The landslide victory of the reluctant moderate Hassan Rohani, who got 50.7% of the 36 million votes cast in Iran’s eleventh presidential elections on June 14, heralds testing times for the country. The victory was the result of a late surge of support by liberals and reformists, who gave up a planned boycott to coalesce around Rohani’s candidature. None of the hard-line candidates favoured by the all-powerful Guardian Council and the Revolutionary Guard could come close. read more

Iran’s 11th presidential election will be held on 14 June, and if no candidate receives more than 50 per cent of the votes the second round of the election will be held on 21st June between the two candidates with the highest number of votes. The next president will take over from Iran’s controversial President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on 3rd August 2013. There were originally eight candidates running in the race, but two of them have withdrawn. read more

On the streets of Tehran, the imagery from Argo and journalistic coverage censored by western intelligence agencies is easily belied. Irani women smoke in public, drive cars, publicly display affection for male companions, and confidently make eye contact to acknowledge an alien’s presence and smile a welcome. Many head scarves just about cover the back of the head – a ritual of compliance. Iran is neither male-domineered Saudi Arabia nor an Afghanistan under the Taliban. Social media websites are widely accessed although officially banned. read more

In the late 1990s, a series of incidents started taking place in the Indian corporate sector, probably beginning with the erstwhile Smithkline Beecham Consumer Healthcare (SBCH, now GSK Consumer), a processed foods company. The British parent company, with a turnover of Rs. 6483 million in 1997-98, decided that it was time to extract royalty from SBCH for its "efforts to build the brand in India." This is a common form of transfer pricing. read more