Christopher Columbus discovered the wrong India more then 500 years ago, a mistake with implications that persist to this day. Even in the 21st century, Spain, Columbus&rsquo; financier, remains firmly oriented towards the Americas in the west and largely ignorant of the real India in the east.

Moving forward from the mistake of Columbus

Business Standard

Historically Europe may be of the Old World, but when it comes to IT-related offshoring it is the new frontier.

Old World becoming the New Frontier for Indian IT

With less than two months to go for the climate-change summit in Copenhagen, India has resolved to re-brand itself as a deal-maker.

Pallavi Aiyar: Constructing a winning narrative

In a move that will be closely watched by the Indian side of the ongoing free trade agreement negotiations with the European Union (EU), Sri Lanka is set to lose up to $150 million of trade preferences granted to it by the EU.

Lanka may lose preferential access to EU markets

After more than two years of charting the stormy waters of tariffs and quotas, the European Union, the world&rsquo;s biggest economy, initialled a free trade agreement (FTA) with Asian heavyweight South Korea here today.

Landmark EU-Korea free trade pact signed

After 120 years of reliable service, it has been lights out from Tuesday for the traditional incandescent bulb in Europe.

Europe dims Edison's legendary bulb forever, and many aren't happy

For two-and-a-half hours every morning, the Belgian airport of Zaventem turns Indian, signalled in part by a serious spike in the whisky sales of the duty-free shops. Between 8:00 am and 10:30 am, India&rsquo;s Jet Airways dominates the airport&rsquo;s runways with three flights from Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai and another three from New York (JFK and Newark) and Toronto converging in Brussels before flying off in opposite directions again.

Jet makes Brussels a gateway to Asia

Struggling to break an impasse between the positions of the developing and developed world on climate change, the European Commission today proposed allocating up to 15 billion euros annually to assist developing countries meet targets. With less than 90 days left before world leaders gather in Copenhagen to negotiate a successor to Kyoto, concerns have been mounting that the chasm between the positions of the developed and developing countries will prove too wide to bridge.

European Commission offers aid for developing countries on climate change

It&rsquo;s a discovery that has the world of cricket clean bowled: The game may not be as English as afternoon tea after all. Research into the linguistic origins of the sport has in fact revealed that it may have been born in Flanders, the northern part of modern-day Belgium.

Cricket may have roots in Belgium

It is towards Ireland that all eyes in Brussels, the headquarters of the European Union, are currently trained. On October 2 the Irish will hold a referendum for the second time to decide whether or not to approve the Lisbon Treaty. The island-nation will thus decide the fate of a much beleaguered set of proposed changes to the 27-member EU&rsquo;s rule book that has its opponents frothing at the mouth even as its supporters tout its transformational potential.

United Europe: A distant dream

India has emerged as one of the world&rsquo;s leading producers and suppliers.

Indian farmers find fortunes in the humble 'kheera'

Europe's bloated welfare state helps you understand the old communist adage 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his need'.

Pallavi Aiyar: Where Marx comes alive

Despite ongoing efforts to blow some life into the comatose Doha Round of WTO (World Trade Organization) talks, it is the bilateral agreements that have emerged as the new messiah for world trade. The past few years have seen every major economy scrambling to sign a raft of free trade agreements (FTAs), negotiations for which reached a fever-pitch this summer.

Bilateral agreements are new messiah for world trade

Brussels is gearing up for an Indian summer, but this has less to do with the weather than India Inc, which is all set to strut its stuff in the heart of the European Union. The largest India-related business summit ever to be held in the city will see top CEOs and political heavyweights join hands to send a clear message to Europe, of engagement and interest.

India Inc to hard-sell itself to the EU

The quality of services in the west makes you want to think this is so, but just one breath of the clean air there reminds you of the chasm that separates our two worlds.

Pallavi Aiyar: Is the first world the new third world?

The world&rsquo;s number one steel producer, ArcelorMittal, won the European Commission&rsquo;s regulatory approval on Wednesday for its takeover of Noble European Holdings, the Dutch unit of US blanks&rsquo; maker, Noble International.

ArcelorMittal takeover okayed by EU arm

Imagine a world where visa queues no longer have the power to terrorise; where a lawyer in India can practise in Spain, were she to prefer it; where after a long day&rsquo;s work one could sit back in Delhi and enjoy a buttery glass of French wine without spending a month&rsquo;s wage on it.

India-EU FTA suffers the ennui of vested interests

The next time you step into the leather-scented comfort of a newly acquired imported car, pause for a second to consider the story of how it came to be in your hands. This is a tale of crossing stormy oceans in the hold of mammoth deep-sea carriers. And more often than not, it also involves a call at the little-known Belgian port of Zeebrugge.

How Belgium's Zeebrugge drives the world's car mkt

Xinjiang, China&rsquo;s remote western province, exploded onto the world&rsquo;s headlines last week. Riots in the provincial capital Urumqi, that have left over 180 people dead, are being served up as the latest evidence of a stand-off between an oppressive dictatorship, and freedom-loving innocents. Although, framing the &lsquo;story&rsquo; in this manner fits in neatly with the West&rsquo;s evangelical prescriptions for political change in China, reading the Xinjiang riots as primarily a showdown between the State and citizens is misleading.

Pallavi Aiyar: Urumqi is not too different from Godhra

EU adopts an immigrant work permit but it is unlikely to surpass the US green card in appeal.

Europe plays' blue card' to bridge skill gap

The EU adopts an immigrant work permit but it is unlikely to surpass the US green card in appeal.

Pallavi Aiyar

Pallavi Aiyar

Page 10 - Pallavi Aiyar