INDIA

There were quiet celebrations in the offices of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh late last week after he stunned the country with a slew of steps to revive the tanking economy.

Most of the Asian markets dropped Monday after the rally last week when investor confidence was buoyed by the optimism that the stimulus measures announced by the central banks in the U.S. and the Europe would help revive the global economic growth momentum.

The Formula One star made his feelings clear about contract negotiations.

Asian stock markets posted their biggest weekly gains in almost nine months after the U.S. Federal Reserve announced that it would purchase $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities per month for an open-ended period until the labor market improved substantially.

Only two countries are members of the 1 billion mobile phone users club: China and India. In the latter, Nokia and Samsung are battling for the top spot, but their big worldwide rival is an Indian no-show: Apple and the iPhone. Here's why and what's at stake.

Google Friday refused to comply with the White House request to reconsider its decision to not remove an anti-Islam film from YouTube, Reuters reported.

Most of the Asian markets gained in the week as investor confidence was lifted following the announcement of another round of quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve which is expected to rejuvenate the economic growth.

Despite a 15,000-person protest against the U.S. Consulate in India-controlled Kashmir over the YouTube video "Innocence of Muslims," most Indian Muslims have remained rather nonplussed by the outbreaks of violence and demonstrations to the west of them.

Protests in response at least in part to an anti-Islam film produced in the United States are continuing to pop up at embassies across the world on Friday.

Some 100,000 feral camels have been culled from the Australian outback in order to control the population level and limit the environmental damage they cause.

Vera Wang drew inspiration from India for her Spring 2013 debuted at New York Fashion Week on Tuesday using traditional facets of the typical Indian wardrobe, like the Nehru collar, gold embroidery and Choli jacket.

The government of India, the world's 10th largest economy by gross domestic product, passed wide-ranging laws on Friday expanding foreign investment in the retail, broadcasting and airline sectors, opening its doors to companies like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) amid slowing growth.

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), the No. 1 search engine, said it’s blocked access to the controversial “Innocence of Muslims”on YouTube in countries with large Muslim populations, including India, Libya and Egypt. But Afghanistan's government blocked all access to YouTube, claiming the video is offensive.

India's wholesale price index (WPI) rose to a higher-than-expected 7.55 percent in July on annual basis, driven mainly by higher non-food prices, dashing hopes for rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of India.

Agnico-Eagle Mines, ICICI Bank, Alcatel Lucent SA, Nokia Corp, ArcelorMittal, Facebook Inc, United States Steel Corp, Werner Enterprises and Western Digital Corp. are among the companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trading Friday.

At a time when IT budgets are feeling the pressure due to the global economic slowdown, security is expected to remain a priority through 2016, according to a new Gartner report.

Asian stock markets rallied to a four-month high Friday after the U.S. Federal Reserve launched another large scale of asset purchase program overnight to stimulate the world's largest economy.

Asian stock markets made gains Friday as investor confidence was lifted following the announcement of another round of quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve which is expected to rejuvenate the economic growth.

Iran appears to be using a tricky system of oil shipping and transferring at the offshore port of Labuan near Malaysia in order to get its crude to Asian markets, skirting Western sanctions.

The cabinet will consider a proposal on Friday to allow foreign airlines to buy stakes in local carriers, moving forward with a much-delayed reform that could revitalise debt-ridden domestic carriers.

HSBC has cut its India GDP forecast for the fiscal 2013 to 5.7 percent from the previous forecast of 6.2 percent, citing "the lack of reform traction" and a more "challenging" global economic state of affairs.