South Asia - Greatreporter

Securitisation of housing loans continue to be riding on growth momentum thanks to foreign players such as McQua Capital Group: CRISIL

December 12, 2016 R Powell

That’s despite a brief hiccup brought in by the liquidity pressure unleashed by the demonetisation measures that the realty sector is still grappling with. This will help in infusing liquidity into the sector, with housing finance companies bundling loans into securitised pools. The volume of mortgage-backed securities touched Rs 19,000 crore in the first half of […]

Pakistan: Third time is never the charm

November 29, 2007 ciaran

A descendant of Pakistan’s ruling elite questions the chaos in his homeland as the country moves shakily towards democracy… I spent the first 10 years of my life in Bahrain, and grew up remarkably unaware of my family’s status in Pakistan. My parents made a concerted effort to keep my brother and I out of […]

Saving the children: The dark side of handmade rugs

November 20, 2007 ciaran

A nonprofit group is fighting to get children out of rug factories in South Asia… More than 800 producers have pledged to use only adult workers, and more than 1,000 retailers are selling rugs that are certified to be free of child labor. Forced to work illegally as carpet weavers at various rug factories in […]

Death toll from Pakistan quake soars

October 9, 2005 ciaran

As many as 50,000 people have been killed and up to 42,000 injured in the devastating earthquake that rocked Pakistan, officials say… Latest details estimate the death toll to have increased to 30,000. In the worst hit PoK region, 17,388 people have been killed, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao announced after an emergency meeting of […]

Terror base in UK not here, says Pakistan

July 21, 2005 ciaran

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said that there was "no credible intelligence" tying the London bombers to his country… And he asked Britain to put its house in order before blaming others. Seeking to turn the tables on Britain in the wake of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s criticism that Pakistan was not doing enough to […]

Children buried alive in Hindu ritual

April 14, 2005 ciaran

Over 80 people in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu face jail for burying their own children alive in a gruesome religious ritual… The accused parents and villagers are due in court after police swooped on them taking part in a Hindu rite, near the town of Rajapalayam, around 500 kilometres south from the […]

Kashmir’s disappeared: Looking for the lost

March 1, 2005 ciaran

Parents of disappeared persons in disputed Kashmir search for the truth about their missing relatives… Since 1994 the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) in Kashmir has campaigned for the right to know the truth about their missing loved ones. On the 25th of every month parents of the missing assemble in the Sher-e-Kashmir […]

India’s new fashion generation blooms

January 18, 2005 ciaran

India’s second generation of fashion designers aren’t afraid to experiment and finally they are starting to make their mark in the international arena… Since its conception some 15 years ago, the Indian fashion industry has been trying to make a confident stand in the international arena. The first generation was a little tentative in its […]

Colombo: ‘Thousands have been swept away’

December 28, 2004 ciaran

One reporter recounts the scene as tsunamis decimated a Sri Lankan town in Sunday’s huge sea surges… When I flipped on the TV in the morning on Sunday they were still talking about the tremors. No news of the tsunamis had reached the media here in Sri Lanka yet. In a half an hour reports […]

Western work will return if East is overused

April 17, 2004 ciaran

If demand for Indian IT workers leads to a drop in service quality, many businesses – already under attack for fuelling job losses – may be forced to close operations there. Media attention over jobs moving to India, China, Mexico and elsewhere is mainly due to the stunted job market in the US where over […]