related project. The next […]

Chicken tikka masala claims its origins in Scotland

GLASGOW, August 3, 2009 (AFP) – Scotland is known around the world for bagpipes, Scotch whisky, haggis and tartan kilts. But now it is trying to protect a less obviously Scottish treasure: chicken tikka masala.A chef from Glasgow claims he invented the curry dish, and is pressing the European Union to give it “Protected Designation […]

Infants die in Bangladesh after taking cheaply made drugs

DHAKA, July 30, 2009 (AFP) – When Kohinur Akhter’s 19-month-old baby boy came down with a fever and cough a little over a week ago, she had no idea the medicine she gave him to ease the pain would put him on his death bed. Now Akhter has been told by doctors in Bangladesh that […]

Sri Lanka Talawakelle Tea Estates returns to profit

July 29, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Talawakelle Tea Estates said it had returned to profit in the June 2009 quarter after making a loss in the previous quarter because of a sharp fall in the crop.A severe drought and the lagged effects of last year’s commodity market crash that led to the neglect of […]

Sri Lanka June tea exports fall

July 29, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea exports fell in June from a year ago with earnings for the first half buoyed by the rupee’s depreciation against the dollar, brokers said. Prices at this week’s Colombo auction also fell from the week before, mainly on lower quality. Shipments of tea in June fell eight […]

Phone Ban

July 28, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka has banned students from taking mobile phones to school following the suicide of a teenager disciplined for using her telephone, an education ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.All schools were ordered to impose the ban after a 14-year-old girl — reprimanded over telephone contact with a boy during school […]

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