Apr 15, 2020

Recent hate crimes and violent assaults against people of Asian descent should sound an alarm for America. Within the past couple of weeks alone, ac acid attack against a woman in Brooklyn caused her to suffer severe burns, and a man in Texas has been charged with attempted murder after attacking an Asian American family. Such stories have become disturbingly frequent since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the FBI has warned that this trend may continue.

We, the undersigned, are alarmed by the severity of such hate crimes and race-based harassment against people of Asian descent in the United States - assaults that endanger the safety, well-being, dignity and livelihoods of all those targeted.

Twenty years ago, on July 2, 1997, the Thai baht broke its peg with the U.S. dollar, signalling the start of the Asian financial crisis. This soon developed into full-blown crises in Thailand, Indonesia, and eventually the much larger Korean economy, as domestic financial institutions failed and foreign exchange sources dried up. Growth plunged from positive…

A surge of financial crises across emerging economies has already begun. Ecuador and Zambia have been the first to default. Argentina has postponed negotiations with creditors, Turkey looks more and more vulnerable, and the International Institute of Finance warns that South Africa is next. Collapses in exchange rates are an indication of who might follow.…

Evans J.R. Revere discusses the security challenges for U.S. policymakers in East Asia, especially with regards to a militarily powerful China and a nuclear North Korea.

As far as endangered species go, it's mostly bad news, with the occasional positive story. Well this news seems to fall somewhere in the middle: in late August, a group of Laotian villagers in the Annamite Mountains captured a saola,

The saola is an extremely rare relative of the ox that is found only in the forests of the Annamite Range of Vietnam and Laos. Discovered in 1992, scientists know very little about the elusive beast, which is known among locals as a

As if melting Himalayan glaciers weren't enough to radically (and perhaps catastrophically) reshape water supply in South Asia, a new report from researchers at Purdue University shows that summer monsoons could be

Want to know which cities in Asia are going to get really whacked by climate change, and which ones have the greatest ability to adapt to it? Well, WWF has just released a new report that ranks 11 of them

Well, giant shrimp the size of your forearm are now a thing we can worry about.

The Obama administration loves its czars almost as much as the media loves using the title. So here goes: The U.S. Asian Carp Czar, also known as John Goss, says he has a multi-pronged strategy to help keep Asian carp from

If you can't beat 'em, ship 'em. The state of Illinois is spending $2 million to ship invasive Asian carp back to China, where they're considered a delicacy. In Illinois, and the Great Lakes region, they're

This $2 million project, funded mostly with private money, is billed as the most comprehensive look at the Chicago waterway system since the reversal of the Chicago River more than 100 years ago. This

How will invasive Asian carp enter the Great Lakes? Via the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, maybe another flood? They almost made it via a semi-tractor trailer crossing the Ambassador Bridge from the U.S. to Canada. The

Asian carp, meet your worst nightmare. Not poison. Not an electric barrier, or a predator from your native land. No, this is good ol' American ingenuity. With a touch of Ted Nugent, or maybe Chuck Norris. People dressed in spiked body armor with

This was an actual test. But only a test. Like those emergency tones you hear on your TV when a storm is approaching. Officials in Ontario, Canada, think the possibility of a live Asian carp invasion via truck is real. People

Great Lakes residents would be paying this off for 47 years ... but reaping the benefits for just as long.

A major report just released offers expensive technological solutions. We reivew options ranging from barriers to bow-hunting.

Concerned about Asian carp? Meet the invasive cousins, you might say, of the monster fish. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has released a white paper on 40 high-risk species to watch out for,

IV Eurasian Higher Education Leaders Forum, Astana, Kazakhstan

Special guests helped celebrate the opening of Ondori Asian Kitchen, a distinctive new dining concept at The Orleans Hotel and Casino, on March 2, 2016.

Special guests helped celebrate the opening of Ondori Asian Kitchen, a distinctive new dining concept at The Orleans Hotel and Casino, on March 2, 2016.

EAMF 2016 Highlights

Asian stocks were mostly higher Wednesday, boosted by overnight gains on Wall Street and unveiling of China's official 2014 GDP growth target.

The coronavirus has been a massive blow for markets across the globe. But Daniel Gerard of State Street says tech stocks in North Asia still offer plenty of opportunities for investors.

Blasian - black and Asian - couples now exist in South Africa... but they don't always have an easy time.

