大象传媒

Are the latest figures on the Indian economy simply too good to be true? Official figures point to quarterly growth of 7.3% on an annual basis - outstripping China. We have been testing these impressive paper numbers in the real world. First, the car market where Guillaume Sizard from Nissan talks to the 大象传媒 at the Delhi Auto Show. We also hear from Anand Mahindra, CEO of the country's largest tractor maker and Ajay Marwaha from Sun Global Investments.

Gold has reached an eight-month high which means it has one of the rare parts of the mining sector that has much to be cheerful about. Not so much good news however for copper, iron ore and platinum. So the annual gathering of Africa's leading mining companies has been less celebratory than usual. It is happening in Cape Town from where the 大象传媒's Matthew Davies examined the industry's prospects.

Monday was a tough day on the markets for shares in banks. In Europe, Deutsche Bank closed down by a whopping 9.5% - meanwhile traders were also busy selling shares in US banks, sending them down by 6% or more during the trading day. So what is going on? We speak to Ben McLannahan, US Banking editor for the Financial Times in New York.

We look at Ethiopia, a nation that has made economic and developmental progress over the last decade but is still far from qualifying as a frontier market. So what is it like to return to your family origins and set up a business? The 大象传媒's Tim Franks went to meet one ambitious entrepreneur.

India has the second largest number of Facebook users in the world but while many Indians like using Facebook, many do not like the company's plans to attract even more users by linking up with a local network operator to offer free online access to Facebook and a select number of other services. India's telecoms regulator has now ruled that the providers of internet services can't charge different prices for accessing different parts of the web - in effect dealing a fatal blow to Facebook's project. Venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy in Mumbai talks to Jon Bithrey.

Love is blind, they say. It ignores faults that are embarrassingly clear to others. But our regular commentator Lucy Kellaway of the Financial Times, thinks bosses in the corporate world should be a lot less forgiving.

If you were tracking Twitter on Monday, you could have been forgiven for missing the football - what with all the attention given to the half-time show. Beyonce delivered a highly political statement - complete with dancers in black berets, Black Power salutes, and lyrics from her latest video targeting police brutality. All warmly welcomed by loads of people online - and in a 大象传媒 interview by Dr Tia Tyree of Howard University in Washington DC.

The 大象传媒's Rahul Tandon joins us live from Kolkatta to talk air quality. And, presenter Fergus Nicoll will be joined throughout the programme by Shikha Dalmia of the Reason Foundation in Detroit and from Singapore, David Kuo from the Motley Fool.

(Photo: Indian train. Credit: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images)

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