Author: Edwin Omar Owens

NEW DELHI – Japan’s Toyota Motor is lobbying the Indian government to cut taxes on hybrid vehicles by as much as one-fifth, arguing they are far less polluting than petrol cars but do not get commensurate policy treatment, a company letter shows. The world’s largest carmaker plans to expand production capacity to meet a surge in Indian demand for hybrids, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has focussed on pushing sales of electric vehicles (EVs), offering companies millions of dollars in incentives to build EVs and batteries. India taxes EVs at just 5%, while the levy on hybrids is as…

Washington:  The United States and Britain on Friday urged India not to insist Canada reduce its diplomatic presence in India and expressed concern after Ottawa pulled out 41 diplomats amid a dispute over the murder of a Sikh separatist. Canada has alleged Indian involvement in the June murder in a Vancouver suburb of Canadian citizen and Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India denies the allegation. “We are concerned by the departure of Canadian diplomats from India, in response to the Indian government’s demand of Canada to significantly reduce its diplomatic presence in India,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.…

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — Pakistan has ordered all undocumented immigrants, including 1.7 million Afghans, to leave the country by November 1, vowing mass deportations for those who stay. Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar approved the plan Tuesday at a high-level meeting of his top civilian and military officials in Islamabad. “All illegal immigrants residing in Pakistan have until November 1 to return to their countries voluntarily,” Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti told a post-meeting news conference. “And if they fail to leave by the deadline, all our state law enforcement agencies will unleash an operation with full-throttle to deport them.” Bugti did not…

Just a few days after politicians in the UK signed off on the highly-debated Online Safety Bill, a homonymous proposed law is now sparking discussions over five thousand miles away. Despite coming as a means to halt online harm and fake news, tech giants have deemed the new Sri Lanka Online Safety Bill as a “draconian system to stifle dissent.” Other experts have been warning of new executive powers and vague provisions too, which are thought to ultimately lead to increased online censorship, and free speech and privacy abuses. The proposed legislation was first published in the Sri Lankan Government Gazette…

Despite Pakistan’s repeated requests, China has declined to inject fresh investments into the so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, Nikkei Asia reported Monday (Oct 2), citing minutes of a high-level meeting between the officials of both countries. Pakistan wanted China to add more projects, related to energy, climate change, electricity transmission and tourism, under the CPEC. However, Beijing showed no enthusiasm. Beijing also declined a proposal by Islamabad to build a 500-kilovolt transmission line from Gwadar port to the national electricity grid in Karachi. Moreover, China also refused to entertain Pakistan’s plea to move a 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant from…

Sri Lankan State Minister for Investment Promotion Dilum Amunugama on Wednesday expressed his gratitude to Bangladesh for assisting Sri Lanka with loans to overcome its economic crisis last year. During a session at the Commonwealth Trade and Investment Forum, he said, “I would like to thank the Bangladesh government for assisting us when we were almost bankrupt one year ago. “Within one year, I would say we have achieved quite a lot. We have started paying our loans.” He also said, “Our inflation rate was about 67% about nine months to one year ago, now it has come down to…

Kolkata, India – World-famous Darjeeling tea gardens in India’s West Bengal state immediately whip up picturesque visuals of clouds floating over rolling hills covered in tea bushes where women, draped in colourful sarongs, pick tea leaves that they collect in woven baskets tied to their backs. But there is another reality behind those postcard visuals: a drop in production and demand as buyers turn to cheaper alternatives from neighbouring Nepal, endangering the future of an area, and its workers, once known for producing the “champagne of teas”. “The future of Darjeeling tea is bleak and the end seems near if the…

Islamabad:  Jailed former prime minister Imran Khan admitted to misplacing a confidential diplomatic cable as he was interrogated by Pakistan’s top investigative agency at the Attock Jail in a case filed under the Official Secrets Act for wrongful use of the classified document, according to media reports on Sunday. Khan, 70, is currently serving a three-year jail term after he was sentenced by a court in a corruption case earlier this month. The cable in question was the same document Khan had for long mentioned as evidence of a US-backed conspiracy to remove him as the prime minister last year.…

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s president said Wednesday he will strengthen provincial governments to meet long-standing demands for self-rule from the ethnic Tamil minority, an issue that led to a bloody quarter-century civil war in the island nation. The provincial councils were introduced in Sri Lanka in 1987 after neighboring India intervened to resolve the ethnic conflict. But the system has not been fully functional because Tamil separatist rebels rejected the deal and successive governments usurped powers given to the provinces. President Ranil Wickremesinghe in a speech to Parliament said he will take steps to prevent confusion, overlap and…

Team India’s star batter Virat Kohli smashed his 29th Test century on Friday, ending an almost five-year wait for a three-figure mark in an overseas Test. This was also Kohli’s 76th international ton, as the batter inches closer to Sachin Tendulkar’s incredible 100-century record. The right-handed batter had resumed his innings on 87 on Day 2 of the second and final Test against West Indies, and reached his century with a four against Shannon Gabriel. Among active batters, Kohli has the most centuries in international cricket and is counted by many as part of the ‘Fab-4’ – a name given to four of the…