UK Only Article:  standard article Issue:  The Greek run Fly Title:  The Maldives after its “coup” Rubric:  Rival leaders bicker, and vie for help from India Location:  DELHI Main image:  A Nasheed supporter fights her own battle A Nasheed supporter fights her own battle ONE of the presidents must be wrong. The ruler of the Maldives, Waheed Hassan, says nothing would please him more than calling early elections. “The Maldives is now more democratic than ever,” he gushed during his first official trip abroad, in Delhi, on May 14th. With a firm handshake, a dapper red tie and a straight-in-the-eye stare, he says he would cheerily go to the polls tomorrow—if only he were not blocked from doing so by the constitution of the sprawling archipelago, and by some regrettably reluctant coalition allies. Nonsense, retorts his high-profile predecessor, Mohamed Nasheed, over a squeaking phone line from Male, the capital. “We need an ...

UK Only Article:  standard article Issue:  The Greek run Fly Title:  India’s parliament at 60 Rubric:  A great institution shows a less attractive side Location:  DELHI Main image:  20120519_ASD001_0.jpg INDIA’S parliament marked its 60th birthday, on May 13th, with an apparently nonsensical row. MPs of all parties worked up a froth, claiming to be offended by a cartoon older than parliament itself. The drawing, now reproduced in a textbook, shows the architect of India’s constitution, B.R. Ambedkar, astride a snail; beside him is Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister. Each holds a whip. Mayawati, a national MP who leads a pro-dalit (low-caste) party in Uttar Pradesh, says that demeans Ambedkar, a hero to fellow dalits, by suggesting that the high-caste Nehru had to whip him to finish the constitution. Kapil Sibal, the communications minister, promptly apologised and said he would banish the sketch from future books. ...

UK Only Article:  standard article Issue:  The Greek run Fly Title:  Consumer banking Rubric:  Fusty old retail banking faces its biggest shake-up in 200 years Main image:  20120519_lcp006.jpg FINANCE has seen plenty of dramas over the years. But one thing has remained constant for a century at least: the branch banking system. Across most of Europe a handful of large banks, each with thousands of branches, stand astride their national markets. In America Depression-era legislation constrained the growth of big national banks, but at the state level the bricks-and-mortar architecture is pretty similar. While the rest of the sector innovated, expanded and collapsed, retail banking has been staid and reliable. Now an upheaval is coming, driven by technological changes—the growth of internet usage on smartphones, the rise of “big data” computer processing and the increasing willingness of customers to do complicated things online. These developments have long promised to transform the way ...

UK Only Article:  standard article Issue:  The Greek run Fly Title:  Foreign firms in India Rubric:  India is growing less hospitable to foreign investors Location:  MUMBAI BEFORE foreign investors came to India, its finance minister remarked recently, “we did not eat lizards.” For all the grumbles one hears about India’s economy, there is hardly a sense of desperation. Those foreign investors keep coming: on May 1st Vodafone’s boss met the government. Despite a corruption scandal, a price war, a huge retroactive tax claim and wildly unpredictable regulations, the mobile-phone firm is committed to its $18.6 billion investment in India, even though its value has fallen by perhaps a third since it was made in 2007. The boss of IKEA is also reported to be meeting the government soon, despite the shabby way the Swedish furniture chain has been treated. Last year the government said it would open India to foreign retailers but then changed its mind. Politicians still fear an onslaught of Ektorp sofas. Walmart ...