Articles by "Asia"
Panaji, Aug 13 Goa's archives, considered to be one of the oldest in Asia, will now be digitised under the Centre's 'Smart City Mission', minister Vijai Sardesai said.
The archives -- a collection of lakhs of historical documents and records providing information about the coastal state and its people -- are presently housed in a Portuguese- era building in the state capital Panaji.
People fear for the safety of these records due to the dilapidated condition of the building, Sardesai said.
"Also, photo-copying these ancient inscriptions and descriptions is considered a retrograde practice that should be replaced by digitisation," the state archives and archaeology minister said yesterday.
But, the archives department does not have sufficient funds for the purpose, he said.
Therefore, a proposal has been mooted to take up digitisation of archives under the Panaji Smart City Mission, an initiative of the Union government, Sardesai said.
The government has given an in-principle nod to the proposal, he added.
Goa has several records in its archives dating back to the time when the state was under the Portuguese rule.
The state was liberated from the 450-year-old colonial rule in 1961. (PTI)
TOKYO, May 10: Asian stocks rose on Thursday, with energy
shares leading the way as crude oil prices bolted higher after U.S. President
Donald Trump's decision to pull out of a nuclear deal with Iran.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan advanced 0.4
percent, while Japan's Nikkei climbed 0.1 percent. South Korea's KOSPI rose 0.4
percent and Shanghai edged up 0.3 percent.
Brent crude futures rose 0.7 percent to $77.76 a barrel in early trade,
the highest since November 2014 and building on gains of about 3 percent on
Wednesday. U.S. light crude futures rose 0.8 percent.
But battered emerging market investors got another jolt after a stunning
election upset in Malaysia.
Moody's ratings agency said the country was now in uncharted territory
after an alliance of opposition parties led by former prime minister Mahathir
Mohamad shocked the ruling coalition.
The ringgit slid more than 2 percent in the non-deliverable forward
market and the cost to insure against a Malaysian debt default rose.
"The surprise win by Mahathir's coalition party is likely to see an
increase in policy uncertainty at least in the short term with market
volatility likely to be higher," said Sian Fenner, lead Asian economist at
Oxford Economics.
Special public holidays were declared for Thursday and Friday following
the elections. But, highlighting investor worries, the U.S.-traded iShares MSCI
Malaysia ETF plunged 6 percent overnight to a one-year low.
"Malaysian markets are expected to eventually regain some calm as Mahathir's
win may not spell a dramatic policy departure from those under (incumbent prime
minister) Najib," said Kota Hirayama, senior emerging markets economist at
SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo.
"Malaysia still enjoys a current account surplus and this could
help cushion any fiscal spending policies Mahathir could pursue. That said, the
opposition parties that won is a loose coalition and it remains to be seen if
they can retain a united front."
Overnight, the Dow gained 0.75 percent and the S&P 500 climbed
nearly 1 percent, with the S&P energy index rallying 2 percent.
Energy shares soared as crude oil prices reached 3-1/2-year highs, with
investors betting the U.S. withdrawal from a nuclear agreement with Iran would
increase tensions in the Middle East and curtail oil supply.
Rising oil prices in turn pushed up U.S. Treasury yields by fanning
inflation concerns. The 10-year Treasury note yield rose to a two-week high
above the 3 percent threshold before pulling back a little to 2.986 percent.
Shored up by higher yields, the dollar climbed to a 4-1/2-month high of
93.416 against a basket of six major currencies overnight. The dollar index was
last at 92.979.
The New Zealand dollar retreated to a five-month low of $0.6916 after
the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) wrongfooted hawks by keeping interest
rates steady and saying the next move might be a cut or a hike.
"The RBNZ surprised markets with a slight dovish shift. It kept the
official cash rate (OCR) on hold, as was widely expected, but notably allowed
for the OCR to move 'up or down', rather than simply on hold – a slightly
dovish development in our view," said Imre Speizer, economist at Westpac.
The euro crawled back to $1.1869 after slipping overnight to $1.1823,
its lowest since late December. The dollar was 0.1 percent lower at 109.665 yen
after brushing an eight-day peak of 109.930. REUTERS
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