Asia's top football competitions will go ahead this year despite the coronavirus pandemic, a senior official told AFP, although games may have to be played behind closed doors. Windsor John, general secretary of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), said he was confident that the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup would both be completed. Both tournaments, featuring teams from throughout Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East, are on hold until at least the end of June after COVID-19 shuttered professional sport worldwide.

"Both will be played this year. We still have time," John told AFP, adding that new dates for the competitions may be known by the end of April. However, John did not rule out matches being played without fans "if that's what the health authorities need". The AFC is determined for both tournaments to go ahead "for sporting reasons and to fulfil commercial obligations", he said. His comments came after the AFC on Tuesday announced the indefinite postponement of all matches scheduled for May and June due to the virus.

The Champions League, the region's premier club competition, and the second-tier AFC Cup were both halted in March as the pandemic's spread forced governments to impose strict travel restrictions. Both tournaments are on an increasingly tight schedule, with the 32-team Champions League needing to complete four rounds of group-stage matches in July before the postponed knock-out phase begins in August.

The group phase of the AFC Cup will also have to be completed in a rush once matches resume. The finals for both tournaments -- which traditionally take a break in July, to avoid the worst of the Asian summer heat -- are scheduled to take place in November. Domestic leagues remain on hold around the world, including in China where the virus first emerged, but where football shows no sign of returning despite optimism the outbreak is under control.

Asia's extended shutdown, announced on Tuesday, also affects the two-legged women's Olympic qualifying play-off between China and South Korea, which had already been moved to June 1 and 9. June qualifiers for the men's 2022 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cup had been postponed before the AFC's announcement on Tuesday. Asian football was an early sporting casualty of the coronavirus pandemic, before competitions in Europe -- including Euro 2020 -- and the rest of the world were also affected.

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Arijit Datta hobbles into The Fatty Bao with a twisted ankle. Sidd Coutto bustles in 10 minutes later. The former's a music composer who's moved away from bands like Agni and Airport towards film and advertising, while the latter is probably the busiest musician in the city's indie circles. They first dive into starters — Crystal Dumpling, Spicy Mushroom Sushi Roll, Dancing Prawns and California Rolls — and then into conversation about their craft.

Sen: How do you switch seamlessly from making indie music to more commercial projects?
Datta: It's not a switch really. I think that for me and for Sidd also, wherever there is a mode of expression, we just go there and do our thing.
Coutto: Yeah, true. For commercial concerts, you just go up there and rock 'n' roll, dude. It's just a two-hour gig, where you're hanging with your buddies on stage and partying away.
Datta: It would be different when it comes to writing songs, which we both do, because if you have to mould yourself according to the audience, that's what you might call a switch.

Sidd Coutto (left) and Arijit Datta share a laugh at The Fatty Bao in Bandra. Pics/Pradeep Dhivar

Sen (to Datta): So when you were composing for the movie Filmistaan, did you have to keep the audience in mind?
Coutto (answering for both): See, performing is one thing and composing is another. When you're writing for films, you have to be clear that it's the director's baby. You are facilitating his vision. Yes, it's your baby at one level, but you're not both the mummy and the daddy.
Datta: The good part about Filmistaan was that the director let me interpret the film my own way. So I never had to break away from my own self, because the music came naturally to me. Plus, the movie had no market pressure as such, so I didn't really have a brief.
Coutto: ...Which by the way isn't the norm, so [singing to the tune of a Daft Punk Song] you got lucky.
Datta: Yeah, and for me, I think very cinematically. Even with my band's songs, if I just change the arrangements a bit, they can be in a film.
Coutto: Also, when most people come to you for work now, they come for what you make. It's not like the old days when it was like, 'Aisa banaa aur waisa banaa.' So you don't have to switch so much, since they want you for you.
Datta: I think there are newer minds. There are newer storytellers with a different language altogether, who go in search of newer sounds, voices and composers.

Sen: So it's not the era of Jatin-Lalit and Anand-Milind anymore?
Datta: No. But they also had their own sound. At that time, Jatin-Lalit were the kings, ya. Of course, they didn't move with the times.
Coutto: Or, the times moved away from them. But they did try. Infact, [Anand-Milind's] Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak is my favourite Hindi film album of all time.

Datta: Yeah, it's my favourite too. It was a complete album. Even the least-remembered song [sings a bar from Kaahe Sataye], even that I remember! So yeah, they did their time; they brought in their sound and gave us memorable tunes. But then our tastes started changing. MTV, Channel V and VH1 came in, and the world suddenly became bigger.

