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

The incursion by the Chinese army into the Depsang Valley in Ladakh in April, and Chinese President Xi Jinping's statement in March that the border dispute is at the top of his agenda in Sino-Indian relations, had the potential to slow down the strengthening of economic and cultural ties between India and China. Instead, Dr. Liu Youfa, the Consul General in Mumbai of the People's Republic of China (PRC), says both neighbours must now focus on joining hands to safeguard the future, rather than falling into the trap of dwelling on the past. 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 There were originally eight candidates running in the race, but two of them have withdrawn.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

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