Asian Markets Open Higher after Global Rout

Across Asia, share market traders are beginning a new day with some trepidation. It was something approaching carnage out there on Wednesday as many of the world's share markets lost significant value. There was a slight recovery before the close but in New York, the Dow Jones index closed 1.5% lower. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 Index closed at their lowest point for 15 months. The main European stock exchanges also slid to a 15 month low, ending the day three or more per cent lower. Jarrod Bakker from Citigroup gives us the view from Sydney as trading opens.

The snow-bound Swiss resort of Davos is where the great and the good - including the movers and shakers of the financial world - have gathered for the World Economic Forum this week. Izabella Kaminska from the Financial Times explains how the delegates are viewing the turbulence on the markets.

The northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir is one of the country's most sensitive regions. It shares a border with Pakistan - and territorial and religious disputes there have led to fighting since the 1990s. Over the past eight years though, things have improved somewhat. So has the return to relative peace brought with it better business opportunities? We have a report from the BBC’s Yogita Limaye.

You might not have heard of Dr Ram Sharan Mahat. He was minister of finance in Nepal during the rebuilding period after the disastrous earthquake last year. Now 'The Banker' magazine has named him 'Best Finance Minister’ for 2015. He tells us what he considers to be the key virtues for a good finance minister.

In London, riders on the underground have been treated to an advertising campaign by the restaurant chain Gourmet Burger Kitchen with provocative taglines: 'Vegetarians, resistance is futile' said the caption under a giant burger; another showed a picture of a young cow with the caption: 'They eat grass so you don't have to.' Tim Nudd, creative editor at Ad Week, tells us how some campaigns get it so wrong.

Presenter Roger Hearing will be joined throughout the programme by our guests Peter Morici, Professor of International Business at the University of Maryland, from Washington and Rosie Blau, China Correspondent for the Economist, from Beijing.

(Picture: Traders on a stock market floor. Credit: European Photopress Agency)