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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a total of nine projects costing $2.42 billion as part of the Operational Plan (OP) 2016-2025 of the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) program. These projects will receive ADB financing of $1.43 billion. These nine projects represent a significant increase compared to the previous 15 years, when the annual average value of projects approved was only about $500 million. The nine projects comprise of two rail projects in Bangladesh worth $890 million, two economic corridor initiatives (a project and program loan) and a bridge project in India worth an aggregate of $1.2 billion, trade facilitation and airport projects in Bhutan worth $27 million and key SASEC road and energy projects in Nepal worth $302 million. All these projects are aligned with the SASEC OP’s thrusts of developing road and rail links aligned closely with trade routes toward the east, streamlining trade procedures, and improving energy infrastructure. ...

State-owned China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation (CASIC) have announced plans for a network of 156 mini-satellites to facilitate global broadband coverage. This is the first low orbiting, networked satellite project, which will orbit 1,000 km above the ground, developed by China amid its wider push for commercial space development, according to CASIC. "The network is a general satellite platform," said Bei Chao, a CASIC engineer, who added that add-ons and upgrades were being explored next. Small satellites are easy to mass produce and upgrade at low cost. Low orbit helps avoid signal delay; and satellite communication services with frequencies from 26.5 to 40 hertz will improve Internet access. The project plans to send the first satellite before 2018, and launch four more by 2020 to form a constellation. By the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), all 156 satellites will be in operation. CASIC launched an experimental satellite "TK-1" in ...

India has offered a new line of credit for $5 billion, its biggest yet in the neighbourhood, to Bangladesh. The announcement is expected during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to Delhi next week, her economic adviser, Mashiur Rahman, said here on Thursday. Mr. Rahman said the credit would be open-ended and would follow the $1 billion offered in 2010, when Ms. Hasina previously visited Delhi, and the $2 billion in 2015 during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dhaka. “The $5 billion is an open LoC; we can use it to enhance the level of trade, movement, connectivity. The projects are yet to be fully identified, and there is no time line. We can spend it all at once, or as we need it. But where the Indian side has an interest is in connectivity: railway projects, road transportation, road maintenance,” Mr. Rahman said. A senior Indian official said lines of credit were part of India’s “well-thought-out” strategy to “give Banglade...

The boycott of video-hosting platform YouTube by advertisers could cost its parent company Google $750 million in revenue, a media report said. Over the past few weeks, major consumer brands, including Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo and McDonald’s have pulled out their ads from the platform as they are protesting the placement of their ads which were appearing next to offensive content, including videos posted by terrorism-affiliated groups. Although Google promised that it was taking steps to deal with the problem, the controversy still continues, and has led at least one firm to downgrade the search giant’s share price, Fortune reported on Monday. According to analysts at brokerage firm Nomura Instinet, even if Google addresses the issue quickly, the boycott could cost its video service dearly. The firm said that YouTube could see its annual revenues — which are estimated to be $10.2 billion for this year — a cut by as much as 7.5 per cent due to the contro...

The tax cut will increase Aramco’s after-tax income by 300 percent, allowing for higher cash returns to shareholders and giving the company, known officially as Saudi Arabian oil co., a potential market value of $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, Bernstein analysts said in a report. Rystad Energy increased its valuation of Aramco by 250 percent to $1.4 trillion, assuming a long-term oil price of $75 a barrel. The Saudi government announced Monday that it’s reducing Aramco’s tax rate to 50 percent from 85 percent, as it prepares to offer investors as much as 5 percent of the world’s biggest oil exporter in what could be a record IPO. Estimates of Aramco’s potential valuation vary widely. Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said it’s worth about $2 trillion. Prior to the tax change, consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd, valued the company at around $400 billion, according to clients who attended a private briefing earlier this year. ...

China’s military carried out drills along the border with Burma on Tuesday, in a show of force to highlight its resolve to protect its people, state news agency Xinhua said, following clashes between the Burma Army and ethnic rebels. Fighting this month in Burma pushed thousands of people into China to seek refuge, prompting Beijing to call for a ceasefire between ethnic militias and the security forces. Xinhua said the joint land and air exercises were part of planned annual drills, but did not say exactly where they took place. It quoted a Chinese army colonel as saying the exercises showed “the People’s Liberation Army’s resolute resolve” to protect the security of the border and the lives of residents there. In accordance with existing agreements, China informed Burma’s military ahead of the drills, it added. China has repeatedly expressed concern about fighting along the border that has occasionally spilled into its territory, for instance i...

Chinese scientists are building the world's largest multifunctional research platform for nano-science and nano-technology that could help develop more powerful computers and more intelligent robots. The Vacuum Interconnected Nano-X Research Facility in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, integrates the state-of-art capabilities of material growth, device fabrication and testing in one ultra-high vacuum environment, said Ding Sunan, deputy director of the project. "We are exploring a new technology route of nano-scale devices production on the platform, which simulates the ultra-high vacuum environment of space," said Ding, a researcher at the Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Nano-X has received initial funding of 320 million yuan (about $46.5 million), and will eventually have a budget of 1.5 billion yuan. Construction on the first stage began in 2014 and is expected to be completed in 2018. It comprises 100-meter-long ultr...