The mains, Asparagus Bacon Fried Rice and Exotic Mushroom Ramen, arrive. This is followed by moments of silence interspersed with appreciative sounds such as 'mmmm'.
Sen: What are some of your favourite places to eat at in Mumbai?
Coutto: Over the past couple of years, I've discovered that Social actually has awesome food. They have a vast variety of things, with small dishes included. Did you know that they have something on the menu called Staff Khaana? It's exactly what their staff eats and it's great, dude. But I don't end up ordering it as much because there are so many more things I like. But they have removed bheja from the menu, and I love bheja.
Datta: I can never have bheja, man.
Sen: So if you go to Bangkok you're never going to try cockroaches and locusts?
Datta: Never. I can't go in that direction. I know that people are adventurous with their food and everything. But I can't do that.
Coutto: For me, when it comes to food, I let my nose guide the way. Otherwise, I have no restrictions.
Datta: I love going to this place called National. It's a dhaba that a Sardar owns and it's been running since 1952, near Bandra Talao. It serves pure food, you know, the sort with less oil — makki roti with butter on top, rajma, bhindi — and you can even have their water and nothing will happen to you.
Coutto [Putting his fork down and rubbing his tummy]: Yeah, I'll go there with you sometime. But right now, I think I'll go home and play some slow blues songs.

Shares of Asian Paints closed 1.01 per cent lower at 1,577against previous close of Rs 1593 on BSE

Dengvaxia, manufactured by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, secured its first regulatory approval in Mexico a fortnight ago and is currently being

Asian tiger mosquito has been neglected as a source of Zika and dengue virus, as the threat was measured right after one feeding on infected blood. However,

A culturally tailored multilevel strategy designed by scientists significantly increased human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine uptake among low-income, mostly

The super star of Indian Film Industry Sonam Kapoor is also a well known...

Saudi officials ordered to arrest a citizen for abusing a non-Muslim expatriate for not embracing Islam. Saudi Arabia is a member of OIC that wrote to PM Modi on Islamophobia in India.

Good corporate governance plays a vital role in underpinning the integrity and efficiency of financial markets. Mr. Rintaro Tamaki, Deputy Secretary General of the OECD, will open the 2016 OECD Asian Roundtable on Corporate Governance on Monday 24 October with Mr. Chang Jae Lee, Vice Minister of Justice in Korea, to address corporate governance standards and practices in Asia.

Tax revenues are currently rising as a proportion of national incomes in Indonesia and Malaysia but continue to be substantially lower than for Korea, Japan and other OECD countries, according to a new OECD report.

Increasing tax revenues and ensuring sustainable domestic resource mobilisation will be critical as emerging Asian economies seek to boost the provision of public goods and services and improve economic growth and living standards.

Asian representatives from Ministries of Finance and Tax administrations gathered in Seoul, Korea on 14-15 October 2015 to discuss the framework for harmonising their revenue statistics.

In 2014, the tax-to-GDP ratios of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore were below 17% of GDP compared to Japan and Korea, which both recorded tax-to-GDP ratios above 24%,according to new data released in the third edition of the OECD’s annual publication Revenue Statistics in Asian Countries.

This new report shows that tax-to-GDP ratios fell in most of the 16 Asian and Pacific economies covered by the report between 2015-16 due to a combination of policy reforms and decreasing natural resource prices.

Tax-to-GDP ratios increased in the majority of Asian and Pacific economies covered by a new OECD report published today. Nine of the economies in the publication increased their tax-to-GDP ratios between 2016 and 2017, compared with only three in the preceding year, according to Revenue Statistics in Asian and Pacific Economies 2019.

Over 70 delegates from 14 countries, as well as international and regional organisations, business, and civil society gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan on 8-10 October 2019 for the Fifth Regional Meeting on BEPS for Eurasian Countries.

The Global Forum and the Asian Development Bank held a joint training event on the Exchange of Information on Request Peer Reviews and Implementation of the Automatic Exchange of Information Standard from 17 January to 31 January 2020 in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - 5-6 June 2013 - This meeting served as an opportunity to better understand the particular features and challenges associated with equity market developments worldwide and in particular, corporate governance policies and practices and their relationship to equity market growth in Asia.

This article by OECD Deputy Secretary-General Rintaro Tamaki focuses on three issues that will be important in shaping the future of the Asian economic and financial community: trade, funding long-term investment and strengthened regional financial co-operation.